Pretzel Wheat Beer

[beren]

This thread inspired me to try making my own pretzels to brew with. Following the advice of the first online recipe I found for hard pretzels, I made "baked baking soda" (Na2CO3) for the caustic bath. This turned out way too strong and the pretzels ended up very bitter/soapy.
In a last ditch attempt to save them, I used a lemon juice/cream of tartar solution to neutralize my pretzels (yes, they fizzed!) and then washed and rebaked them at low heat. Now they taste much better, but I will probably use a healthy helping of acidulated malt when I mash them.

That’s interesting. Lye is not hard to work with and makes far better pretzels, and imo is essential for authentic Bavarian pretzels. You only keep them in about 10s a side iirc. How long did you soak them?

 

[Lampy]

@beren Probably more like a minute. I was pretty laizze-faire in my treatment (an approach that tends to be OK for cooking but not BAKING).

 

[beren]

Depending on the reaction that could be too long, yeah. The lye is also using cool water since it’s so caustic.