Brewing gluten Free

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Eli_D

Brewster
Joined
Jan 28, 2013
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Musselburgh
I think I'm gonna need some expert help for my next batch.

The girls at work have just asked me to brew a gluten free beer for one of our colleagues who is celiac.

I've seen some kits available but wondering if anyone has any experience of actually brewing gluten free and is it possible to get a good beer?
 
The "Gone with the wheat" kits work pretty well, they like a bit longer conditioning than usual for the "this is sorghum" flavour to fade a bit.
You can get the sorghum syrup on its own if you want to do your own hops and yeast, but the kits are cheaper than buying the bits separately.

You can get ClarityFerm from a couple of UK online suppliers, in vials big enough to treat a 5gallon batch. Although primarily intended to prevent haze, it happens to chop up the gluten protein and will give you a GF ale. I've got a Geordie Mild kit with that added conditioning now. For the 3 quid(ish) the enzyme costs you get the freedom to do any kit or all-grain you like.

Or you can go crazy, buy a load of millet, sprout it and malt it, and do an all-grain with it. Colour and flavour are good but maybe a bit low in sugars, you might need to add some.
 
I did some reading a while ago about using Chestnuts in beer, and it turned out that roasted Chestnut chips can be used to make a gluten free beer. Many people commented that it had the most Malt-like taste of all GF options. Only problems are that it produces quite a low % beer and might be quite difficult to get hold of.
 
Hey OldBloke,
someone else mentioned the enzyme as well. That sounds perfect so going to do a bit of research into that
thanks guys I appreciate your help
 
Eli_D said:
Hey OldBloke,
someone else mentioned the enzyme as well. That sounds perfect so going to do a bit of research into that
thanks guys I appreciate your help

It should give a GF ale, but I have to warn you my coeliac wife hasn't tried the end product yet (2 weeks conditioning to go) so we don't know if she'll react to it. Shouldn't, but you never know until you try. The label reckons it works and so does everything I've read. Amazed I hadn't heard about it until this year.
Our forum sponsor, The Malt Miller, lists it but was out of stock when I wanted it so I got it from BrewUK

On Saturday she was drinking a Gone With The Wheat czech-style lager and a mild I made up myself using a can of sorghum, 1/4tsp citric, ~110g BodyBru, 1tsp black treacle, 10ml caramel, 10ml nutrient, 1tsp hop extract, Nottingham yeast (2 gallon batch)
 
It should give a GF ale, but I have to warn you my coeliac wife hasn't tried the end product yet (2 weeks conditioning to go) so we don't know if she'll react to it. Shouldn't, but you never know until you try. The label reckons it works and so does everything I've read. Amazed I hadn't heard about it until this year.
Our forum sponsor, The Malt Miller, lists it but was out of stock when I wanted it so I got it from BrewUK

On Saturday she was drinking a Gone With The Wheat czech-style lager and a mild I made up myself using a can of sorghum, 1/4tsp citric, ~110g BodyBru, 1tsp black treacle, 10ml caramel, 10ml nutrient, 1tsp hop extract, Nottingham yeast (2 gallon batch)

Hi can I ask how your wife went with this after finished please? I am extremely new to all this but being able to brew something i can tolerate would be great. there's only so much wine and cider i can stomach (not together obviously :-) )
 
I am celiac but have found I can tolerate all beers that do not contain wheat. I only tried after reading on the finish celiac society website they did a test of 80 something beers and excluding the non wheat 5 could be labelled gluten free including Carlsberg (under 20ppm) and all are very low, the only reason the 5 are not labeled gluten free is it would involve expensive testing of every batch. Some people are against the idea of clarity ferm as its still only gluten reduced and some people say they still react to it and I think when the levels are that low there is no accurate way to test for it. Anyway I think if you are celiac you need to decide how sensitive you are and what risks you are prepared to take, there is alot more technical info out there if you want to read it. Also worth noting commercial beers containing rice are generally extra low in gluten ie budweiser.
 
Clarity Ferm is a fantastic product, if you are looking to use it to produce a gluten removed/free beer please listen to this podcast where Dr. Chris Hamilton of Hillsdale College did some test and analysed the results of clarity ferm. Amazing definitive info on the results of the product.

Indepth Articles (3 Part Series)
http://beerandwinejournal.com/clarity-ferm-i/
http://beerandwinejournal.com/clarity-ferm-ii/
http://beerandwinejournal.com/clarity-ferm-iii/

If you do not want to use clarity ferm and just produce a gluten free beer you are going to be in for a lot of work. You cannot use liquid yeast or any grain traditionally for brewing. Oats, corn and rice are all available but all lack enzymes as well you can use sorghum extract which can have a twang but would work as a base for a beer. You can buy alpha amylase to supplement what lacking in the adjuncts but thats only one aspect of conversion but better then nothing.

Good Luck!
 
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