Sorghum Bhiya
I have been brewing sorghum beer since about 1991. However it was only in 2000 that I started getting drinkable results. Below I set out some of my findings.
Sorghum Source
Home brewers in South Africa can buy sorghum malt by the kilo at Pick 'n' Pay. Look for yellow King Korn "homebrew" packets. I am not sure what exactly is in these packets - but there is sorghum crushed suitably for a Dave Line style mash and yeast of some sort. I am told that the packs are beefed up with maize meal and enzymes - but cannot confirm this. This malt has given me consistent results in the past and significantly, clear beer.
If you can use 60 kg - Free State Malting sell sorghum malt. Be careful to ask for course ground. Normally they sell sorghum flour - guaranteed to glue up your mash tun. I have bought uncrushed malt and tried to run this through my Valley Mill. Don't do this if you want to retain some sense of composure. We eventually managed to get the malt through the mill at Drayman's Brewery by mixing it with barley malt - but it was a devil to work with. Free State maltings use a hammer mill. Using this malt has resulted in murky beer for me, even after lagering for a month at 0C and then passing it through a 1 micron filter. However it tastes good, and is a lot cheaper.
Making Traditional Sorghum Bhiya
I followed the recipe on the King Korn pack for many attempts but always ended up with a rather thin, sour brew, nothing at all like the stuff you get out in rural areas. The recipe is as follows:
Add 10 litres of boiling water to 2kg maize (INDUNA SPECIAL MAIZE) and stir thoroughly. Add 1kg King Korn Mtombo-Mmela and stir well. Allow to stand overnight to sour. Cook the mixture for approximately 1 hour. Cool. Add a further 3 to 5 litres of cold water and another 1kg King Korn Mtombo-Mmela to the mixture and stir thoroughly. Leave overnight. Strain the mixture using a kitchen sieve by pressing the liquid out. Leave to ferment and mature. CONSUME.
The yeast in the pack ferments quite quickly. The only positive feedback that I have ever had regarding this brew was from Thabo Dloti - who said that in a blind tasting he would be able to tell it from battery acid (He was joking). Thabo did finish his mug and ask for seconds - but I think that was after seeing my sad face.
Albert Bothma at the Bourbon Street Brewing Company in Potchefstroom makes traditional sorghum beer for a living. My understanding of the professional method is as follows:
1. Make a sour sorghum mash using about 10% of the grist.
2. Add half of this to the main mash to drop pH to 4,5
3. Boil main mash
4. Drop temp and mash at 60C for 120 minutes (need to add
amylase)
5. Add remaining sour mash - pH should drop to 4,0
6. Reheat to 80C for a half hour rest
7. Drop temp and mash at 60C for 30 minutes (with another amylase
addition)
8. Filter mash and boil extract.
9. Cool and ferment.
There is quite a bit of detail that I am missing.
Clear(ish) Sorghum Bhiya
In 2001 I tried including sorghum malt in my mashes. This was a great move, as I discovered a whole new flavour profile. I have tried various proportions of sorhum malt, from 10% to 60% of the grist. The diastic power of the malt that I get is relatively low, so I rely on the enzymes provided by the pale malt in the grist.
I have tried a few yeasts and styles; a belgian style ale; a porter; a bitter; a lager; and an alt yeast. The alt has produced the best results so far - a beer that reminds of Hoegaarden Wit.
Sorghum gives a beer a strong phenolic flavour, and a tanniny bitterness. My bitter at 40 IBU's was overpowering. Using 20 to 25 IBU's seems to give a better results.
Filtering removes a lot of the sorghum colour and flavour. Unfiltered bhiya has a reddish tinge and quite a strong phenolic profile, even with only 10% of the grist being sorghum malt.
The ratio of sorghum to barley that seems to go down the best is 40:60 - filtered. Unfiltered sorghum beer is probably best left to those who like the taste of raw sorghum (an acquired taste)