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Be careful.. a black car with two men in it has been circling my garage as I have been trying to malt the lintels.. First batch was a failure.. as I put too little water on them or something. Going to attempt again this weekend...
 
Nope.. I am going to be getting some lentils soon and trying to redo the experiment with the info that was gathered.

Boreal dropped off the face of the earth right before he was to open and sample the bottles. As you can tell from the thread he hasn't been on since Feb 18th.. so not sure whats going on with his experiment.
 
OH MY GOD. I hate this thread. Read through everything to find out that the only people who have made lentil beer are dead, missing or for all intents and purposes, dead.
 
What is with all these deaths on this site lately? The guy who started the "glass carboy with hole on top" thread, is also for all intents and purposes, dead. I have no intentions of ever putting beans in my beer, but damn I really want to know if this worked.
 
Be careful.. a black car with two men in it has been circling my garage as I have been trying to malt the lintels.. First batch was a failure.. as I put too little water on them or something. Going to attempt again this weekend...

Could this black car be the cause of homebrewtalk members disappearing?
 
What is with all these deaths on this site lately? The guy who started the "glass carboy with hole on top" thread, is also for all intents and purposes, dead. I have no intentions of ever putting beans in my beer, but damn I really want to know if this worked.

Ha! I almost posted "hmm, wonder if he got it working, only to try some kind of weird alternative fermentables in it, and ended up like all those guys on the lentil thread?"

Seriously, guys, us armchair bean-mashers don't even care if it was an abject failure at this point, we just want closure!!
 
Well it's unrelated, my plans for mashing are Buckwheat, Teff and then Amaranth, but I'm getting 5lbs of malted sunflower seeds in a few weeks from a friend that works at a homebrew shop, and I'll ask him if he knows anything about people dying from lentil beer.
 
Okay, here's the report.

Round one: The lentil malt cream ale turned out to be a decent beer. The colour was a light orange-brown (I assume from the orange lentils). I used BRY-97 California Yeast from Danstar, and hopped lightly (~10 IBU) with Willamette, and threw in a tad of Mt. Hood at 5 for a bit of aroma.

There was no legume or bean flavour. The aroma was good - the Mt Hoods were there, but not overpowering. The head was thick, and had a weird iridescent quality to it - like there was dish soap or gasoline in the beer - but no effect on the flavour. My guess is some protein from the lentils, not found in normal brewing grains, is the culprit.

I invited a random assortment of friends over to try the beer, and recorded their comments. I told them I had a cream ale for them to try, and there was a mystery ingredient in the grist. I had two women and two men, lest there be an off-flavour better detected by those without a Y-chromosome.

Please note: none of these people are beer judges, but Foodie has taken a "better brewing" course through our local micro. All of them, in their own way, enjoy beer.

My tasting panel:

1. The Foodie/Beer Guy (Male): "I like this - it's sweet...is the mystery ingredient a different colour of corn? Not that Sleeman's is my favourite, but kinda like a Sleeman's". (he was referring to their honey-brown lager.)

2. The Picky-Palleted Female Colleague: "I'd buy this. I'd drink this."

3. My BMC-swilling cousin (Male): "I only get one? Dude, it's gone. Drinks easy. More flavour than Bud, less than MGD".

4. My craft-beer snob cousin (Female): "It's a cream ale. I'm waiting for the big reveal, because there's some complexity beyond what I'd expect...but really, nothing special. Or nasty. Which, because I'm drinking an experiment, is probably okay."

I've since taken this brew to an after-work BBQ party, where it was well-received.

So, world, there it is. To the tune of 15% of the grist in a light cream ale style beer, malted orange lentils work as a brewing adjunct. I've got round two, in which I increased the lentilmalz to 20%, in the cold right now.

Thanks to CDGoin for prompting the brew, and to Biermuncher - the lentilbrau is essentially Cream of Three Crops, with lentilmalz taking the place of the corn.

Sorry about the lag time between starting and posting (Maybe this will be more like the "Arrested Development" of threads), but for those of you who hung in there, thanks.
 
Okay, here's the report.

Round one: The lentil malt cream ale turned out to be a decent beer. The colour was a light orange-brown (I assume from the orange lentils). I used BRY-97 California Yeast from Danstar, and hopped lightly (~10 IBU) with Willamette, and threw in a tad of Mt. Hood at 5 for a bit of aroma.

There was no legume or bean flavour. The aroma was good - the Mt Hoods were there, but not overpowering. The head was thick, and had a weird iridescent quality to it - like there was dish soap or gasoline in the beer - but no effect on the flavour. My guess is some protein from the lentils, not found in normal brewing grains, is the culprit.

I invited a random assortment of friends over to try the beer, and recorded their comments. I told them I had a cream ale for them to try, and there was a mystery ingredient in the grist. I had two women and two men, lest there be an off-flavour better detected by those without a Y-chromosome.

Please note: none of these people are beer judges, but Foodie has taken a "better brewing" course through our local micro. All of them, in their own way, enjoy beer.

My tasting panel:

1. The Foodie/Beer Guy (Male): "I like this - it's sweet...is the mystery ingredient a different colour of corn? Not that Sleeman's is my favourite, but kinda like a Sleeman's". (he was referring to their honey-brown lager.)

2. The Picky-Palleted Female Colleague: "I'd buy this. I'd drink this."

3. My BMC-swilling cousin (Male): "I only get one? Dude, it's gone. Drinks easy. More flavour than Bud, less than MGD".

4. My craft-beer snob cousin (Female): "It's a cream ale. I'm waiting for the big reveal, because there's some complexity beyond what I'd expect...but really, nothing special. Or nasty. Which, because I'm drinking an experiment, is probably okay."

I've since taken this brew to an after-work BBQ party, where it was well-received.

So, world, there it is. To the tune of 15% of the grist in a light cream ale style beer, malted orange lentils work as a brewing adjunct. I've got round two, in which I increased the lentilmalz to 20%, in the cold right now.

Thanks to CDGoin for prompting the brew, and to Biermuncher - the lentilbrau is essentially Cream of Three Crops, with lentilmalz taking the place of the corn.

Sorry about the lag time between starting and posting (Maybe this will be more like the "Arrested Development" of threads), but for those of you who hung in there, thanks.

glad it turned out well

even more glad that you didn't get invaded by the bean beer body snatchers
 
The suspense almost killed me, glad the beans didn't kill you. And the beer came out alright! Thanks so much for delving into this experiment and treading boldly where few if any beanos have gone before.

Any way you can get us a picture, I'm curious about the color and clarity and the "weird iridescent quality" if you can capture it on film, and did you end up using rice along with the lentil? How did you end up mashing it? Sorry if the barrage of questions is annoying, hopefully you can just copy paste from your brew log.
 
Hey Radog (et al),

Pics, and a full description of the process, will be coming shortly. I'm away from my brewing notes this week (its deer season here!!!), but from bulk bin to brewing to beer will be up soon.

Pics - I plan to document the process with pictures over the next few weeks, maybe on a new thread. I thought I'd have lots of opportunity to take pictures of this experiment - but after the taste test, word got out in my little (thirsty) circle and lentilbrau 1.0 disappeared fast!

Until I have pics - clarity-wise, I could read a newspaper through a pint! I did use some rice in the brew, but plan to cut down/eliminate the rice in this next go round.
 
Hey Radog (et al),

Pics, and a full description of the process, will be coming shortly. I'm away from my brewing notes this week (its deer season here!!!), but from bulk bin to brewing to beer will be up soon.

Pics - I plan to document the process with pictures over the next few weeks, maybe on a new thread. I thought I'd have lots of opportunity to take pictures of this experiment - but after the taste test, word got out in my little (thirsty) circle and lentilbrau 1.0 disappeared fast!

Until I have pics - clarity-wise, I could read a newspaper through a pint! I did use some rice in the brew, but plan to cut down/eliminate the rice in this next go round.
 
i believe you're the first person to brew lentils, according to the internet. i was researching to answer this question on homebrew.stackexchange.com . That italian beer claiming 15% lentil base may be the first also, but i'm not sure how to check.
-update- not sure, i know you had lentils fermenting, not sure how they used it.
 
Ok, here we go:
wC4IcIz.jpg


I'm not posting any more details just yet so that the lentil maltsters' hit squad don't come looking for me. Details to follow.

Edit: does anyone have any guidance on what acrospire length to halt growth at?
 
I thought this thread died, a long time ago...

Glad to see it's still around!

I did malt and brew with lentils three years ago (see the beginning of the thread). I stopped growth when the acrospire was half the length of the lentil.

I dried 'em, then kilned them at 200F for an hour. I used brown lentils - ended up adding a nutty taste. I sued them in place of the the corn in a Cream of Three Crops - nice, easy beer to play with. The head character of the brew was different - foamier? than normal, but otherwise, it was a good beer.

Good luck!
 
I'm definitely following your lead, BorealBrewer.

Doing my extract tests as we speak.
 
Here's some data on my lentil malt experiment

Malting procedure:
-thoroughly rinse lentils with cold water
-soak overnight
-drain
-for next two days: rinse and drain a few times a day, storing in a closed container in a cool (~17 C) location
-when acrospire is about the same length as the lentil, dry and roast

I did four congress mashes:

test A: 50 g green malted lentils, not dried or roasted
test B: 25 g 2-row barley malt
test C: 25 g (wet weight) green malted lentils, 25 g 2-row
test D: 25 g dried and kilned malted lentils, 25 g 2-row. The lentils were dried overnight in an oven at the coolest setting, then kilned at 200 F for 1 hour. The resultant malt was crunchy and had a nice lightly toasted flavor.

Each mash test involved crushing each sample in a mortar and pestle before infusing with 200 mL of RO water. The temperature is held at 45 C for 30 minutes, ramped to 70 C over 25 minutes, and held at 70 C for 60 minutes. Temperatures were controlled with a water bath on a hot plate. The mash is then topped up with water to a total mass of 450 g. Normally, this would be filtered, but I just let the malt settle out and sampled the refractive index of the clear liquid above.

The refractive index (in brix) as the tests progressed is as follows
Code:
                       A    B    C    D
after 30 min at 45C:  1.3  2.4  3.0  4.3
after ramp to 70C:    1.9  6.2  7.8  10.0
after 30 min at 70C:  2.0  7.2  9.0  11.1
after 60 min at 70C:  2.0  8.0  9.3  11.3
after top up to 450g: n/a  3.3  4.4  4.9

I didn't bother topping up the A test, as the extract was so low. Clearly, there aren't enough enzymes in the pure lentil malt to convert the starch. Test A tested positive for starch throughout (using iodine), whereas the the other tests showed no starch after 30 minutes at 70C.

Test B (just barley) resulted in 14.9 g = 59.5% extract, as is. If this is subtracted from C, the lentils contributed 5.0 g extract or 20% (wet basis). The wet lentils were dried to measure their moisture content at 62.2%, which would result in 53% extract (bone dry basis).

The lentils in D contributed 7.15 g extract, or 28.6% extract (as is).

One item to notice is that the pure barley malt mash resulted in a measured extract that is considerably below the typical book values around 80% extract. This may be due to my inconsistent crush with the mortar and pestle.
 
Here are some pictures:

Malt before stopping germination:
bnH8nHF.jpg


Pure lentil malt:
fnlp4GU.jpg


Lentil and barley malt:
W1t32PN.jpg


Kiling:
uXCULmc.jpg


I could easily remove the dried acrospires by shaking in a plastic container. The acrospires stuck to the plastic and the malt could be poured out
e5kqWh4.jpg
 
I briefly boiled tests B,C, and D from above in the microwave and divided a package of EC1118 between them to check fermentability. Ambient temperature was around 18 C.
Again, gravity was measured with a refractometer:
Code:
                        B     C        D
OG (brix)             8.0     9.3    11.3
FG (brix)             2.6     2.6     3.0
FG (SG)             0.998    0.991    0.992
Attenuation (%)      137        91      115

I think the attenuations above 100% shows the yeast was able to extract some previously undissolved sugars and starches from the grains sitting in the bottom of the fermenter. So this test is flawed, but it does show that there's definitely something in the lentils to ferment.

Here's a picture just after pitching (right to left: C, B, D):
pw7y5jv.jpg


After fermentation:
gLTppmX.jpg
 
Just had a lentil cream ale from rebellion brewing in Regina Saskatchewan. I didn't like it at all. Taste like mashed peas to me. But someone that really like pea soup may enjoy it.
 
Reinventing soy sauce? Not to resurrect a thread, but my wife makes all kinds of sweets out of beans. It's taken some getting used to as a westerner, but all over east Asia they make sweets and swee drinks out of beans adzuki and mung bean especially, an example being mung bean ice cream. What's got me to thinking is, I bought a sprouting kit and an assorted selection of mixed srouting seeds many legumes including lentils. The adzuki especially seem to develope a sweet flavor during sprouting. Anyway, maybe the higher protein content could improve a barley bill by adding more amino acids?
 
Okay, here's the report.

Round one: The lentil malt cream ale turned out to be a decent beer. The colour was a light orange-brown (I assume from the orange lentils). I used BRY-97 California Yeast from Danstar, and hopped lightly (~10 IBU) with Willamette, and threw in a tad of Mt. Hood at 5 for a bit of aroma.

There was no legume or bean flavour. The aroma was good - the Mt Hoods were there, but not overpowering. The head was thick, and had a weird iridescent quality to it - like there was dish soap or gasoline in the beer - but no effect on the flavour. My guess is some protein from the lentils, not found in normal brewing grains, is the culprit.

I invited a random assortment of friends over to try the beer, and recorded their comments. I told them I had a cream ale for them to try, and there was a mystery ingredient in the grist. I had two women and two men, lest there be an off-flavour better detected by those without a Y-chromosome.

Please note: none of these people are beer judges, but Foodie has taken a "better brewing" course through our local micro. All of them, in their own way, enjoy beer.

My tasting panel:

1. The Foodie/Beer Guy (Male): "I like this - it's sweet...is the mystery ingredient a different colour of corn? Not that Sleeman's is my favourite, but kinda like a Sleeman's". (he was referring to their honey-brown lager.)

2. The Picky-Palleted Female Colleague: "I'd buy this. I'd drink this."

3. My BMC-swilling cousin (Male): "I only get one? Dude, it's gone. Drinks easy. More flavour than Bud, less than MGD".

4. My craft-beer snob cousin (Female): "It's a cream ale. I'm waiting for the big reveal, because there's some complexity beyond what I'd expect...but really, nothing special. Or nasty. Which, because I'm drinking an experiment, is probably okay."

I've since taken this brew to an after-work BBQ party, where it was well-received.

So, world, there it is. To the tune of 15% of the grist in a light cream ale style beer, malted orange lentils work as a brewing adjunct. I've got round two, in which I increased the lentilmalz to 20%, in the cold right now.

Thanks to CDGoin for prompting the brew, and to Biermuncher - the lentilbrau is essentially Cream of Three Crops, with lentilmalz taking the place of the corn.

Sorry about the lag time between starting and posting (Maybe this will be more like the "Arrested Development" of threads), but for those of you who hung in there, thanks.
Hey there,

We're attempting to brew a red lentil cream ale. What were your steps for the lentils? Did you have to malt them and how much did you add to the rest of your grain bill? We are going with 2Lbs, so about 20% of the bill
 
OK lets see if I got this right

1) lots of people in this forum have been curious about using lentils in beer (either as main grain or as an adjunct), but nobody ever finishes an experiment, which probably means it did not turn out to be tasty

2) the gluten free brewers use lentils and says that they give a peppery flavour and possibly add mouth feel to a beer. they seem to mostly be grinding the dry lentil and adding it into the main mash. there are several commercial breweries making edible lentil containing beers

3) in this forum people are soaking/sprouting/
drying/roasting/grinding the lentil and adding to the main mash as an adjunct along with wheat/barley

what about doing a cereal mash? (assuming the proportion of lentil is less than 15-20%)

did anybody come to any conclusions about this topic?
 
Here is a summary of what is on this forum as well as some info from food industry experiments:

· Following based on using lentils as an adjunct with normal grains, not grain free recipe. Problems with using grain free recipe because has a lot of alpha amylase, but less beta amylase

· Based on use in all/partial grain recipe. Will need to do a mini-mash if extract recipe

· Need to malt/sprout:

o Has own enzymes so need to malt to make these accessible. enzymes in rest of normal grain mash will also do this, except…​

o Has amylase inhibitor so need to malt 4 days to get rid of it​

o so can’t just crush and add to mash​


· Need to dry and rough crush after malting

o to make small particles so starches easily available to mash liquid.​

o It is also possible that they will disintegrate by themselves in the mash (?)​


· Can roast/kiln to change flavour (like regular grain).


· Need to mash:

o Has starches just like grains, so need to mash to make starches available to enzymes​

o Gelatinization temp.= 66°C(151F)-74°C (165C). So should be able to just add malted grain to regular mash (don’t need cereal mash) as long as you use upper range (154 -158F)​

o Can mash out to 70C (158F) or higher to stop enzyme activity (if you wish to customize proportion of simple to complex starches). But this should also be accomplished by a regular grain mash-out​

· Should give a nutty or peppery flavour, but not a beany flavour

· May add mouth feel

· May work like Irish moss and bind the excess protein to clarify wort.

· Like regular grains but higher protein, less fat, bit less carbohydrate

· Has more alpha amylose, less beta amylose, so may give more mouth feel. Except rest of grain bill should contain enough beta amylase to make up for it.
 
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