A dilemma within quandary wrapped in a challenge

Brewing a beer without using grains that contain gluten…how hard could that be? HA! Truly, the quintessential ‘Easier said than done.’ The following are mostly my ramblings, thoughts, and findings about what I am calling the Great Gluten-free Beer Challenge. This will not be a complete treaty of the homebrewing process, nor will it be overly technical. Anything that you do not understand or would like clarified, please feel free to contact me via email, and I will do my best to answer.

Preface
I have been homebrewing beer, along with 2 other close friends, for over 6 years now, with the invaluable help and assistance of our local homebrewing club, The St. Louis Brews. Before that, I started in college making wines, ciders, and meads. For most of my homebrewing career, I have utilized the all-grain method of brewing, i.e. using only whole grains, not extracts. Therefore, I felt confident to take up a challenge put forth by the club to research and develop a beer for a club member who has Celiac disease. I knew enough about brewing to know that this was NOT going to be an easy undertaking.

Challenge 1 – Celiac’s disease and gluten intolerance
A survey of the internet for gluten-free brewing information told me that I wasn’t going to get much of a head start from the work of others…frankly, because there was next to none. In the homebrewing quarter, non-gluten beer has not been given serious attention, mainly because of the ‘non-traditional’ ingredients necessary to brew gluten-free. Down with the Reinheitsgebot! The brewing giants have not found it to be commercially viable. Not yet, anyway. (I am available at any time as a consultant to assist commercial breweries should they consider a non-gluten project.)

The net was, however, a great help in learning about Celiac disease. I began by learning what grains are appropriate to use, and which are not. Although there is some debate about certain grains, I have found enough raw material to work with that has been found to be completely gluten-free.

The following list of good and bad grains is taken from a number of sources on the internet and elsewhere. Some may not be suitable for beer brewing. This is where the fun comes in. Experiment.

Grains and seeds generally accepted at gluten-free. As always, some gluten sensitive persons may find some of these ingredients indigestible. Caution is advisable.

For a detailed description of each grain, malting specifics, each grain's contribution to the brewing process, including flavor and aroma, photographs and more, see the Gluten Free Brewing Grains page.

• Amaranth
• Buckwheat
• Corn
• Flax
• Maize
• Millet
• Quinoa
• Ragi
• Rape
• Rice
• Sesame
• Sunflower
• Sorghum
• Soybean
• Teff
• Wild Rice

Grains to stay away from when brewing gluten-free beer.

• Barley
• Kamut
• Oats*
• Rye
• Spelt
• Triticale
• Wheat

* Recent studies indicate that oats may be acceptable for some non-gluten diets, but I include it in the ‘no’ list. This would make a nice addition to the ‘yes’ list. More study is needed.

Challenge 2 – Procuring and Malting Grains
I could see the next problem coming a mile away, but until this point I refused to acknowledge it. The grains that must be used to brew a non-gluten beer are not available in a malted form, for the most part. Some are not even available in raw form. (See Growing Grains) This dilemma prompted my next education, procuring and malting non-gluten grains. I am lucky to live in the Midwestern United States, so raw grains are cheap and fairly plentiful. I was able to obtain raw corn, buckwheat and sorghum from a local farmer’s co-op. Now, back to the internet to learn about malting grains at home. Thankfully, this is a rather simple process. Malting is nothing more than allowing raw grain to germinate, then halting its growth by drying the grain.

The Malting Process

Make sure you begin with raw, whole, untreated grain. If you purchase the grain from a feed supplier or farm store, make sure to ask for ‘feed’ grain, and not ‘seed’ grain. Seed grain is often treated with fungicides and other chemicals, and cost far more than whole feed grain. I usually malt no more than 10 pounds of grain at a time. I use a large food-grade plastic tub to sprout the grain. Make sure to wash the grain thoroughly by filling your container with water above the level of the grain, agitating the mixture by hand, and pouring off the water several times. Remove any floating debris and broken kernels. Finally, fill the container to the top of the grain level with cool water, changing the water every 6-8 hours. Allow to soak for a day or so. When grains have rehydrated, drain the water, cover loosely, and allow to sprout in a dark, room temperature location. Rinse and drain off all excess water every 6-8 hours, tossing the grain gently each time. Oxygen is important to the growth process, but a loose cover can help keep molds from forming on the surface. Another technique is to thinly spread the moist, rehydrated grains onto mats or screens. I have found the container method sufficient for all grains except corn. A note about corn: the corn I was able to obtain has a great deal of broken kernels. Removal of as much broken material before rehydration helped greatly with germination. The next time I germinate corn, I will try the mat method.

A rule of thumb for the proper level of germination is when the acrospire (the sprout) has grown to the length of the seed. This rule, however, does not make much sense when working with a seed as small as sorghum. I allow sorghum to reach 3-4 times the seed length. The longer you allow the grain to germinate, the more enzymes you will end up with in the final product, but at the expense of lowering the amount of useable starch to convert into sugars.

Once the grain has reached the desired level of germination, remove the grain from the malting container onto a dry towel, sheet or screen. Allow the grain to air dry for a day or so. The next step is to kiln, or dry, the grain completely in an oven. Kilning also destroys some of the desirable enzymes, so allowing a portion of the grain to completely air dry at low temperatures creates what is known as green malt. The use of a small percentage of green malt in the mashing process should help with the low levels of enzymes. Higher temperatures, however, are necessary for developing the flavors and aromas needed for beer brewing. As the temperature and time increase in the kilning process, color and taste intensify. Temperatures under 150F create a light, mild malt; between 150-300F, brown malts; and 300-450F+ dark, highly roasted coffee and chocolate malts are made. Experiment with different time/temperature combinations on the same batch of grain to develop a feel for the kilning process. Note: when moist grain is kilned at around 150F, caramel flavors and aromas are made. Experiment with the amount of residual moisture in the grain when you begin the kilning process.

Challenge 3 – Recipe Formulation
Now that I have the malted grains for brewing, the difficulty comes in formulating a recipe. By their very nature, the grains available for non-gluten brewing are low in the enzymes necessary for proper conversion of starch into sugars. With this in mind, I knew I would need to use a larger amount of grain to compensate for the low conversion rate that would inevitably take place. Longer mash times are also needed, but that is detailed in the brewing section.

Another concern is the yeast. I fear even the slightest contamination of gluten could harm a Celiac. The ‘smack-pack’ liquid yeast that I have become accustomed to using is out of the question. Well, not exactly. A ‘smack-pack’ yeast starter is a small bag that contains a pure liquid yeast culture, and inside that is an even smaller pouch, which contains a barley based growth medium. When squeezed, or smacked, the inner pouch ruptures into the outer, allowing the yeast to meet the growth medium. The growth medium is the problem here, because it contains gluten. If you cut open the pack without smacking it first, you can pour off the pure yeast culture in the outer pack and grow it into a starter batch using extract from a non-gluten source. A simpler method than this is to use a dry yeast. Several good dry yeasts made specifically for homebrewers are available. Dry yeasts are propagated in a molasses based growth medium, making them ideal for GF beers.  Check your local or online homebrew store for a selection of dry yeasts.

Thankfully, the other two main ingredients in brewing, hops and water, are of no concern to brewing a non-gluten beer. Water, is…well, water. All the proper care and attention should be given to water chemistry for brewing non-gluten beer. (More here about water treatment)

The non-gluten brewer has a great deal of latitude when it comes to hops. Anything and everything goes. Hops are not a source of gluten, so use according to personal taste or desired beer style.

Another bright note is the ability of the non-gluten homebrewer to utilize many different adjuncts and additives to improve a beer’s flavor, as well as control the brewing process. All spices and herbs in their whole from can be used with great effect. Other brewing additives might include:

• Ascorbic Acid
• Belgian Candy Sugar
• Malto-dextrin (recently found to be produced from corn, NOT barley)
• Calcium Chloride
• Calcium Phosphate
• Citric Acid
• Corn Sweetener
• Dextrose
• Fructose
• Invert Sugar
• Lactic Acid
• Lactose
• Sucrose
• Vanilla
  

Updates and News
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Links
An ever increasing list of internet links somehow associated with the various topic on The Nexus, which includes this Gluten Free Brewing page.  Click here for the Nexus links page.

No reproduction or duplication without consent of the author. All trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. Copyright � 1998-2000, Sean Sweeney

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