Jason Foster

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Last month I extolled the virtues of wheat as a companion ingredient to the staple barley. What I didn’t tell you then was that virtually any grain can be used for beer, at least in some proportion. Well, not quite – so don’t rip up your lawn and toss it in the mash tun. More biologically accurate is that you can brew with members of the Poaceae family of grasses, which includes barley, wheat, oats, rye, corn, rice, buckwheat, sorghum, millet, triticale and quinoa. (Yes, I know that you can brew with other non-grain additives that have mashable starches, such as potatoes, squashes and yams, but ignore that footnote for now.)

Barley was chosen historically for its hardiness, high starch and sugar content and pleasant flavour. But, just as with wheat, you don’t have to let historical convenience stop you. Most brewers haven’t. You will commonly find beer made with oats or rye and, of course, the big corporate brewers use corn and rice to lighten both the body and the hit on their wallets. More rarely you will find beer made with other grains, such as buckwheat, triticale or sorghum. In most cases these grains are a small proportion of the grist – 5-15%. Their purpose is to add a special quality to the beer but still allow barley to dominate the flavour.

In fact, there are some styles, both historic and modern, that explicitly call for the addition of one of these grains. The German style Roggenbier (roggen is German for rye) must have rye malt in it. And you can’t make an oatmeal stout without oats, can you? Small-scale African brewers still make a beer with the ancient grain “teff”, which I am told makes a sharp, quenching beer and is usually drank while still in mid-fermentation. It is important to understand that the addition of oats or rye or teff is not a marketing ploy, but an active attempt on the part of the brewer to alter the experience you will get from drinking their beer.

Let’s walk through a couple of the more common alternative grains found in beer. Obviously corn is the most ubiquitous, as it is used in most macro-lagers. There can be completely legitimate purposes for using corn (more accurately “maize”) – I use it occasionally myself in my homebrewing. Corn ferments out almost entirely, leaving very few traces of itself. Consequently it is perfect for lightening the body of a beer without compromising alcohol. In a cream ale or an English ordinary bitter, corn can make the beer appear more subtle and nuanced. I am pretty sure Fuller’s uses corn in its organic Honey Dew ale to great effect.

Rice is more rare, famously used in Budweiser. It, too, ferments out completely but offers a touch of sharp flavour in its remains. This gives Bud a taste ever so slightly different than other adjunct-laden beer. Some recent arrivals from Japanese microbreweries use rice very differently. By varying which rice they use – white, red, brown – they can create stronger rice impressions that allow rice to become a full partner in the beer. Hitachino Nest, in particular, has some interesting variations of rice beer.

Rye is most commonly compared to wheat in its impact on beer, it has become particularly popular in recent years. Maybe it is appropriate in Canada given that generally our whiskey is made from rye. I find rye has some wheat characteristics, but offers its own profile. It, too, adds an earthy sharpness to a beer. But I also believe it to be spicier and more assertive than wheat. I find it can be quite angular in its presentation, with some pepper and arugula tones. In general rye adds complexity and depth to a beer. I understand why you want to avoid fruit with rye, and maybe instead go for peppercorn, as Dieu Du Ciel does with Route des Epices.

The final common grain is my favourite – oats. Oats are head killers, due to their residual oils, but I love how they soften a beer and create a silkiness to the body not achievable any other way. They work well in stouts as they counter the astringent dark malts to create a multi-dimensional profile for the beer. In lighter beers they add a soft background to make the beer more quaffable. Oats are quite versatile and can be added, in small quantities, to almost any style without wrecking it. St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout is probably the best example of how to use oats as a compliment to other flavours.

I have known brewers to use other grains like sorghum, millet and the like in their beer. I tried triticale a couple of times as a replacement for wheat. Each brings its own unique properties to the beer, which can only enhance the drinker’s experience of the beer.

Note I have, for the moment, left out the whole world of gluten-free beer, which makes full use of these alternative grains. That is the topic for next time.

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