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                               12/5/01
I wanted to summarize my good experience with home made
gluten free "beer" from the Listermann kit mentioned by a
previous poster (Thanks!) and modified as I went along. Dan
Listermann's company sells a convenient starter brewing kit
which I bought that was well priced and works fine. (I had
never brewed at home before). He also sells a Honey based
GF brew "Kit" containing Honey, Hops, yeast and misc. stuff
with good instructions (up to bottling which he assumes you
know, but isn't hard.)  I used his exact kit and recipe for
my first brew, paying meticulous attention to cleanliness,
it was not hard, took a few hours(4) initially by the time
I was done cleaning up, a few more to bottle in a few
weeks. The result is not a beer per say, actually a "small
mead" meaning honey fermented to 4 or 5 % alcohol, rather
then the 12-18 % you can get with the "wine like" mead that
takes a year or so to brew and drink. In addition, the hops
comes through and helps it taste in the beer category, but
of course malt is missing, it's a different drink. While I
liked the initial brew fine, it was light for my previous
heavy ale and stout tastes, so I did some reading in old
books, net, etc, and came up with several modifications.
(An infinite number of stuff can be added to ferment and
flavor, i.e. fruit juice, spices, teas. Etc) I added some
Assam tea into the initial mix (in a brew sock like the
hops) for tannins and a slight malty characteristic. I
added a quart of Sorghum syrup I had around for a heartier
flavor, and a bit more honey to water for a stronger
result. Varied the hop variety a bit. Bottled, wait for
carbonation 3-4 weeks, drinking now. Excellent! Again, not
beer but closer than cider (which I also like), and most
refreshing.

My third batch includes a few quarts of fig puree, cinnamon
flavor etc. Because of the fruit, this is a hair more
complicated because I had to "rack" (siphon off) to an
intermediate container (used a glass "carboy") after a few
days, for the ongoing fermentation. But the preliminary
taste at bottling is encouraging. Reading about hops, yeast
etc is fun and I feel like a new hobby is born with a great
end product. It's really not hard, I was no kitchen whiz!

There is lots of info from the mead and beer making worlds
which is readily adaptable to this hybrid drink.

        I really want to thank Dan Listermann for paying
attention to our groups existence and needs, he was helpful
with questions as I started. For that reason it would be
nice to see him supported. (No connection to me etc. etc.)

I was intrigued by the rice syrup recipe but will have to
check the gluten issue carefully. Oh yes, experimenting
with local honeys can give the "small mead" great flavor
variety, and I plan on trying the dark buckwheat honey. A
next step would be to try a homemade malt flavor from
sprouting and drying "acceptable" grains (corn? Buckwheat?)

It would be hard to make enough to actually convert to
sugar and make the full mash like in beer, but easy enough
to make a flavorful additive to the above, I hope.

        One more note, in Italy this summer I tried the
Bi-Aglut rice based beer, and found it very light, weak and
not to my taste. Just my opinion of course. Have fun, drink
moderately. I can try to answer questions at my personal
email, although don't be offended if it takes a while to
get back, a few personal things on the plate.

Colin, in Virginia
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