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Gluten free wheat beer

Started by Shane Phelan, November 25, 2012, 12:13:56 PM

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Shane Phelan

November 25, 2012, 12:13:56 PM Last Edit: November 25, 2012, 06:32:34 PM by shiny
MrChalky and myself made this yesterday. As its a first attempt we wont know if its drinkable for a few weeks. MrChalky malted and roasted the buckwheat prior to brewing. He will probably put details on how he did that over the next few days.

HOME BREW RECIPE: 
Title: Gluten Free Beer  
Brew Method: Extract 
Style Name: Specialty Beer 
Boil Time: 60 min 
Batch Size: 13 liters (fermentor volume) 
Boil Size: 11 liters 
Efficiency: 35% (steeping grains only) 
No Chill: 20 minute extended hop boil time 

STATS: 
Original Gravity: 1.068 (1053 Excluding Buckwheat) 
Final Gravity: 1.016 
ABV (standard): 6.83% (5.4% Excluding Buckwheat) 
IBU (tinseth): 63.45 
SRM (morey): 9.79 

FERMENTABLES: 
900 g - Honey (24.7%) 
1 kg - Brown Sugar (27.4%) 
50 g - Molasses (1.4%) 

STEEPING GRAINS: 
1.7 kg - Malted Buckwheat (46.6%) 

HOPS: 
30 g - East Kent Goldings (AA 6) for 60 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil 
30 g - Hallertau (AA 5.2) for 30 min, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Boil 
30 g - East Kent Goldings (AA 5) for 5 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil 
OTHER INGREDIENTS: 
1 tsp - Irish Moss, Time: 10 min, Type: Fining, Use: Boil 

YEAST: 
White Labs - Belgian Wit Ale Yeast WLP400 
Starter: No 
Form: Liquid 
Attenuation (avg): 76% 
Flocculation: Low-Med 
Optimum Temperature: 19.44 C - 23.33 C

Full Writup:

I'm helping a friend out with this one as he is living with a guy who is a coeliac.  This guy has been restricted to drinking spirits and soft drinks most of their life as it is generally quite difficult to find gluten free beer in Ireland. The background for the recipe originated in this thread on homebrewtalk with one of the users being very helpful in terms of providing advice on ingredients and techniques.


Steeping Buckwheat

The malted buckwheat was crushed coarsely in the grain mill, and added approximately 550g each to 3 large muslin bags which were then steeped in 15L of water which was previously heated to 71 degrees C. This temperature was held for 2 hours (I don't know if the full 2 hours are really necessary) to allow the flavour from the buckwheat to infuse into the beer. I cannot stress enough to use large muslin bags, they became enormous when they absorbed the water! I don't know the enzyme content of buckwheat and but an iodine test indicated the presence of starch at the end of the steeping. This means that the contribution of buckwheat could not be relied upon for fermentable sugar contributions. (This is why the recipe has 900g of honey rather than 450g to boost the gravity).

After 2 hours, removed the grain and allowed them to drain into the pot. I didn't bother sparging as the buckwheat had coagulated in the bags which would not allow any water though them. Boiling water was then added to the pot to bring the level to 15L. Once the water was boiling, the pot was taken off the heat so that the honey and sugar could be added without scorching. Once these ingredients were added and dissolved, the pot was returned to the stove and brought to a rolling boil. 

Upon starting the timer with 60 minutes the first hop addition was added with subsequent hop additions at 30 minutes, Irish moss at 10 and the final hop addition at 5 minutes.  All hop additions were added in muslin bags to make draining the wort easier after the boil. The wort was cooled quickly to 24 degrees C with an immersion chiller and transferred to the fermenter though a sieve. I topped the fermenter to bring the level to 14L, I didn't want to dilute it any further.  I didn't have time to make a starter so the vial of WLP400 was pitched directly into the fermenter, it started fermenting after 12 hours.

As I deleted all the other equipment in Beersmith I wasn't able to figure out how to add new equipment so I just made the recipe using the recipe builder on BrewersFriend. Without going into detail I far prefer Beersmith and wouldn't use an online recipe builder again... I will put up more information on how the beer turned out after it has been bottled and kegged. The post boil gravity was 1050 and I expect it to ferment quite low due to the amount of honey and sugar used.
Brew Log

Will_D

Well done to both of you.

Where did you buy fresh ( i.e. germinatable ) buckwheat from?

How was germination rates.

When I tried some home malting ( wheat and barley )  the germination percentages were pretty disappointing ( like 50% )

So had to malt over several sessions!

Will
Remember: The Nationals are just round the corner - time to get brewing

MAF

November 25, 2012, 06:13:21 PM #2 Last Edit: November 25, 2012, 06:15:41 PM by MAF
I used raw buckwheat in my last saison
Did a cereal mash with it , and then added it to the main mash. But this approach prob wouldn't work so well for a gluten free beer.
Yer right Tube, technically buckwheat is not a grain!

Interesting recipe shiny, let us know how it turns out.

Edit: Will, you can pick up raw buckwheat in health food shops.

Shane Phelan

QuoteWow, just read that despite the name, buckwheats are not related to wheat, but are a closer relation to rhubarb!

Yeah I was reading that this morning, to be honest I didn't really know what to call it but it looks kinda like a wheat beer in terms of appearance. Taste on the other hand... ::)

MrChalky (Dave) did most of the preparation in terms of research and malting the buckwheat. He is about to move from kits to extract and I just helped him out in terms of equipment to test the batch.

Quote
How was germination rates?

From what Dave told me, he got nearly complete germination with the buckwheat but I don't have many details beyond that.

I would be reluctant to attempt to put buckwheat by itself in the mashtun after seeing the "lump" it turned into while steeping.
Brew Log

MrChalky

I got the buckwheat in tescos.
It germinated pretty well, pretty much all of it sprouted.
I tried to malt quinoa as well, but that wasn't as good - only about a third or half of that sprouted.

Shane Phelan

This is taking ages to ferment. 2 weeks and it still has a Krausen and is still bubbling...
Brew Log