My buddy I brew with just got put on a non wheat diet for 3 months by his doctors. Anyone have any recipes, tips or types of brews I should focus on with non wheat?
You have at your disposition the whole beer spectrum to brew except the ones that include wheat in the grist.Take a visit to BJCP styles guide and avoid the styles containing wheat,very simple, there is a lot to choose. Salud!
Is the diet non-wheat or non-gluten? Wheat has gluten, as everyone knows, but so do barley, spelt, rye, and probably others. Maybe try a 100% oat beer? Rice and quinoa?
I'm going to take a semi-educated guess here, but I'd say 80 percent of beer styles DO NOT contain wheat. You should have no trouble selecting recipes as long as you do some homework.
Advise him to double check with his doc (since I'm not sure any of us are qualified to weigh in). Does doc say no beer? No gluten? If he explicitly says no wheat, that leaves a lot of beers on the table.
If it is no gluten you can use clarity ferm to make it a gluten free beer. I did a kolsch with it and it came out great. I've heard that it works well with lighter beers but can mess with the mouthfeel of heavier beers. Anybody heard of this?
It's not truly Gluten-free but Gluten-Reduced but I have used it since I have a co-worker that can't have Gluten. In my experience and from my co-worker's reviews it seems to work well in lighter beers but not as well in darker beers. I didn't notice much change in mouthfeel on the stout I used it in but now I might have to try a side by side to see.
As a "glutard" myself, I can say that most commercial GF beer is not good. It tastes gluten free, and makes me sad That said I found that I prefer corn and rice beers flavor-wise. Sorghum is ok, but when I want a beer, sorghum doesn't scratch that itch. I've found Coors light and Corona light are GF enough I can drink them; oddly enough regular Coors and Corona do have gluten in them and will give me a headache and stomach cramps usually within 30 minutes. Were I to attempt a GF beer, I would do a corn/rice grist, and maybe some other gf adjuncts like sorghum. Oats will have wheat contaminates from the processing/storage process, unless certified GF. My main alternative to GF beer has been fruit ciders. Your friend might find those better than most GF beer options-- I'm sorry but I just can't call GF beer delicious as a user myself. "Brewing" ciders is easy, and even easier in that I prefer them dry as opposed to the commercial sugar syrup that is out there (Angry Orchard, etc).
I say gluten free because the manufacturer states that "A Clarity Ferm treated beer made from barley or wheat will typically test below 20 ppm of gluten, which is the international threshold for brewing considered gluten free." http://www.whitelabs.com/other-products/wln4000-clarity-ferm
