[BP79]

I'm going to make this http://wiki.homebrewersassociation.org/BlondeAnnieGFBeer for my mother for her b-day, want to make a starter, but haven't seen anything on how to do so.  Should I just take say 250mL of sorgum syrup to replace the DME?  Thanks.

[pikelakehomebrew]

I'm going to make this http://wiki.homebrewersassociation.org/BlondeAnnieGFBeer for my mother for her b-day, want to make a starter, but haven't seen anything on how to do so.  Should I just take say 250mL of sorgum syrup to replace the DME?  Thanks.

As long as you're using sorghum syrup, sure.  If you were brewing an all-grain or a partial mash that didn't use sorghum, I'd do a mini mash/boil with Malted Oats — something you can get from northernbrewer.com.  It's a decent base "malt" that's gluten-free and has the building blocks of what you'd need to make a starter (that and the obligatory yeast nutrients).

Edit:  much like you would a regular starter, obviously boil the sorghum for 15-30 minutes to boil out all the nasties, chill, and you should be good to go.

I've got an all-grain gluten-free beer that I've been crafting together as an alternative to using sorghum.  I'll be sure to post it in the all-grain forum when I feel it's ready for prime time.

[BP79]

Cool, thanks for the tips.  I know the one thing I have to watch out for is how the oats are processed.  My local store is awful, so I always end up ordering from NB and see they have exactly what I need. 

An AG would be pretty interesting, I'll keep an out for that when you post it... I did my first AG 6 wks ago and have the itch now that I feel like I'm in the majors finally.

[pikelakehomebrew]

I had been reading and hearing from people that sorghum tastes pretty weird with the metallic-like off flavor in the beer; and when I saw that NB sells malted oat, I thought to myself, "self, I think we need to try this out."

Round one of my gluten-free all-grain brew looked nastier than sin when it was fermenting in the carboy, but after the kroisen fell (and it too quite awhile) and cleared out, it actually started to resemble BEER!  I honestly thought it was going to be a throw-away recipe, but after tasting the results it maybe just needs a few tweaks.



It's really tart, kind of like a witbier mixed with a Belgian — so I may try a different strand of yeast next time and tweak the recipe a bit to try and tone down the tartness.  But it has decent head (it ought to with all the flaked oats) and tastes pretty good...for a gluten-free beer.  It just needs some tweaks.

Here's the original recipe:

Gluten-free oatmeal ale — test batch 1.0
Yield: 1 gallon
Pre-boil: 1.070-1.050, OG:  1.116-1.069, FG: 1.029-10.16
Predicted ABV: between 7-11.7%
IBU’s: 43 – 55
Color: 24-31  (this was a miscalculation from the software)
Boil volume: 1.25-1.39
Strike water: 5 quarts (168°F), Sparge water: 4 quarts (170°F)

Recipe:
3 lbs Oat (malted)
.75 lbs corn (flaked)
.75 lbs oats (flaked)
.25 lbs rice (flaked)
.2 lbs dark candied sugar (this is where the software went wrong in color interpretation)
1 lbs honey  (I may ditch the honey next time and add more candied sugar instead)

.3 oz Williamette (60 min)
.3 oz Williamette (15 min)
.3 oz Williamette (10 min)
.3 oz Williamette (5 min)
.6 oz Williamette (1 min)
(I may use Simcoe next time to play off the tartness and add the grapefruit aroma, or go spicy instead)

Yeast:  Safale US-05 dry yeast

[brewsumore]

Pikelakehomebrew, what was your OG and FG?  I'm visiting a gluten-free friend this summer and am thinking about bringing him some beer.  Thanks,