Triticale Lager
Hey! I haven’t been around in a while but just started a new series of brews that highlight different ingredients! First up, triticale!
For those of you that are not familiar with triticale, it is a versitile cereal that is a cross between wheat and rye. It takes on both characteristics that wheat and rye provide including the spiciness of rye as well as the nuttiness of wheat. In this particular application, I used malted triticale from MJW Grain Inc (https://www.mjwgraininc.com/) from Ritzville, WA!
The idea was simple: brew a beer that highlights the triticale malt as a base malt in this SMASH-ish brew. The recipe comes out as 90% triticale and 10% oats for body and head retention. I know, you’re thinking holy stuck sparge - but I actually mashed in at 120F for a beta glucan rest and slowly rose the mash temp up until it was steady around 160F and let it rest. We pulled out a very steady voralouf for about 15 mins and continued on to the transfer. Zero stickiness whatsoever!
With an OG of 1.061, the initial runnings were surprisingly sweet! One of the people brewing with us said it tasted of brown sugar on oatmeal. It was indeed quite sweet and lacked the bitterness that wort typically has. In fact, I’d say that was maybe the best tasting wort I’ve ever had. That being said, it was super murky and seemed on the thicker side. We feremented it out with Bohemian lager yeast around 47F. After a week, the color lightened up much to my delight and the fermentation was incredibly active, especially for a lager. We threw it in the lager chamber at 31F and let it go for the month! After a month, we transferred it over to a keg, carbed that puppy and sipped!
At Lowercase Brewing, the brewery my roommate and I work for, we brewed up a roggenbier, a typical German rye style. That is the closest thing I would say it tasted like - a rye lager. It was definitely super rye on the flavor - a light spice but very malt-forward. You could tell that the wheat-side of the triticale rounded this spicy maltiness with a lovely back end that brought in some sweetness. The aromatics were pretty sweet as well, if not fairly light. We only used Hallerteau Blanc for bittering in the brew so not very much hoppiness was involved. That also being said, the bitter was pretty nicely subdued.
The body wasn’t crazy heavy but a nice light pillow with a dry crispiness that finished out the sip. The head was a perfectly placed pillow cloud, resting calmly above the golden brew leaving a delicate lace behind.
Overall, I encourage using this blend as a nice, rye forward base malt! Do be aware that it does come through pretty cloudy as is to be expected with any wheat variety. I would love to see this in something like a festbier, Roggenbier alternative, or even a bock of some kind! Next time, I’m thinking an IPA would play well with the spice or creating a winter warmer that is lighter in color would be something interesting, as well!
I’d love to hear your thoughts! Have you used Triticale before? What would you use this grain in?
Feel free to contact me with questions - [email protected]
Cheers!
