Gluten Free Spring Ale

[akueck]

Been awhile since I have brewed something. Starting off with something strange.

Gluten-Free Spring Ale
~3.5 gallons (after my typically large kettle loss)

1 lb 6 oz undermodified millet (see my previous posts for method)
3 lb rice extract
3 lb sorghum extract
1 oz Hallertau (3.5%) 60 mins
1/2 oz Hallertau 15 mins
1/4 tsp Coriander 15 mins
Windsor yeast
OG 1.055

The millet was cereal mashed with my crazy concoction of enzymes. I was in a bit of a rush so I got cloudier wort than normal. The cloudy stuff settled out pretty quickly, but contributed to losses down the line.

Mash performed at 144 F (yes that's low, but it's closer to the ideal for the Convertase enzymes). I pulled off almost a gallon of 1.025 wort, which is not bad for millet.

My stove is worse than I had guessed, so it took over an hour on high to get it to boil. Lots of kettle carmelization, oops. So this one will be darker and "maltier" than I had intended. Tasted pretty good before pitching; I have hopes for something interesting. Burbling away now.

 

[akueck]

Coriander is a strong (but not overpowering) aroma and flavor. The slow heating to boil made this one finish sweeter than I intended, o well. Not terrible, but not that super either.

On the upside, it tastes just like beer. Think I may have hit the magic ratio with the sorghum and rice extracts. ;D

 

[BBBF]

How is the convertase working out for you? I have about 11 lbs of malted buckwheat that want to try mash without extra enzymes, although I might toss some sweet potatoe in there.

 

[akueck]

The Convertase works well, but it's easy for it to work too well. If you are going all-grain I might suggest using it on some of the mash, but not all of it. It really rips through the starch so you'll wind up with a near-totally dry beer. I've tried a short mash with it recently but I don't think it gives a good gradient of sugar sizes. Either you get glucose, or you get starch. Wait half as long and you get half the glucose, but the rest seems to still be pretty long chain stuff. Maybe I haven't tried it enough times yet? For myself, I'm planning on using it when other enzymes (natural or not) don't give me quite enough conversion. Drop a little Convertase in there, wait a few minutes, mash out.

You'll also notice I've been using pH and temperature ranges specific to the Convertase. YMMV if you go for the standard 5.2 at ~152 F.

 

[BBBF]

Hmmm... You have me thinking I should buy some before I make my next GF AG batch. I'd rather not need to use it. However, I could try to mash at a normal temp and if I'm not getting the conversion I'm looking for after 60-90 minutes, let the whole thing cool to 144 degrees and mix in some Convertase.

Although, lautering will suck at that temperature. It's already too hard because I grind the grains so fine.

 

[Zem]

well I finally figured out about all grain enough to try following you, of course you are now leaps ahead. But what is convertase? I am familiar with amylase which (if I get this right) shows up in malted grain of all kinds as it is produced just before sprouting. Are these the same?

looks interesting, I'll be reading.


/z

 

[akueck]

Definitely raise the temperature to the 170s before lautering! You want to denature that Convertase or you'll have no complex sugars left by the time you get your boil going. (Maybe I'm paranoid but it's still a good idea.)

Convertase is the trade name of some enzymes in a liquid extract form (I believe derived from Aspergillus). These are slightly different than grain-based amylases so you get different kinds of starch breakdown. They also have different pH and temperature ideals.

I bought 2 vials of the Convertase but don't see myself using both. Want the spare? It's been hanging out in my refrigerator for some months now but it should be ok.

 

[BBBF]

well I finally figured out about all grain enough to try following you, of course you are now leaps ahead. But what is convertase? I am familiar with amylase which (if I get this right) shows up in malted grain of all kinds as it is produced just before sprouting. Are these the same?

looks interesting, I'll be reading.


/z

There are actually three types of amylase. Alpha and beta amylase are the two that brewers are primarally concerned with. Beta amylase breaks startch molecules down to maltose sugur and alpha amylase breaks starch molecules down to several sugar.

Convertise is the trademark name for the third type, gamma amylase. It will break everything down to glucose. It's main purpose in brewing is for light beers, however we're interested in using it for an increase in efficency in converting the gluten free startches into something fermentable.

akueck, I'd be interested in your bottle. Have you done any experiments with on ummalted grain or flour?

 

[akueck]

I haven't tried it on totally unmalted stuff, but the millet I've been using is *heavily* undermodified and it worked just fine. (with the caveat that it helps tremendously to mechanically or otherwise break up the grain first. I've been doing a hard boil to blow up the millet, and get even better results pretreating them with a little alpha/beta amylase and papain before the boil. the little bit of malting seems to help too, even if the enzyme load is small.)

PM me your address, I'll see if I can find a cold pack thing to stick in the box with it so nothing evil happens.

 

[Zem]

are undermodified grains anything to do with where you get unfermentable sugars? My understanding right now is that if you use *only* malted grain you'll likely come out with little sweetness or body from the grain in your beer aside from what the toast imparts.

thanks

/z

 

[BBBF]

No, alpha amylase creates a few different sugars, some of which aren't fermentable. Beta amylase creates maltose, which is very fermentable. Beta amylase works at lower mashing temperatures adn alpha amylase works at higher temperatures. So the goal is to mash in the range where they are both availible and depending on the style you are brewing, you'll chose the higher or the lower range.

Undermodified grains don't have enough enzymes, so you're left with unconverted startch. That's why akueck is adding comercially produced enzymes.

 

[BBBF]

Been awhile since I have brewed something. Starting off with something strange.

Gluten-Free Spring Ale
~3.5 gallons (after my typically large kettle loss)

1 lb 6 oz undermodified millet (see my previous posts for method)
3 lb rice extract
3 lb sorghum extract
1 oz Hallertau (3.5%) 60 mins
1/2 oz Hallertau 15 mins
1/4 tsp Coriander 15 mins
Windsor yeast
OG 1.055

The millet was cereal mashed with my crazy concoction of enzymes. I was in a bit of a rush so I got cloudier wort than normal. The cloudy stuff settled out pretty quickly, but contributed to losses down the line.

Mash performed at 144 F (yes that's low, but it's closer to the ideal for the Convertase enzymes). I pulled off almost a gallon of 1.025 wort, which is not bad for millet.

My stove is worse than I had guessed, so it took over an hour on high to get it to boil. Lots of kettle carmelization, oops. So this one will be darker and "maltier" than I had intended. Tasted pretty good before pitching; I have hopes for something interesting. Burbling away now.

I sampled the bottle you sent me last night. I agree that the color was a little dark from the caramelization , but as I poured the contents of the bottle it into a glass, my thoughts were that it looked and smelled like beer. There was a nice white head. There were some apricot notes, but couldn't quite figure out if it was coming from the hops, yeast, coriander, caramelization or some combination of the mix. I was very impressed with my first sip. It definitely tastes like beer. And I mean, it tastes like real beer, not a just a good imitation of beer that is getting graded on a curve. I have to admit that that I got tired of the sweetness near the end, but my preference in beer has always been malty and dry. I'd love to hear what other "normal" beer drinkers think of it. If I had made this batch, I would totally bring it to one of my homebrew club meetings and forget to tell everyone it was gluten free until I got their opinions. I think you found a good ratio of grains, sorghum syrup and rice syrup. What kind of rice syrup did you use?

BTY, I was researching what else I could do with the convertase and I found the recipe for Zima. If I can figure out where to get lemon-lime flavoring and how to strip all malt coloring and flavor from a batch a beer, I'm interested in trying to make it. Maybe I'll make a millet based version too. GlutenzFima. I should trademark that A.S.A.P.

 

[akueck]

I agree, the sweetness is a huge flaw in this beer. My wife thought the coriander was a little on the obnoxious side too and wouldn't drink more than a few sips, but I think if it were drier it would be more pleasant. But still, not a bad attempt.

I used dry "rice extract" from my LHBS. That's all it says so I can't say what exactly it's made of. You should be able to use rice syrup as well, e.g. the brown rice syrup you find in markets, but you'd need slightly more weight of liquid than the dry stuff. I think the ratio for malt extracts is 4 liquid = 3 dry (by weight). Not sure if the rice syrup would attenuate as well as the rice solids though, the extract I get is intended to add sugar without adding body just like using cane or corn sugar. Rice syrup from the market is probably not fully converted (but you have enzymes and can fix that ).

GlutenzFima, hahaha. I think they charcoal filter it to strip the color and flavor. You can't even buy Zima anymore, so you'd have the market cornered there. GF Smirnoff-type drinks would go over well too, those are what displaced Zima (mostly).