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North American Adjunct Lagers

Posted by FredW on 2014-03-27 22:50:27

North American barley was traditionally of the 6-row variety as opposed to the 2-row found in Europe. This impacted brewing in a number of ways.... The were more husk in proportion to starch compared to 2 row. This made for a grainier flavor 6 row has more protwin than 2 row leading to stablitity problems 6 row also has more enzymatic power (the enzymes convert the starches to fermentable sugars) The answer to these issues was to include some non-malted adjuncts into the mash -- the extra enzymes could easily convert the starches, it reduced the graininess and also the the protein levels making for a more stable beer. Rice (Budweiser) and corn were the adjuncts of choice. It actually was more expensive to use these adjuncts as they had to be boilded first as the starches at normal mash temperatures were not soluable in water (which is one reason malted barley is the grain of choice for beer). So intead of the 3 vessel system found in Germany (mash, lauter, boil) you had 4 vessel systems (cerial cooker, mash, lauter, boil). Shortages of barley during WW I plus the growing temperance movement led brewers to increase the portion of corn/rice from the 10-15% to 25-30%. This made a lighter bodied beer which became popular and so brewers continued this. As late as the early 60's, Anheuser Busch made all malt beers for local consumption is St Louis (which has a large number of people decended from German immegrents) Much more than you wanted to know....

Followups:

North American Adjunct Lagers by Nick B. on  2014-03-28 01:34:30

North American Adjunct Lagers by barry on  2014-03-28 02:21:19