I continue to be impressed by the number of companies that are producing gluten free.  What's more interesting is that some of the older established companies have for a while been taking notice of the gluten free need/demand.  It's a bit worrying, perhaps, about the smaller companies that have grown throughout the gluten free need, now that larger companies are producing the same type of goods. 

Some foods were always gluten free.  Hormel brands had a number of items that were close to being gluten free, and now many of them are labeled as such.  Useful when I want to make a quick chili and cheese chip dip.  (Superbowl party, here I come.)

Betty Crocker also produces a gluten free line of baking goods.  Its still fairly expensive compared to their regular mixes, but nice that a regular store will carry them. 

Progresso is who/what surprises me, when they completely replaced their normal line with a gluten free product.  Particularly their clam chowder and cream of mushroom soup.  Not a second line, but completely replaced, without making a large price change either.  Yes, I know they've all been out this way for a while.

I still like going to my local Whole Foods, and even Trader Joes to pick up gluten free foods, but those stores are not everywhere, so it's still a nice change, knowing that wherever I am, I can probably get a can of Hormel Chili, or Progresso soup, or Betty Crocker baking mix.

No sooner did I say that I haven't done anything, the I went and did something.  I saw that a nearby store had started listing sorghum syrup as one of the products they carried, and I know I did not see that several months ago.  It turns out that the store just started carrying them as of the end of December.  They purchased ten 7 pound containers, and it seems that they're down to half already, so they said that they would be getting more.  I also said that I'd spread the word because I would like to have more gluten free brewers in my area, as well as a source of sorghum syrup. 
True, eventually I'd like to be able to use malted grain and such, but until then, this works.

I finished building my wort chiller using 50 feet of copper refridgerator tubing and some compression connectors and tested it for leaks.  Not getting any, I then filled up a large 6 gallon aluminum pot, used for turkey frying.  I added 5 gallons of water and started it heating on the stove, it took an hour or two to heat up to boiling.  I then used a similar recipe to my very first batch, since I wanted something simple.

7 pounds sorghum syrup (30 minutes)
2 oz Kent Golding hops (60 minutes)
1 oz Kent Golding hops (10 minutes)
Irish moss (as a clarifier)
The OG turned out to be 1.054 at about 65 degrees. (However the brewing calculator calculated it at 1.048)
The expected bitterness should be about 41.40 IBU
and I'm using a full packet of Safale S-04 (English ale yeast)
I also plan on dry hopping, with 1 oz Kent Golding hops in a nylon bag, tied up and suspended in either the primary keg, or the secondary for about a week.

The wort chiller worked as expected so the 5 gallons of liquid was quite cold.  I shudder to think how much water I waste, perhaps I'll eventually circulate ice water like others do, but at the moment, the cold water runs from the faucet, through copper coils and out the other end which drains to the sink.

I then siphoned the liquid from the pot down into a keg, where it was filtered by a nylon bag.  This was perhaps a bit of a mistake because the nylon bag kept getting filled up with hop bits and was difficult to try to drain.  Some of it spilled out due to this.   I believe next time, I'll stick the siphon into the nylon bag and put that into the pot so it filters there.

I then poured in rehydrated yeast and sealed the keg shut then tossed it into the bathtub and rinsed it down with the shower to try to clean the spilled sugar liquid off of it.  I also had to mop the puddle on the floor too.
I think shook the keg, even to the point of laying it on it's side and shaking it, just to try to airate the liquid.  Perhaps I'll get the drill attachment to make it easier to airate, or even an airstone, plastic tubing and an oxygen regulator to connect to a typical oxygen tank sold at a hardware store.

Cleanup was difficult too.  I pretty much emptied the sludge into the sink and tried to spray out the remaining gunk using the plastic hose connected to the sink, as well as running a bottle brush around the thing.  I still managed to get water all over the place and had to mop up again.

Hopefully, this batch will go well.  I also need to get a keg piece that I left behind at the store, so I can transfer beer from one keg, to the other, but leave the yeast sediment behind.

Here is a difficult topic, presented due to several situations, most particularly due to some discussion among some gluten free people and some tests done by a well known beer brewer.

Also, I've started another tax season so I haven't really done too much.  I haven't even gotten to brew anything lately, both due to the lack of time, and the lack of resources.  It seems that my store ran out of the ingredients for gluten free beer, and the website I had looked to also ran out.  I've been searching around and I think I've found another store that does carry what I need, so I'll be looking to get some ingredients from them soon to try yet another beer.  Hopefully I'll have some testers around so I can get a comprehensive taste test.

Back to the subject at hand, there have been some people who talk about gluten free beer, particularly making it.   There was a discussion about how gluten tests of regular barley beer, as well as regular beer that had been augmented with an enzyme called Clarity Ferm has been coming up with a gluten/giladin detection of under 20ppm which by European standards is considered gluten free. 

Clarity Ferm was designed to break down proteins in a beer, leaving it clearer, and some people hoped that these enzymes would break apart gluten proteins.  The results have been mixed so far.  While these tests have shown by the EZ Gluten test to not have over 10 ppm.  There is still enough left to cause a reaction from people who have tested the resulting beers.  Many have said that they get a reduced reaction, but still get a reaction.  Many have said that because of this, the risk of having a reaction is not worth having a beer made from barley.  They also have said that the body of the beer has also been reduced due to the Clarity Ferm, but that Clarity works as advertised, making a beer clearer.

Its unfortunate that it doesn't seem to work, and I perhaps wonder that if a person tests for gluten prior to the enzyme and a separate batch that contains the enzyme, if there really is a gluten/giladin difference or not.

Although I don't know if I could handle the under 10ppm limit or not, I'll still work with the non-gluten sources to make a beer I like.