<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Here we go with GF beer, round 15.  My wife was diagnosed with Celiac
about 6-7 months ago.  She misses beer more than anything else and, like
many others, has been trying to make due with cider.  For Christmas, I
bought a homebrew starter kit and have spent approximately a month and a
half trying to make a GF beer.  First, I have to say that Sean Sweeney's
site has been invaluable.  Here it is:
   http://www.fortunecity.com/boozers/brewerytap/555/gfbeer/gfbeer.htm.
I followed one of his recipes with some minor alterations, and my wife
tells me she can't tell the difference in this brew and "real" beer.

On the positive side, the ingredients aren't all that expensive.  On the
downside, it takes a heck of a lot of work to make a good-tasting batch
of GF beer.  To start with the grains, I'd recommend going to Sean
Sweeney's site for instruction on malting GF grains.  With that
knowledge for starters, you're going to need some basic information on
homebrewing methods.  I'd recommend buying "The Complete Joy of Home
Brewing" by Charlie Papazian and/or using the following web site:
   http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html.

I tried a buckwheat and quinoa brew in which I steeped the grains and added
sugar to the brew.  Maybe it was just my ineptitude, but the result was not
good.  I think you've really got to jump into brewing head-first and mash
the GF grains to make genuine beer.  Both Papazian and Turner give pretty
good detail on what you need to mash.  I used a 5-gallon cooler for the
mash tun and lauter tun.  Everything I needed for mashing, including the
cooler, cost about $45-$50.

My first batch consisted of the following ingredients (approximate
weights):  6 lbs malted corn, 6 lbs malted buckwheat, 1 lb malted quinoa,
2.5 lbs clover honey, 1 lb rice syrup, .5 lb malto-dextrin, Irish moss, and
hops (I used Northern Brewer and Cascade).  I started to post my brew-day
process here and then realized that the details of the brewing process are
really too much to post here.  However, I'm happy to share my experience
with anyone who e-mails me with a request:  [log in to unmask]  If you're
just kind of lukewarm on beer, this is probably not going to be worth the
effort.  If you really miss good beer, it's a challenging but rewarding
experience.