Gluten Free ale...Part 2

OK, so I bottled my Gluten free ale today. Besides a problem with my bottler that left the equivalent of 1.5 bottles of beer on my kitchen floor it went pretty well. The final gravity of  the brew ended at 1.010 exactly which gives it 4.4% ABV. It definitely smelled like beer, so I guess that's a good sign. I'll give it a try in about 2 weeks and see how it does.

Gluten free ale

Made a first for me tonight. Gluten free ale. 7 lbs sorghum, 1 oz. Northern Brewer hops, 3.5 oz. Hazelnut flavored agave syrup and a packet of ale yeast. Original gravity was 1.043.

severe dissapointment

My hopeless beer did not turn out well at all. I don't know if it was infected or if the recipe was just not designed well. It ended up very alcoholic and oddly enough smelled like apples and had the taste/carbonation of champagne
Not bad...just not what I expected. But ill try some more boxed kits and try this experiments at a later date.

Hopless Lager

For the last year I have made several different styles of beer. All of them met with equal amount of praise and criticism as is natural. However there is one project that I have been putting on the back burner for quite some time. That is the attempt at making a beer without hops. This project started with a thought I had about the origins of beer in ancient civilizations such as Egypt. Hops have only been used in beer for a few hundred years and those early civilizations used other herbs to flavor their beers. The reason as to why the beer market switched to hops for bittering and flavoring purposes instead of other methods is going to be a discussion reserved for another time because it is a very interesting one. However a hopless beer in the style of those ancient people is something that I have always wanted to create and after my wife and a friend have been urging me to create this beer I have finally decided to do so. The recipe is listed below. I have used Belgian specialty grains to add a distinct flavor and sweetness to the brew and a small amount of roasted barley to add a little bit of a bitterness and color. The brew is now fermenting and after I taste the first bottle I will post my thoughts.
8 lbs. Light DME
8 oz. Belgian Caravienne
4 oz. Belgian caramelpils
4 oz Roasted Barley
1 ¾ cup Brown sugar (1 cup in brew and 3/4 cup for priming)
1 packet SAF Lager S-23 Yeast

Foray into All-grain brewing

I have been wanting to try out an all-grain recipe for quite some time. And tonight was the night I got to try it. I had fashioned a lauter tun from a 5 gallon igloo cooler, a metal strainer that I bought from wal mart and about 6 inches of copper plumbing pipe I bought at a hardware store. Now I have to admit I was very proud of myself for coming up with this little baby, however, it failed miserably. I used more grain than my tun could reasonable hold and the strainer turned on its side in the bottom of the cooler. Sigh. however many good things did come out of it. The cooler held the temperature of the mash/grain very well and after creating a horrible mess in my kitchen I got a good amount of usable wort along with my sparge water. Its boiling now and it smells great. here's the ingredients I used:

9 lb. British Pale 2-row

12 oz. 60L British crystal

1 oz Northern Brewer Hops (Bittering, 90 minute boil)

1/2 oz. US Goldings Hops (Flavor, 15 minute boil)

1/2 Oz. US Goldings Hops (Aroma, 5 minute boil)

Belgian wit experiment (Part 2)

Well the experiment turned out very well. after adding the extra 1 lb. of light malt to the brew the original gravity was 1.058 and the final graviy was 1.017. the OG was .010 higher than the original brew which was expected. the alcohol content was 3.25, actually a little less than the original. I efinately didnt expect that. Very interesting.

Belgian Wit Experiment Cont.

bottled the first batch of Belgian Wit and FG was 1.014 making alcohol content 3.57%. modest.