Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Gluten Free Lagering


So my wife recently found out she is allergic to gluten, while never the biggest fan of beer she has been known to knock back a couple (I say she was never a big beer fan because she has always been allergic to gluten but …). So it is with that news, I have expanded into to Gluten Free Brewing and my first attempt is a Gluten Free Lemon Lager.

For the most part brewing Gluten Free beers is the same old extract process most of us used to brew our first beer(s). Gluten Free home brewing will most likely stay that way due to not having the proper equipment to malt and mash grains like quinoa and sorghum. I do have a plan for a all grain all rice beer, be ready!  As a home brewer I have never brewed a lot of lagers. For a couple of reason; I live in Florida without controlled environment lagers die, and it take so damn long. That said I have a killer Cuban Lager I make when I am traveling for a couple of weeks at a time, but I am a Ale type of drinker.

So I started the brew out with 6 pounds of White Sorghum syrup, after bring my water to a boil. In addition to hops I added during my 60min boil, seeds of paradise and lemon zest. I am also experimenting with a  new sugar, Palm Sugar. My friend Eric picked up a pound of raw palm sugar at a Vietnamese store. I am hoping for a little flavor from the palm in addition to increasing my ABV. Palm Sugar has a very earthy dry sweetness to it that maybe lost in primary fermentation. Once my boil finished and everything was transferred to a primary fermenter  I add some whole leaf hops for dry hopping,  and pitched my yeast.

The lager has wrapped 2 of it's 3 weeks of primary fermentation and will be racked this coming Sunday for at least another 3 weeks at a lower temperature. I'll end up kegging the lager and if maybe keeping in the garage fridge instead of the chest freezer for serving.

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