Chestnut Beer
CHESTNUT BASED GLUTEN FREE BEER, is an easy beer to brew and gives an excellent alternative to barley based beers and other gluten free beer concoctions. Dried chestnuts have about the same nutritional content as malted barley except the sugars are not as free. Simple amylase in the initial soak frees up a lot of sugars.
Our family operation supplies lightly roasted chestnut chips [about the same as cracked barley] that are ready for the brew pot. We also have a simple to follow basic recipe that the home brewer can tweak around to fit his or her own taste. Articles have been written by others on this chestnut beer and some samples made it to the Gluten Free Beer Festival in Chesterfield England in January of this year.
Go to www.glutenfreebeerfestival.com or to www.bellaonline.com and go to the beer and wine section and read some of the great works by Carolyn Smaglaski, aka “The Beer Fox”. You can also go to your favorite search engine and just enter, “chestnut beer”.
Want to make your own Gluten-Free beer?
Scroll below to obtain the Trails End Chestnuts Recipe
Click on the “Catalog” button at the top of the page to view the Trails End Chestnut products including the chestnut chips for brewing beer.
Beer Recipe
Gluten Free Chestnut Beer
techestnuts@scml.us
www.chestnuttrails.com
Recipe and Recommendations
Supplies you’ll need before starting.
1] 7 gallon minimum wort pot
2] Large fine mesh nylon brewers grain bag 18X32 inches.
3] Small fine mesh hop bags 8X10 inches
4] Windsor brewing yeast by Lallemand’s [This yeast is certified gluten free]
5] Gelatin powder-100 bloom type B
6] 6.5 gallon and 6 gallon carboys
7] Amylase powder
8] 5 pounds roasted dried chestnut chips
Directions:
Put about 5 gallons of room temperature water in pot and add one tablespoon of amylase that has been dissolved in one cup of water per manufacture’s directions. Place grain bag containing chips into pot and add more water to bring to seven gallons. Allow to soak for a minimum of twelve hours [a little longer will not hurt]. During this time raise and lower bag 5-6 times every hour or so to obtain maximum sugar extraction. During the soaking and extraction process the chips will absorb and retain about 3-4 quarts of the water. At the end of the soak you should end up with a nice amber wort with a brix of 4-5%. Bring wort to boil for 30 minutes.
Remove the chip bag and allow to drain as much as possible back into pot. Add about 1 1/2 quarts water to bring volume back.
Bring wort back to boil. Hops are up to brewer but for reference I use Fuggles and Cascades. Add 1 ounce Fuggles in hop bag and continue boil for 30 minutes.
Add 5 pounds corn sugar and bring back to boil for 15 minutes. At this time the Brix is usually about 12-13%. Remove from heat and place hop bag with 1 ounce of Cascade hops and steep for 30 minutes. Remove hops and chill down wort as fast as possible with water coil cooler or water bath until temperature is 70 degrees F.
Transfer to 6.5 gallon carboy and add Lallemand’s yeast as prepared by manufacture’s instructions. Remember not all dry yeasts are gluten free. Many are produced on a barley based media. Lallemand’s is certified GF and is produced on a potato starch base. Air lock carboy and begin fermentation. The Windsor variety brewing yeast is pretty fast acting and complete fermentation, depending on ambient temperature, is usually a little over 3 days. Brix at this time should be 3-4 %.
After fermentation is complete carefully re-rack by siphoning into 6 gallon carboy, making sure not to transfer lees. If you have a large brewing funnel use a clean white piece of muslin inside funnel to filter out as much particulate matter as possible. After transferring, add one ounce of 100 bloom type B clarifying gelatin as per manufacture’s instructions. Mix thoroughly. Re-apply air lock and allow for clarification to take place. This usually takes about 3-4 days.
Carefully re-rack into another carboy. For bottle carbonation:1] add 1 cup of corn sugar that has been brought to boil in 2 cups of water and mix or, 2] use 1 Coopers carbonation drop per 12 oz. bottle. You are now ready to bottle or keg. Allow 2-3 weeks for bottle carbonation depending on ambient room temperature.
If you want a darker brew, put about 1-1 1/2 pounds of chips in a 9”X13” glass cake dish and roast on oven at 350 degrees until the brownness you desire occurs. You should stir about every 10 minutes. Remix with remaining chips.
If you are a “from scratch” brewer and want a greater tasting beer like Pietra Beer from Corsica, France substitute 20 % of your barley with chestnut chips.
Remember this is not a complete guide to home brewing. It is a recipe that I have developed and use to brew a great gluten free beer using chestnuts which are gluten free. Chestnuts have essentially the same nutritional content as malted barley except that the sugars are not as readily available. That is the reason for the amylase that breaks down the starches and sugars to a fermentable level.
Standard good home brewing practices and sanitation procedures must be used to produce a good end product.
Lee F. Williams