From near Seattle, WA

[markmier]

Hi, my name's Mark. I'm a water/wastewater engineer, at least as nerdy as Dr. Scott (and like him, I'm mostly quiet until I've got about 3 beers in me, and then watch out). I've been lurking for a little while now, and I love listening to the BN archives on my Ipod. I live in Kirkland, WA, and work in downown Seattle. I do all-grain batches with the typical Gott cooler setup. I keg, but I don't have a fridge (or room for one at the moment). When I finally get around to buying a house, a reasonable brewing basement is on my wishlist -- I lust after a floor drain, deep sink, and room for a couple fridges... A nice sunny backyard for some hop vines would be sweet too.

Unfortunately, my wife is celiac and cannot share in my beer -- she's allergic to wheat, barley, spelt, and a host of other grains. I'd love to find a source for malted buckwheat or sorghum, I'm not up for malting my own grains. At least I make her cider (from juice bought at the local cider mill -- seriously (I really like parentheses (especially nested ones))).

Since my wife can't help (and because she often plies me with wine instead), I have trouble finishing 5 gallons in a reasonable amount of time by myself. So I don't brew as much as I would like. Seems like a silly problem, being unable to get rid of beer!

Anyway, enough rambling. Rock on!

[Who is John Malt?]

Welcome to the posting class, Mark. The PNW brewers always bringing it strong.

Fermenting along on Bainbridge Island...

[Brewcaster J]

Welcome Markmier!

Send us your unfinished beer...always looking for ways to help you know.

Thanks for joining the forum.

Prost!
Justin

[Push Eject]

markmier, welcome!

I second Justin on that unfinished beer problem you are having. No... wait... send it to him first.

I assume you've been to www.glutenfree.com?

Also, here is a source for sorghum: http://www.celiac.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=31

Cheers!
Push Eject

[skipper]

Unfortunately, my wife is celiac and cannot share in my beer -- she's allergic to wheat, barley, spelt, and a host of other grains. I'd love to find a source for malted buckwheat or sorghum, I'm not up for malting my own grains. At least I make her cider (from juice bought at the local cider mill -- seriously (I really like parentheses (especially nested ones))).

If you can put up with Graham Sanders, have a listen to some of the Oz Craftbrewer podcasts on brewing gluten free beers. Check out http://radio.craftbrewer.org/ starting from about September 2005.

If you are going to get into gluten free beer, you also need to be careful with yeast, as I understand the liquid yeasts may contain traces of gluten. Dried yeast is apparently OK.

Oh, and welcome to the forum!

[Thirsty Boy]

G'day markmier,

Perhaps you might find these links useful

http://www.sillyyak.com.au/beer/index.html Gluten free beer made from sorghum. Plus a little info on brewing it at home.

http://www.gfbeer.com.au/ gluten free beer made from sorghum, buckwhet etc

http://www.craftbrewer.org/ A homebrew site with lots of great info, and on the recipes page, a number of gluten free beer recipes. I think most of the recipes are from a guy called Andrew Lavery who has spent a long time experimenting with gluten free beer. You can probably get in contact with him via the recipe page.

Also listen to some of the archives of their radio program http://radio.craftbrewer.org/ about half a dozen of the shows from Sept 05 onwards have info about gluten free beers, brewing them and ingredients and methods. They talk a bit about brewing with millet, which would be gluten free.

and lastly I believe that my local homebrew shop in Melbourne http://www.grainandgrape.com.au/beer_front.html stocks malted sorghum. Dont know if they would ship it all the way to you, but they might. I'm sure the Sillyyak and Obriens people might also be able to point you at a source or 2

Hope that they are a bit of help. Welcome to the forum.

Dan

[Thirsty Boy]

Skipper, you got in with Grahams site while I was typing my epic. Must learn to touch type, must learn to touch type......

[markmier]

Thanks for all the suggestions, all. I've downloaded the Oz brewer stuff and will listen over the next couple weeks. I knew about where to get the grains themselves, but wasn't aware of a source of already malted sorghum etc. I'll have to contact the Grain and Grape guys to see if they'd be willing to send me a few kg's of stuff from Oz (though shipping cost will suck, if they'll do it at all).