How’s this for irony: Like many other homebrewers, I got into it because I wanted to brew something very different from the pale, adjunct-laden lagers that dominated the market. And yet … after running through what seemed like an endless forest of beer styles, the best brewers I know all doubled back to appreciating and brewing adjunct lager.
While the macro versions aren’t the most interesting examples, it’s certainly true that I’ve developed more appreciation for them. Meanwhile, plenty of smaller breweries have been joining us homebrewers in making tasty lagers with corn, rice, or other adjuncts—whether inspired by pre-Prohibition American brewing or by modern traditions in other countries.
To that end, let’s explore how adjuncts—and we’re going to cast a wide net here—can contribute to the production of light and easygoing yet flavorful lagers.
The New-Old Reality of Adjuncts
Before we get into the practicalities of brewing with adjuncts, it’s worth thinking about what that word even means—and why it’s been controversial at times. In the brewing context, “adjunct” simply refers to any ingredient other than malted barley, hops, yeast, and water. Considering all the things that craft brewers have been willing to put into their beer over the years, it seems odd that adjuncts could be divisive. Yet adhering to a Reinheitsgebot-like idea of “purity” was one way that American microbrewers in the 1980s and ’90s differentiated themselves from industrial brewers.
Mass-market beers such as Bud, Miller, and Coors used rice and corn, while the upstarts tended to follow an all-malt path associated with European tradition and quality. It wasn’t until 2014 that the Brewers Association revised its definition of “craft brewer” to allow those who make mostly adjunct-based beers—the very change that brought Yuengling, among others, into the club.
Historically, and especially outside the German context, brewers probably have used adjuncts more often than they haven’t. Adjuncts can include not only corn or rice but other grains and sugars, as well as spices, fruits, herbs, and more (up to and including some outright poisons). Folks brewed with what they had—and they had a pretty wide range of things sitting around. Even as hops and barley ascended in Europe and gruit faded to obscurity, Belgian and British brewing traditions often used different kinds of sugars to add flavor and strength while lightening body.
Even Bavarian and Bohemian lager brewers, migrating with their yeast to points worldwide in the 19th century, learned to brew with what was available. In North America, barley was more likely to be protein-heavy six-row. To lighten, brighten, and flavor-stabilize the beer, they found that corn and rice—not always cheaper than malt, despite a common misconception—could get them closer in profile to the pale lagers that were gaining popularity in Central Europe. With or without adjuncts, these pale lagers would go on to conquer the world and shape virtually everyone’s idea of what beer is supposed to look and taste like.
It also seems worth mentioning that American brewers have been cereal-mashing with corn and rice for more than 150 years now—a tradition now older than many of the all-malt European styles that we revere. And, these days, a brewpub or homebrewer pouring an American-, Mexican-, Japanese-, or whatever-style of adjunct lager is unlikely to elicit any negative reaction—and we geeks appreciate them as much as anyone. Adjunct brewing, it is fair to say, is alive and well.
The Usual Suspects
In lagers that include them, adjuncts tend to play a significant role in shaping the beer’s profile. The most common options are corn and rice, followed to some extent by simple sugars and syrups.
Lagers can be counterintuitive in that they’re sometimes easier to evaluate in the context of what flavors aren’t there than those that are—and, in a pale lager, we want that smooth, clean profile without any heavy, overpowering flavors getting in the way. That’s where rice and corn come in. They’re like cat burglars in your grist, slipping in to lighten the malt profile—even in the presence of nothing much more “malty” than the palest base malts—leaving a more delicate (and often drier) profile. They also help with fermentability, ensuring that your brew comes out lighter and more “digestible.” They’re also handy in that they already contain robust amounts of starches that easily convert into fermentable sugars. And, of course, they’re abundant and affordable.
Some of you more simplicity-minded brewers—like me—might be thinking, “Okay, but what about just adding simple sugars?” They’re certainly an option. The yeast will go right after any sucrose or dextrose, leading to a cleaner, crisper finished product and lightening the body of your beer even further. We need to be careful about overdoing it—an excess of simple sugars can make your beer prone to fusel alcohols and/or thin out the flavors too much—but they can be a handy tool. And if we lump in more characterful sugars such as darker candi syrups, maple, and honey—which are also almost 100 percent fermentable—we can adjust both the color and flavor profile, expanding our options further.
While these adjuncts aren’t the most glamorous ingredients in the brewing world, they’re foundational in many of the most popular types of lager.
Outside the Box
Now, let’s think a little more unconventionally and consider some unusual adjuncts that can bring something to the lager party, even if they don’t always perform the same function as the usual suspects. Some of these are less common because any lagers that include them aren’t as well known; others are rarer simply because we don’t think of them as options—but we should.
My personal favorite: wheat, which is far more common in top-fermented beers. However, I once went through a lengthy experimental period of fermenting almost every ale style with lager yeast, to test how it affected the beer—and that’s how I learned that wheat lager is an incredible option. Just as it does with ales, wheat can contribute body, smoothness, and even some lemony-doughy character, all while giving your foam a boost. But wheat is just the tip of the iceberg.
Next up: oats. That might sound like an odd choice, given that adjuncts often lighten the body. However, as with wheat, oats add a mouthfeel component—in this case, a delightful silkiness in the finish. If you’re in the market for smoothness combined with depth of flavor, oats can add a new level of indulgence to your lager. I also find that rye has a similar effect, adding a subtle background flavor that is just right for lagers—low-magnitude and supportive, rather than intrusive.
When it comes to international lagers, one fascinating ingredient that many people overlook is sorghum. An ancient grain commonly found in African beers—whether modern or traditional—sorghum can bring a unique twist to lager, with its somewhat fruity, zippy, tangy complexity and depth of flavor. While you might struggle to produce a brightly clear beer with sorghum, yeast selection and good clarification/fining processes can help to improve clarity and stabilize the beer. Sorghum malt is increasingly available these days, and it’s gluten-free—but even if an all-sorghum beer isn’t your thing, it’s still a fun and distinctive adjunct that can add an African-style lager to your repertoire.
Continuing in the agri-curious vein, we can also consider produce such as beets, sweet potatoes, and yams. These Boschian earthly delights might seem out of place in lager brewing, but trust me—they belong. Beet sugar can add subtle sweetness but otherwise isn’t much different from other simple sugars. Sweet potatoes and yams, meanwhile, bring a rich, complex background flavor that can be truly unforgettable in a fall or winter lager. Try it: The warmth of roasted sweet potato mingling with the clean, toasty background of a Munich-style dunkel is really something special.
Ultimately, there’s a happy medium between the medieval “brew with what you have on hand, possibly including yarrow, which might make your skin overly sensitive to light,” and the modern “brew with what you have on hand because there are ways to bring food culture into lagers.” Hit up those regional grains. Get at those root veggies and their starches. Find some good local fruits that can add sugar and flavor. There are truckloads of adjuncts out there for us to explore while brewing lagers that are either comfortingly familiar or confidently different.
Using What You’ve Got
It’s one thing to find or select an ingredient, but it’s another thing to incorporate it effectively into a lager. So, we have some planning to do.
For me, good brewing almost always boils down (so to speak) to intentionality: having an end goal and knowing how to get there with what you’ve got. Adjuncts can influence flavor, texture, and gravity—but you’re going to get different impacts from different ingredients, so developing a good recipe requires you to know what those impacts will be.
Sugars, including the sugars derived from starchy adjuncts, can provide different flavors that range in intensity from “barely there” to “WOW, what am I tasting here?” While corn and rice can lighten a beer’s profile, that doesn’t mean they can’t add flavor. In fact, some recent studies have found that extruded grains—such as puffed corn and puffed rice—add higher concentrations of aroma compounds to beer than unextruded versions of the same grains.
Whether those compounds are perceptible is another question and depends at least in part on how much you use. Another recent study of unmalted grains in brewing found that they contributed relatively insignificant flavor at 30 percent of the grist, but their impact is higher when that rises to 60 percent.
Patrick Chavanelle, senior R&D Brewer at Allagash in Portland, Maine, says that their new Surf House gets about 40 percent locally grown corn for that very reason. Even if the flavor impact isn’t immediately apparent, he says, the mouthfeel elements are quite noticeable. So, whatever your goal, you’ll want to use adjuncts conscientiously—even if you’re not explicitly tasting them, they’re still wielding influence in your finished beer.
You also want to be conscious of what you’re doing to the fermentation environment. When adding an adjunct—especially if modifying an existing recipe—we should consider whether the usage is adding to an existing grist or replacing existing ingredients. Adding will change the ratio of other ingredients in the recipe, while replacing might swap in for some percentage of malt. Adding can change gravities, which can have carry-on effects for things such as hop utilization and attenuation. On the other hand, a replacement can remove things you might want, such as enzymes that help conversion and fermentation or yeast nutrients such as free amino nitrogen.
If you’re going above 30 percent adjuncts, Chavanelle says, it’s a good idea to consider adding yeast nutrients to your fermentor. And we should always be doing sensory evaluations to see whether what’s coming out the back end of the process is aligning with our goal.
Unlocking Those Sugars
In process terms, there’s good news: Many of these adjuncts can go directly into the kettle, fermentor, and/or mash tun.
Virtually all your simple sugar, honey, and syrup options can go right into the kettle. Fruits may need a bit of processing or pectic enzyme to get at their sugars, but it’s effectively a direct addition that often goes into the fermentor. Likewise, many adjunct grains are available in pre-gelatinized forms, such as any flaked, torrefied, extruded, or malted options. If you’re brewing a lager with extracts, you can simply steep or mini-mash those, and you’re good to go. All-grain folks may want to include some rice hulls if they’re going higher than 30 percent with some grains, but beyond that there’s not much accommodation.
However, for those using corn, rice, or other grains that haven’t been gelatinized, you’re going to need to crack the starch-conversion code—hence, the cereal mash. The exact temperatures depend on what you’re mashing (see chart above), but the process is effectively the same:
- First, grind your adjunct—probably more finely than your standard barley grind. (Personally, I all but powder mine).
- Combine the adjunct with a weight of malted grains equal to about 20 percent of the adjunct weight—though you can skip this part if you are using a potato of some sort because they have plenty of enzymatic power of their own.
- Steep at the gelatinizing temperature for 20 minutes, then bring it to a boil for another 20 minutes.
- Finally, cool that puppy to saccharification temperature—i.e., 142° to 162°F (61° to 72°C)—add to the main mash, and you’re all set.
Note that if you’re doubling up on adjuncts and they have different gelatinization temperatures, you’ll want to do two different cereal mashes—and that’s why there are corn lagers and rice lagers … but not many corn-and-rice lagers. But if you’ve got the time, the inclination, and the curiosity, go for it.
Keep Looking, Keep Learning
The truly wonderful thing about adjuncts is that there are always new avenues to explore. More brewers are paying attention these days to perennial and ancient grains, such as kernza (a perennial wheatgrass that’s being used in lagers from the likes of Allagash and Russian River, among others) and fonio (an ancient African form of millet that fuels Brooklyn Brewery’s Double Pilsner) as well as amaranth, buckwheat, quinoa—you name it.
There are a bevy of adjuncts out there waiting to add interest to your next lager. So, get mashing—the next great brewing grain might be (literally) right beneath your feet.