At a beer-tasting seminar I gave a few years ago, the discussion went off on a tangent, as discussions tend to at that kind of event, and led to the question “Are all beers made from barley?” I referred the audience to an article I had written for BYO on brewing multi-grain beers and we talked about traditional wheat beers, rye beers and oatmeal stouts.

There are some wheat beers, I said, made from 100 percent wheat. But not many. “Why?” they asked. Because most grains, wheat included, lack the enzymes with which barley is loaded. These enyzmes enhance starch to sugar conversion, aid in efficient mashing, and even enable fermentation to happen at all. Wheat can be used, I told them, but to my knowledge no other beers are made with a grain bill of 100 percent something else.

I’m sure I was wrong. My answer was a bit of a bluff, because I didn’t know for certain. And I still don’t have the whole answer. I know there are alcoholic beverages made around the world from many other ingredients besides barley. But are they beer?

At any rate, this presented an obvious challenge. I decided to play with grains and see what would happen. I brewed several different test batches over a few weeks, and had a variety of results. Mostly bad. Some very bad. I decided that, for my purposes as a more or less average homebrewer, it was neither easy nor worthwhile to brew exclusively with these non-barley grains.
But I still wanted to play with the grains I had, so I began to mix other grains with my barley malt. In the end, I did hit on one excellent recipe, using about 25 percent barley and the rest “others.” It reminded me of what I’d always thought medieval beer must have been like — brown, muddy, under-carbonated, spicy and rich. Nobody liked it but me, which was actually OK because it lasted me two months. Still, I tweaked the recipe and came up with a lighter, clearer and more mainstream version that used about 50 percent barley. It got much better reviews and was gone within three weeks.

GREAT GRAIN ALE
(5 gallons, partial mash)

Ingredients
• 1 lb. quinoa (precooked)
• 5 lb. spelt (precooked)
• 5 lb. light malt (30° Lovibond)
• 1 lb. malted wheat
• 0.5 lb. malted rye
• 0.5 lb. flaked oats
• 0.5 lb. flaked maize
• 3 lbs. light dry malt extract (DME)
• 1 oz. of 6% alpha-acid Cascade hops (6 AAUs)
• 1 oz. of 4.5% alpha-acid Willamette hops (4.5 AAUs)
• American ale yeast (Wyeast 1056 or equivalent)
• 3/4 cup corn sugar for priming

Step by Step
Precook the quinoa and spelt by boiling the grains in about a quart of water for 20 minutes. Crush crystal, wheat and rye.  Heat 8 quarts water to 164° F. Add crushed and flaked grains along with cooked spelt and quinoa (and any remaining cooking water).

Hold mash at 152° F for 75 minutes. Collect runoff and sparge with 10 quarts. Add DME to kettle and bring to a boil. Add Cascade hops, boil 5 minutes. Add Willamette hops, boil 15 minutes. Remove from heat, add to fermenter along with enough water to make 5.25 gallons. Cool to 68° F, pitch yeast. Ferment at 65° F for two weeks, transfer to secondary and condition at 60° F for three more weeks. Prime with corn sugar and bottle. Age in bottles for three weeks.

OG = 1.050
FG = 1.012
Bitterness = 30 IBUs

Notes
All-grain version: Omit the DME and add 4.5 lbs. of pale malt to the mash, increasing mash water to 14 quarts and the sparge water to 16 quarts.  Proceed from boiling, timing boil and hop additions to end with 5.25 gallons.


Reader Recipes

Old Swill: Mike’s House Beer
(5 gallons, all-grain with adjunct)

Old Swill is my interpretation of pre-Prohibition American beer. I’ve been working on it since 1993. BrewTek CL-630 (American Microbrewery Lager) is supposedly an old strain that was used by pre-Prohibition U.S. breweries. It finishes clean and clear, and it only needs two weeks of cold lagering.
Michael W. Martin • Canton, Texas

Ingredients
• 1 lb. yellow corn meal
• 5.5 lbs. pale two-row malt
• 6 oz. carapils malt
• 0.75 oz. of 6.5% alpha-acid Cluster hop pellets (4.9 AAUs)
• 0.75 oz. of 6% alpha-acid Cascade hop pellets (4.5 AAUs)
• 1/2 tsp. Irish moss
• BrewTek CL-630 yeast, two-stage starter
• 7/8 cup corn sugar for priming

Step by Step

Stir corn meal into 1 gal. of warm (120° F) water. Bring to a boil, turn off heat, cover pot, and let sit for 45 min. Add 7.5 qt. of 110° F water to adjust temperature to 130° F. Stir in crushed grain and hold for 30 min. Raise temperature to 135° F and hold for 15 min. Raise temperature to 150° F and hold until conversion is complete, 30 to 45 min. Raise temperature to 175° F and hold for 5 min. Sparge grain with 5 gal. of 160° F water.

Total boil is 60 min. Bring to a boil, add Cluster hop pellets, and boil for 45 min. Add Irish moss and boil for 10 min. Add Cascade hop pellets and boil for 5 min. more. Turn off heat, cover pot, and let sit for 20 min. Cool to 60° F and pitch yeast starter.

Ferment at 50° F for 30 days. Prime and bottle. Age at room temperature (65° F) for one week. Then cold lager at 38° F for two weeks.

OG = 1.042
FG = 1.008
Bitterness = 27 IBUs

Summer Soother
(5 gallons, extract with specialty grains)

This is a fantastic brew with great residual sweetness due to the cinnamon and orange. Yet it still maintains its light body and thirst-quenching ability. It’s the brew I plan to share with my friends many a night on the back porch, while I deal a few hands of stud poker.
Kevin Kolano • North Babylon, New York

Ingredients
• 1/2 lb. wheat malt
• 1/2 lb. pale malt
• 1/4 lb. cara-Vienne malt
• 1 tbsp. chocolate malt
• 4 lbs. Alexander Sun wheat malt extract
• 1.4 lbs. Alexander Sun “Kicker”
• 1 lb. Muntons Wheat dry malt extract (DME)
• 2 oz. of 4% alpha-acid Crystal hops (8 AAUs)
• 3 oranges, quartered
• 6 cinnamon sticks
• 1 tbsp. Irish moss
• 2 packs Muntons ale yeast
• 3/4 cup priming sugar

Step by Step

Add grains to 2 gal. water, raise temperature to 150° to 160° F,  and hold for 20 min. Remove grains, add the malt extracts, top up kettle to 5.5 gal. and bring to a boil. Total boil is 60 min. At the boil, add 1 oz. Crystal hops. Boil 30 min. and add 1 oz. Crystal hops. Boil 15 more min. and squeeze the oranges into the wort, discarding the peels. Add the Irish Moss. Boil 15 min. more and remove from heat. Chill the wort to 60° to 80° F and pitch the yeast.

After eight to nine days, transfer into secondary fermenter for two weeks to a month. If bottling, let condition for at least two weeks.

OG = 1.052
FG = 1.012
Bitterness = 25 IBUs

“John Dear” Lawnmower Beer
(5 gallons, extract with specialty grains)

My customers complained that they could not fulfill their lawnmowing duties (this is the reason for the “John Dear” part) because one homebrew on a hot day would make them too groggy to finish. Here is my stab at a light, low alcohol, refreshing summertime beer.
Dawn Letner • The Home Brew Shop • Chico, California

Ingredients
• 5 or 6 lbs. light malt extract (I recommend Alexander’s or Telford extra pale malt)
• 0.5 lb. Munich or Victory malt
• 2 oz. of 5% alpha-acid Cascade hops (10 AAUs)
• 1 tsp. gypsum
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 1 tsp. Irish moss
• Superior lager yeast (if brewing in cooler weather) or Coopers ale  yeast (in warmer weather)
• 1 cup corn sugar for priming

Step by Step

Steep grains in 2 gal. of water at 150 to 170° F for 20 min. Remove, sparge, add extract, top kettle up to 5.5 gallons and bring to a boil. Total boil is 60 min. Add 1 oz. Cascade hops, sea salt, and gypsum, and boil for 30 min. Add Irish moss and boil for 20 min. Add 1 oz. Cascade hops and boil for 10 min. Cool down the wort to pitching temperature, below 90° F. Add yeast.

Ferment at 68° F for seven to 10 days. Allow time for the yeast to settle after fermentation stops before bottling. Prime and bottle. Let the brew age a couple of weeks. Enjoy.

OG= 1.046
FG= 1.008
Bitterness = 32 IBUs