Adjunct

Looking for some new creative avenues to explore, or want to try something special for your next holiday seasonal? Randy Mosher shares some insights into why botanicals have always been important to beer—plus, strategies to help you use them successfully, today.

New research points toward much greater potential for rice malt in brewing—with varieties that provide color, character, and brewing specs that aren’t so different from barley.

Third Eye co-owner and head brewer Kelly Montgomery makes the case for freshly roasted cacao nibs and using real vanilla extract in combination with vanilla beans to capture a rich chocolate flavor in stouts.

Twice per year, the production teams at Austin’s Hold Out and Live Oak breweries get together to brew what they call “the king of tater beers.”

From layering malts to selecting and infusing adjuncts, Third Eye co-owner and head brewer Kelly Montgomery lays out their medal-winning approach to planning and brewing rich, flavorful stouts.

Totally unpretentious, yet challenging to execute with precision... We asked five brewers for their favorite lagers brewed with body-lightening corn or rice.

Craft brewers have gone from shunning adjuncts to embracing them with alacrity amid our ongoing love affair with lager. Here, we put the American and international lager traditions into context—and then we ponder which adjuncts might be the next to conquer the world.

From cocoa to coconuts via lactose and long boils, brewers are shaping today’s dessert stouts for easy appeal. Just don’t say they’re easy to make.

Josh Pfriem, founder and brewmaster of pFriem Family Brewers, shares tips on how to dial in your mash process and support great foam retention in light, crisp, internationally inspired lagers—including a finishing touch of Tetra hop extract.

Josh Pfriem, founder and brewmaster of pFriem Family Brewers, lays out their approach to hopping Japanese- and Mexican-style lagers, including related flavor considerations for malt, pH, and sulfur content.

Give this one some time. After about three months, you’ll find that the malt and hops are so perfectly integrated that you’ll want to just sit and smell this beer for a while.

Josh Pfriem, cofounder and brewmaster of Oregon’s pFriem Family Brewers, details the thinking and process behind the brewery’s delicate, award-winning lagers inspired by traditions in Mexico, Japan, and beyond.

Great Notion lead brewer Lara Hargrave offers some useful advice for using flavor extracts, graham crackers, almonds, and more in your pastry- and dessert-inspired beers.

Lara Hargrave, lead brewer at Great Notion in Portland, Oregon, runs through several of the adjuncts they add to their pastry stouts, including some useful tips for flavor and practicality.

Lara Hargrave, lead brewer at Great Notion in Portland, Oregon, takes us on a journey through the production of big, whimsical, indulgent, nostalgia-inducing dessert-inspired stouts.

This extract-based ode to American malt liquor—and to an old friend—gets appropriately large portions of adjuncts and enzyme to boost attenuation. Serve it cold!

Since adjunct lagers are cool again, it may be time to give American malt liquor a fresh look. Lean and strong, this adjunct-laden product of the post-Prohibition era has the power to evoke simpler times.

Kevin Davey, co-owner of Heater Allen Brewing and Gold Dot Beer, explains why domestic two-row is the base malt of choice for cold IPA, combining with adjuncts such as rice or corn for lighter body and longer shelf life.

In this clip from their video course, Live Oak founder Chip McElroy digs into some lager history to explain why they chose the name Pre-War Pils for their old-fashioned American adjunct lager.

Corn has long held an important place in brewing across the Americas, from chicha in the Andes to Mexican and American adjunct lagers. Today, craft maltsters and brewers are seeking more flavorful heirloom varieties to see how far they can push those flavors.