Gluten Free Pale Ale

This is a fantastic easy-to-brew recipe for new homebrewers that will help develop their skills, but still result in a delicious, gluten-free beer. If you are following a gluten-free diet, but still want to drink and brew your own beer, this is a great recipe to add to your routine.

This pale ale recipe uses Citra hops, but you can use whichever of the “C” hops you like. Just make sure to adjust the bittering addition for the alpha acid content of your hops. Choosing American citrusy hops will make your beer stand out more as an American Pale Ale.

DIRECTIONS:

Rinse the specialty grains thoroughly and drain all of the water out. (I used unmalted buckwheat, red quinoa, and amaranth, but if you can get the malted and flaked versions, so much the better) Spread the grains onto one or more baking sheets and place them in a pre-heated oven. Toast them at 300° F for an hour and then at 350° for another 45 minutes until they look dark enough for you. Your oven may toast grains differently than mine did, so keep a close eye on them. Let them cool. Toasting your grains can be done ahead of time, but make sure you keep the grain in a cool, dry place until brewing time.

On your brew day, steep your grains in a cheesecloth or nylon mesh bag in 6 gallons of water (You can use as little as 2.5 gallons of water and then top up with pre-boiled and cooled water after the boil). Begin heating the water. Remove the grains before you reach 170° F. Turn off heat and stir in sorghum extract. Bring to a boil and add first hop addition. After 30 minutes, add second addition.

After 15 more minutes, add third hop addition and Irish Moss. After the last 15 minutes, add final hop addition and turn off heat.

Cool beer to 70° F as quickly as possible, pitch your yeast, and ferment. After 7-10 days, rack beer to secondary fermenter and add dry hops. After 7-10 days, bottle using corn sugar as primer.