Duffin Station Malt House Challenge

I got started at a later date than I’d wanted, especially since I decided to go with buckwheat as my base grain. Brewing on 3-22-18 didn’t leave much wiggle room for my process to have beer ready by 4-26-18, which ends with bottle conditioning.

Oh yeah. Buckwheat. Not my wisest impulse. But like any fully committed half-ass impulse of mine, I griped about it and then went ahead and followed through anyway.

My recipe included 4lbs of malted buckwheat, 2lbs of flaked corn, and a pound of light Belgian candi sugar added at the last 15 minutes of the boil. It was a recipe someone found for me on the net.

Mashing was an adventure. A four hour adventure. After adding 2 gallons of water, the mash was held for 120 minutes at 163°F with an addition of 13ml of SEBAmyl BAL100, an alpha-amylase enzyme formulated to help liquify starches and break them down to size. This was followed by a step down (yes, down) in temp to 148°F and held for another 120 minutes with an addition of SEBAmyl L alpha-amylase formulated to produce dextrins and maltose.

Small note here: buckwheat is actually a pseudo grain and high in protein. Very high in protien. The result was a semi-gelatinous liquid that made first runnings from a high percentage rye grain bill look like weak chicken broth by comparison. The .25 pound of rice hulls used initially (my best guess; the recipe didn’t specify a quantity) struggled to keep the mash flowing and lost that battle about half way through the transfer.

Enter 3.5 gallons of sparge water and another .25 pound of rice hulls. The additional water and rice hulls did a world of good. Everything after this point in the process from draining the tun to boil was uneventful…until after the boil.

Our ground water is a good 40-45°F cold, so the wort chiller took the wort down from just off the boil to about 67°F in 12-15 minutes. But…no massive cold break occurred. It’s almost like the proteins decided that clumping was something other proteins do, so piss off Mr. Brewer Man.

Obviously, buckwheat is a total dick.

Target gravity was 1.058. The measured OG was well within margin of weirdness parameters at 1.053 given my never having done an all grain gluten-free beer before using a random internet recipe and instructions before. And a weird-ass four hour mashing schedule including xenogenic enzymatic assistance.

I managed to win the Duffin Station efficiency lottery inspite of myself and the Lovecraftian madness. Yay?

Final analysis: All grain gluten-free brewing is not brewing as we know it. I have no idea how this will taste. Pray for me.