Does anyone else do Gluten-Free brewing? (mander.xyz)

submitted 1 year ago by AlchemicalAgent@mander.xyz to c/homebrewing@sopuli.xyz

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cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/677846

My wife and I both have problems with gluten so we've been brewing our own GF beer for the last ~7 years. It was difficult to get started but the output is well worth the effort!

Most of them are darker brews (stouts, tripels, etc). This is one of our lighter holiday ales that came in ~8% ABV.

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[-] reverendsteveii@sopuli.xyz 9 points 1 year ago

It's a good day to be a cider nerd, I get gluten free and low carb right out of the box!

[-] ananas@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 year ago

How dry you make your cider for it to be low-carb. :'D

[-] reverendsteveii@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

It almost always ends on an FG of about .990. So, low carb compared to other brewed things that have free sugar in the final product but nothing is ever gonna make alcohol not break down the way it does in the body.

[-] _ak@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

It would be interesting to know the process and ingredients you used. Since you‘re presumably only brewing gluten-free, I guess you also don‘t have to worry about cross-contamination?

I once looked into going the gluten-reduced route (where enzymes destroy the gluten proteins below the detectable threshold) as an option to brew beer for a cousin‘s celiac boyfriend, but getting beer lab-tested for gluten content is just too expensive on a homebrew scale.

[-] AlchemicalAgent@mander.xyz 5 points 1 year ago

The process doesn't change from regular brewing. It's strictly an ingredient change and a clean work area to prevent cross-contamination. Any malt made from grains besides barley, wheat, or rye is safe. The default is sorghum malt, and what we use for the majority of our sugar load. In a similar manner to baking/cooking gluten free you end up using a lot of other ingredients to replace one or two main gluten-containing ingredients. I'm on the road for vacation right now but can post some recipes when I get home.

We also looked at post-processing for removal of gluten in regular brews, but since I don't work in a compatible lab anymore it I don't have reliable testing available.

[-] Tiuku@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 year ago

Hows the selection on these malts?

[-] AlchemicalAgent@mander.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

As expected, it's pretty limited. I mainly use Briess Sorghum Extract Syrup as a base and add ingredients from there. As brew bases go it's pretty mild, so it takes a bit of supplemental grain steeps to add color.

[-] SpiderShoeCult@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

An extended proteinase rest would have been my first thought as well, but I guess the risk is that not enough proteins get munched by the enzymes, especially if you miss some clumps in your mash while mashing in.

[-] _ak@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

What I meant was ClarityFerm/Brewers Clarex, it's an enzyme preparation used on the cold side. It was originally designed to remove haze and produce clearer beers, but was found to also reduce gluten content to below detectable thresholds. It's what commercial breweries often use. In some countries, beer produced that way can only be advertised as "gluten-reduced", not "gluten-free", though. In terms of ease of application, it seems to be the way to go if you don't have easy access to malt of gluten-free grains. But alas, since I'm not a celiac myself, and testing is too expensive, I won't put the burden on an actual celiac how well this works in my setup.

[-] AlchemicalAgent@mander.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

But alas, since I’m not a celiac myself, and testing is too expensive, I won’t put the burden on an actual celiac how well this works in my setup.

Exactly. My engineering background forces me to keep a tight control on processing and it pains me to not have cheap access to testing. Unless that changes I'll continue with a fully gluten-free process chain.

[-] SpiderShoeCult@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 year ago

Heh, TIL! Thanks for that!

[-] TiresomeOuting@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

Cool! I'm fine with gluten but curious what you do to make it.

[-] AlchemicalAgent@mander.xyz 6 points 1 year ago

The biggest restriction is in malting. Since gluten is present in wheat, barley, and rye it can be difficult to find a good brew base. We use sorghum malt as our starting point and spice it from there. A lot of times we will also roast something like red quinoa and let it soak in the wort for added color.