Variety Grains

[eje]

Was noticing Malkavian's post over in the Homebrew journal regarding Sorghum in beer making:

[...]

Also trying to work up some recipes usin Sorghum syrup...you guys ever played with that stuff? We have about 100# at work, got it in for a handful of customers who wanted to be able to do gluten free brews...but now it's just sittin there.  I like the taste of it, just not sure how it would shine through once hops, specialty grains and etc are in the mix.

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It's interesting to see the recent interest in Sorghum Beer. I've seen one at local liquor stores called "Dragon's Gold" from Bard's Tale Beer.

Doing some googling, I see even Anheuser Busch is now making a Sorghum Beer.

Now, I'm not usually fond of variety grains in beer, so it's not something I would pick up without some sort of review first. But, a recent positive experience with Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale has me thinking they all aren't bad.

Is the flavor of sorghum beer similar to beers made with corn?

Edited January 30, 2007 by eje (log)

[Malkavian]

If I could just find Singles of any of those Bard's Tale bottlings I'd try one in a snap; the price for a sixer at the local whole foods joint (only place I've found that carries it) is a bit out of my range for an experimental taste though.

[eje]

Yeah, you're right!

I hadn't really paid any attention to the price per six pack. $10, out here, even at warehouse liquor stores.

Not to mention the fairly poor reviews on beer advocate.

Most folks on that website seem to prefer the Anheuser Busch sorghum product to the Bard's Tale.

[Malkavian]

Have you tried Rogue's series of beers with buckwheat? Interesting taste there, but I'm not quite sure I enjoy it.

[Mayhaw Man]

Of course, I have nothing to back this up with but personal, on the ground observation, but when I was working in Tecate, BC, MX one of my workers (a very talented young brewer) told me that a portion of the grain bill used to brew Tecate was sorghum. I didn't believe him and told him that he must be mistaken. The next day, he shows up with a cup full of grain that he had scooped up off of the railroad tracks behind the giant Tecate Brewery. Sure enough, it was sorghum (dried, apparently, but unmalted as far as I could tell). I went by there on my way home that day to see for myself. As per usual, there were lots and lots of grain cars on the tracks and with just a little bit of walking, I too found piles of spilled sorghum between the rails.

I worked down there making beer just down the stree for almost two years, but I never got to the bottom of the story. Those guys at Tecate were secret agents extraordinaire. They were constantly chatting up my employees in town, trying to figure out what the gringos were up to down the street (even though we were owned almost completely by a Mexican national from DF) and generally making life miserable by running my green card (aka FM3 permit ) to make sure that all was in order. The one time that it wasn't, well, let me tell you, if you haven't ever been to jail in Tijuana you haven't missed anything worth doing. Yikes.

[eje]

Have you tried Rogue's series of beers with buckwheat?  Interesting taste there, but I'm not quite sure I enjoy it.

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I've only tried the regular buckwheat, not the black.

Can't say I really cared for it, and it certainly didn't inspire me to pick up the darker one.

I thought it a bit odd, as I really like Buckwheat Pancakes, Soba Noodles and Brittany Buckwheat Galette.

But, then I find Rogue's output uneven. They have some beers that I really like, some which I find OK, and some I actively dislike. But, then, they do make something like 50 beers.

Slightly off topic, did you know there is a Distillery in Brittany making a whisky from buckwheat?

Brittany buckwheat whisky

I would like to try that one day.