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Posted 2011/07/16

Homebrew - Hoppy to be Gluten-Free Pale Ale

When Kevin recently joined the ranks of friends who are gluten intolerant we decided to try and brew something for him. This was a total experiment so we only did a 3 gallon brew in our glass carboy. I found a recipe online and scaled the ingredients.

We brewed this during our "too soon phase" where we were racking out of the primary way too early following advice from the kits we had been brewing. We also went on vacation in the middle which forced some of the timings. These things led to a somewhat bonkers racking schedule with some panicking about what the beer looked like while it was fermenting. To try and clarify the beer we tried using gelatin, following a guide from the internet I have pasted below.

Grandma's Gelatin Guide Source
"Use a glass jar, and fill it with a cup or cup-and-a-half of tap water. Not hot or warm or cold.... just cool. About 70-80 degrees. Put 1-3 teaspoons of gelatin in there and let it sit for 20 minutes. Swirl it up good (it will be cloudy) and pop it into the microwave. Set it for about a minute, but you need to watch it and take it out as soon as it's clear. The glass will be warm."

Ingredients: Hoppy to be Gluten-Free Pale Ale, Recipe from Briess Malt & Ingredients Co.
Brew:        16 Jul 2011 
Rack:        21 Jul 2011 (5)
Rack+Hop:    31 Jul 2011 (10)
Gelatin:     12 Aug 2011 (12) 
Bottle:      16 Aug 2011 (4) 
Ready:       08 Oct 2011 (53)  
Summary:     Primary 5 days, Secondary 10 days, Tertiary 16 days, Condition 31 days

We tried a couple of bottles after 31 days in the bottle. It looked nice with good head retention, smelt very sweet. The taste was hard to describe, it was not as hoppy as I thought it would be and kind of reminded me of a cider that hadn't aged enough. It was perfectly drinkable but did not really taste much like beer. That weekend I took a couple to tailgating and reviews were mixed. About 50% were not keen on it. After 53 days in the bottle the flavors had mellowed a bit. It was still nothing like real beer but it was easier to drink. I gave the batch to my gluten intolerant friend Kevin and he seemed to like them. Part of that was he craves anything even vaguely like beer :)

Kevin's gluten intolerant review

"Sorghum blends with a light mix of hops and follows with a slightly nutty taste that matches well with spicy asian food or generously spiced meats." In retrospect, it also has a bit of that sorta fruity-sour-grain taste sorghum is known for. I wanna say, "nutty, hoppy, sour" but sour sounds bad so the closest fruit I could think of that has that slightly sour taste I could think of is kiwi... so I'll say: "Nutty, hoppy, kiwi."
-Kevin

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