Brewing with sorghum: a gluten-free grain with African roots

A grain with deep roots

Sorghum is grown across Africa, South Asia and the Americas. In parts of West and Southern Africa it is the base of traditional beers. Examples are dolo in Burkina Faso and umqombothi in South Africa. These are cloudy, unhopped, slightly sour beers made with malted sorghum and often maize. Commercial brewers in several African countries also use sorghum as a barley substitute.

Three ways to use it

• Sorghum syrup or extract. The easiest. It is concentrated sugar, ready to dissolve in water, boil with hops and ferment. It gives a light body and a slightly sweet, earthy flavour. Used alone, it makes a gluten-free beer.
• Sorghum grits or flour. You must cook the starch and add enzymes, as described below.
• Sorghum malt. Malted sorghum carries its own enzymes. It is the traditional route but needs a good source of malt and a proper mash.

Why sorghum needs a cereal cook

Sorghum starch gelatinises at a higher temperature than barley starch, so a standard mash at 65 °C does not release its sugars. Cook the grits or flour in water first, to around the boil, then cool to a mash temperature and add enzymes or malt. Commercial amylase enzymes, sold for brewing, work well here. Milled sorghum has little husk to form a filter bed, so the mash can set hard. Rice hulls help.

See brewing with local adjuncts for the general approach.

Gluten-free: take care with the claim

Sorghum contains no gluten, so beer made from sorghum alone is naturally free of it. But the claim needs care. Cross-contamination from barley malt, shared equipment or shared grain stores can add gluten. Legal thresholds for gluten-free labels vary by country and many use 20 mg/kg as a limit. If you sell beer as gluten-free, check your national rules and test. If you brew only for friends, be honest about how you made it and do not promise safety to someone with coeliac disease unless you have used dedicated equipment and ingredients.

Flavour and fermentation

Sorghum beer is often pale, hazy and slightly tart. Fermentation can include lactic acid bacteria, which is traditional in some regions, but a homebrewer wants control. Use a clean ale yeast, or a gluten-free-certified dry yeast if the beer is for coeliacs. Add yeast nutrient too, since adjunct worts are often short of the nitrogen that yeast needs. Hop lightly. A bit of lactic acid or a short sour step, done safely, can bring a crisp edge. Keep notes of what you do.

A first batch and serving it

For about 10 L, dissolve 2 kg of sorghum syrup in 10 L of hot water and bring it to the boil. Add 15 g of a mild hop and boil for 30 minutes. Cool and pitch a clean ale yeast with a spoon of yeast nutrient. Ferment near 20 °C. The gravity will land in the region of 1.050 to 1.060 depending on the syrup brand, so measure with a hydrometer. Expect a lighter body than a barley beer.

Store hops cold, as described in storing hops in hot weather.

Sorghum beer is often brewed for sharing, so serving matters. Keep the beer cold. If the style is meant to be cloudy, swirl the bottle gently before pouring. Serve it in small measures. Offer water and food alongside and make sure there is a good non-alcoholic option for guests who do not drink. Never push anyone to take more.

Tasting and keeping notes

Sorghum beers differ from batch to batch more than barley beers do, because grain, syrup and malt vary by source. Record where you bought the sorghum, the type (red or white) if known, the gravity and the finish. Taste young and again after two weeks in the bottle. Traditional sorghum beer is often drunk fresh, so do not expect it to age like a strong barley ale.

Share a bottle with a friend and ask for plain words: sweet, sour, thin, grainy. Plain words are the beginning of a tasting vocabulary.

Where to go next

Sorghum beer is a good place to start learning about starch and enzymes. Once you have made a syrup beer, try cooking grits. Our beginner course covers the science of the mash and teaches you to see why the sorghum behaves differently from barley. See also reviving liquid yeast that arrived warm if your yeast supply is the problem.

Common questions

Is sorghum beer gluten-free?

Sorghum itself has no gluten. The beer is gluten-free only if no barley, wheat or contaminated equipment was involved. Labelling rules differ by country.

Can I make sorghum beer with a normal mash?

Not with raw grain. Sorghum starch needs a higher temperature, so cook it first and add enzymes or malt.

What does sorghum beer taste like?

Light, a little earthy and often slightly tart. It is not like a barley malt beer.

What is the easiest way to start?

Use sorghum syrup. Dissolve, boil with hops, cool and ferment.