Honey Ale | Gluten Free | 5 Gallon Beer Recipe Kit | Sorghum Extract
Honey Ale | Gluten Free | 5 Gallon Beer Recipe Kit | Sorghum Extract
SKU: KIT915
$44.99
SKU: KIT915
$44.99
Modified the recipe a little. Pitched the honey at end of boil. This keeps the honey taste in tact. I don’t normally do kits, but morebeer does a nice job putting the kits together. I pitched the yeast too early so fermentation is a little slow but progressing ok. Should be ready for kegging in about a week. Took a sample at 4 days in the fermenter. Really nice light honey taste. The sorghum extract in the kit seems to be better tasting then other extracts I have used.
This was my first GF beer to ever taste. I read all these reviews first so my expectations were somewhat low, so I was pleasantly surprised. Yeah, it doesn't taste like a regular beer but it's still beer and very drinkable. I served this at a beerfest and got mostly positive feedback. I made this for a celiac friend who knows her GF commercial beers and she thought it was good. She gave me feedback similar to the following... (my taste review)Taste: Light, but not too light. Sweet, which I like, but it was way tart. Not enough hops and mouth feel not great. No hop aroma. This beer tasted a light version of champagne. That was surprising, but it was still enjoyable.I'm going to make this again with more hops, dry hop, and maltodextrin.
Brewed this to give away to some friends who are part of the anti-gluten crowd. I wasn't too impressed with the taste, definitely NOT like real beer.
Great recipe! For those who expect sorghum to taste like 2 row malt... sorry, never gonna happen. However, this kit really hit the top of the mark when it comes to GF beers. My wife has celiac, I brew 2 row for myself, and sorghum for her. This is the first sorghum based beer I actually like! I always practice secondary fermentation, and keg my beer batches.. Please don't ever discontinue this one. My wife will be devastated.
I have never home-brewed before, and tried this recipe out as my first. As someone who is SEVERELY celiac, and has tried just about every single gluten-free beer on the market, I was shocked at how good this tasted. People who are not gluten-intolerant preferred it to other beer in my house. I bought the light ale, but plan to re-order this for another batch coming up instead.
I have been making this particular kit for my wife, who is gluten sensitive, for a couple years now. With about 6 or so batches done, I have learned to tinker with the recipe a bit to help cut through or mask that metallic flavor the sorghum provides, which is the biggest problem with sorghum-based recipes. I add others hops (something citrusy like Amarillo or Citra or the like - about an ounce that I split in half for the additions) to the existing hop additions in the recipe. I also, and this seems to be where the beer gets waaay better, dry-hop the beer with an ounce or so of the same extra hops from the boil (sans Saaz). I have served the results to beer and non-beer-saavy folks alike with great feedback. More importantly, the wife LOVES it and that's all that matters to me. I recommend folks do the same tinkering to please their palates.
Not sure what happened to Jeremy's batch or how he kegged or bottled it but I made this and then kegged it. I LOVE this beer! It is the first home beer kit that I have tried (I've tried a total of four so far) that does not have that under lying bitter taste that I believe may come from the sorghum? You know the one I am talking about if you have tried GF beer. This beer tastes crisp and is very clear. It is a very refreshing, lighter tasting beer. Perfect for a summer beer. That being said if you have never made beer before the instructions provided are too generic and not specific to this type of beer. I would consider my husband and I well practiced home brewers and were able to use our past knowledge to fill in the blanks.I am buying my GF Honey Ale kit from More Beer. It is AWESOME and I am spreading the word!!
This beer was very tart and light in body. My wife is Gluten Free and she wanted me to make this for her. She even thought it tasted a bit strange. The Amber ale is a better kit. I would like to see a dark ale like a stout come out.
Why does the Extract Brewing instructions only talk about putting grain in a bag as opposed to the jars of ingredients that come with the kit?
I made this kit and added candi syrup. It is very sweet almost like wine. It finished at 1.018 which I think might be rather high. I am wondering if the yeast stalled or just didn't finish. Has anyone else experienced this?
Yes I had a problem with a stalled fermentation on this one. It stopped completely too soon for a day or two and then spontaneously picked it up again. But on this one I also made a mistake in adding a chopped up lemon to the boil—have since learned that while you can do that with an orange doing it with a lemon gives you too much pith/bitterness and you should stick with zest. So I'm not sure what to blame it on besides operator error but for me the final product wasn't good.
There are a couple reasons that your FG may be that high. With extracts especially liquid there are a lot of caramelized sugars that are hard for yeast to ferment which will frequently yield higher gravities. Otherwise the yeast will play a major role. The more yeast you use from packets or starters the lower your gravity will be. It is also important to keep your fermentation temperature steady e.g. it doesn't get too cold at night and swing hot during the day. If you always notice a trend you can replace some of the sorghum extract in a recipe with some corn sugar or rice extract which is more fermentable. Cheers!
I too have made this three times and every time the ABV is low and the it taste like a cider more than a beer. After a very long aging (6mons) it is drinkable.
Hi Jason. I've brewed this kit a few times also with added syrup and also with steeping some oatmeal or related additions. I've been very pleased though I agree it is quite sweet. I was going to try cutting back on the honey and/or syrup to see if that lowered the sweetness some though I don't want to unmask any unwanted flavors! The last two batches I've run I've used 6 gal total volume and l let them ferment 3 weeks. Final readings have been 1.014 and 1.012. Alcohol content roughly 6% which is about what I've wanted so ok. --Doug
How much dark candi syrup do you recommend adding to the gluten-free honey ale?
One to two pounds should add significant flavor.