The Homebrew Sessions Vol.3: Brewing with Adjuncts

Branching out from 'standard' brewing practices, how do brewers go about creating some of their more experimental beers*? According to homebrew legend John Palmer an adjunct is 'any non-enzymatic fermentable. Adjuncts include unmalted cereals such as flaked barley or corn grits, syrups, and refined sugars.'

Alan Wall 

-How often do you brew with adjuncts? Is it something you do frequently or do you save it for special occasions?

-Do you get inspired to brew with a particular ingredient and build a beer around it? Or is it vice versa - do you create a recipe first and then add the fifth ingredient in once you know what you’re going to brew?

-What is the most unusual adjunct you have brewed with so far? Is there anything you’ve used that you would never use again?

-Has anything gone horribly wrong when you’ve brewed with adjuncts?
-Is there anything you are keen to try brewing with in the future?

I had to check Wikipedia for an exact definition of adjuncts, to see where I was brewing wise. If you take adjucts to mean anything not malted barley, then I don’t really use all that much. There’s the odd touch of wheat here and there for head retention and body, and rye for spicy sweetness, but that’s about it. There’s no corn, rice, or any such thing as that. I’m not really trying to make my beer cheaper to produce, as I’m doing it for myself. I’m happy to throw a bit more malt at something if I want a bigger ABV. I think though, that we’re talking about using other ingredients, and so I shall detail what little I’ve done with that, and what I’m planning on now.

When I first started brewing all those moons ago, in 2012, I was full of ideas of adding things into my beer to get extra flavours that might not be able to be achieved with just the big four. For my fifth brew I did a stout, took first runnings for the actual stout (I had a tiny mash tun which was a bag in a small cool box) and the second runnings for a mild. For the mild, I added some dried elderberries that I got from the local homebrew shop. It was interesting because of the process, and the elderberry did come out in the beer.

On the first of November 2012, I embarked on making a beer that I wanted to taste like Christmas cake. I was going big guns. For the grist I used Marris Otter, some light Cara, Munich, and then some rye and wheat, used for the reasons already mentioned. The rye would also give a bit of redness to the colour. I hopped with Chinook and Simcoe, for the fruity spicy flavours they can impart. The beer finished at 1.010 and I dry hopped with Chinook, and threw in 100g of raisins that I’d bought, and some cinnamon. Well, this was my first infection. I hadn’t sterilised the raisins in any way, I’d just thrown them in, and raisins have some wild beasty on the skin that took a delicious beer and made it taste strange (in hindsight, the cinnamon probably didn’t help much either).

This scared me off using adjuncts, other than a brown saison I did last summer that had peppercorns and cinnamon in too, I’ve not really dabbled with that side of the brewing scene. My interest has been piqued somewhat after reading the exploits of Andy Parker (@tabamatu), and of course our lovely hosts here, Chris and Em (@Crema_Brewery), who seem to produce such amazing, and interesting beers using adjuncts.

Recently a friend, who is in Japan at the moment, asked if I’d like to collaborate and brew with some Yuzu. This has excited me somewhat, and of course I’ve been reading up about how to use adjuncts, so this will be my first foray into adjunct brewing in nearly a year. I can’t wait. The recipe is almost sorted for this, we talked a little about the flavour of the fruit, decided that a saison or brett yeast fermentation would be nice, then decided what hops would complement the yuzu flavour. We’ve decided on Mandarina Bavaria and Sorachi Ace. I’m leaning more towards a Brett B fermentation, for that thicker fruity flavour, but, who knows between now and brewday.

Andy Parker

How often do you brew with adjuncts? Is it something you do frequently or do you save it for special occasions?

It’s something I’ve been trying more and more recently. It started out with something pretty typical - vanilla in an imperial stout - and moved on from there to fruit, vegetables, herbs and spices.

Do you get inspired to brew with a particular ingredient and build a beer around it? Or is it vice versa - do you create a recipe first and then add the fifth ingredient in once you know what you’re going to brew?

For me that depends on the beer and whether I want the adjunct to be a main focus or something that helps other elements of the recipe shine through. I recently brewed a Beetroot Saison and with that beer, the recipe was built around the beetroot and wanting to get as much colour, flavour and aroma into the beer as possible. I opted for a super pale grist and added herbs that would enhance the beetroot flavour. In other beers, such as the Pomegranate Lambic brewed last year (still ageing!) I wanted it to be a lambic first and foremost, with the Pomegranate taking a back seat. The quantities were dialled back and the recipe was not adjusted to suite the fifth ingredient.

What is the most unusual adjunct you have brewed with so far? Is there anything you’ve used that you would never use again?

I'd say it was black cardamom. It has a medicinal, almost ‘deep heat’ intensity to it and I was worried I’d used too much. Thankfully the beer (an Imperial Black Saison) turned out pretty well with the cardamom being present, especially in the aroma, but not dominating. So far I’ve not come across something I absolutely wouldn’t use again.

Has anything gone horribly wrong when you’ve brewed with adjuncts?

No so far. Let’s hop it stays that way!

*NB. Not suggesting that use of adjuncts is the only way to brew something experimental!