What Gluten Free All Grain Methods\Equipment is Best?

[Camnavo19]

I want to know everyone's opinions on the best way to brew GF All grain. I'm looking to switch to All grain from extract based brewing, and obviously I need some new equipment. From what I've read it seems like people are doing the whole range of methods from Brew in a Bag to Mashing in a cooler mash tun. Has anybody experimented with multiple methods, and if so which did you find works best?

I'm mostly interested in ease and simplicity, but efficiency is also a concern. At the home brew level though, I'm willing to sacrifice a little efficiency if it's easier and faster.

It seems like Brew in a Bag would be the fastest\cheapest way in to All Grain, but does it work well with GF grains?

If you are mashing, are you using a cooler style mash tun, or a kettle type, that can be heated?

I know this is a very open ended post, I'll gladly take whatever input and opinions you all have.

Thanks in advance

 

[HappiBrew]

You can't really brew a "gluten free" beer. Beer has barley, which has gluten. You can use different grains, but you'll be brewing a malt beverage, not a beer. You can reduce the amount of gluten with certain protein rests and products like Clarityferm. But it will still have gluten in the 3-10 ppm range.

Brew in a bag is certainly the easiest/cheapest method of going all grain. I do it for small SMaSH experiments with success. For my full size (5 gal) brews, I use a 10 gallon igloo with false bottom. I add about a cup of boiling water 30 minutes in to make up for the 1 degree or so I lost.

 

[butterpants]

Not sure about AG, but Ive done Brewers Best gluten free ale kits that use Sorghum syrup as a replacement for Barley based extract. No steeping grains only spices and candi sugar so it's completely gluten free.

My neighbor loves it. I think it tastes like crap.

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[glutarded-chris]

For those of us with celiac, if it tastes like beer, it is beer. And Sorghum syrup is not made from malted grain so it is not LME ... So what!
Technically, according to the German purity law, even good German Weitzen beer cannot be called beer because it has ingredients above the fab 4, and a high percentage of the beers referenced throughout this forum cannot be called beer.

To address the original question, there are lots of posts on this forum about partial mash and/or all grain with gluten free grain. I like the partial mash because it gives me flexibility to accommodate the efficiency that I get. My experience is that I get the best results when I get the amount of sorghum syrup around 50% or below of the total fermentables.

I made a mash tun with a manifold and after several batches, I abandoned it and moved to a voile bag. I will never go back. I mash in a cooler and then if I do a sparge step, I do a teabag sparge in another kettle. I have not attempted an all grain batch, but if you look at posts from Igliashon, Osedax and others, I think you will find they often don't do a sparge so that they achieve a more concentrated wart, and then you have to boil down significantly so that you get high enough gravity.

See the following thread for help that was given me that may be of use to you:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f164/poor-efficiency-millet-buckwheat-460357/
IMHO, I would keep the step mash and use Diatase enzyme.

 

[butterpants]

German Purity laws were never a good idea.... brewing, racial, religious or genetic.

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[h0psnobery]

You can't really brew a "gluten free" beer. Beer has barley, which has gluten. You can use different grains, but you'll be brewing a malt beverage, not a beer. You can reduce the amount of gluten with certain protein rests and products like Clarityferm. But it will still have gluten in the 3-10 ppm range.

Brew in a bag is certainly the easiest/cheapest method of going all grain. I do it for small SMaSH experiments with success. For my full size (5 gal) brews, I use a 10 gallon igloo with false bottom. I add about a cup of boiling water 30 minutes in to make up for the 1 degree or so I lost.

I have to disagree. Merriam-Webster defines beer as "an alcoholic beverage usually made from malted cereal grain (as barley), flavored with hops, and brewed by slow fermentation". Gluten free cereal grains include amaranth, millet, quinoa, sorghum, and teff. Additionally, while not cereal grain, corn and rice are gluten free.

I don't have any advice on equipment, but I would like to suggest using dry yeast instead of liquid. I recently heard on Basic Brewing Radio that liquid yeast is cultured on non-gf wort, but dry yeast is cultured on molasses, which is gf.