Triticale Malt
How does a brewer decide to try a new ingredient to make beer? I asked this question when I met Brian Mandeville, Head Brewer at Fullsteam Brewery in Durham, North Carolina, to talk about Fullsteam’s new pale ale brewed with triticale, a hybrid of wheat and rye. Brian said local farmers in rural North Carolina frequently approach Fullsteam to offer new ingredients to see if the brewers can use them for making beer.
This type of experimentation with local ingredients follows the ethos of Fullsteam’s founder, Sean Lilly Wilson. Sean says that he wants to create beers that are “approachable, yet interesting,” using local ingredients whenever possible. Brian says when presented with something new, like a malt, he’ll chew on it, literally, and then pass it around to his staff, asking them to do the same. He imagines how the new ingredient’s flavor will work together with other flavors in the beer. Some ingredients may have an intense freshness or other flavor that can seem undesirable or intense on its own, but can be easily subdued when combined with malt, hops, and yeast. And when he tasted triticale for the first time, Brian said, “I got the mouthfeel contribution from wheat that I really adore and the earthy flavor of rye that I find interesting.”
Fullsteam named their pale ale brewed with triticale “Humidity” for a few reasons. First, in honor of North Carolina’s sultry summer climate, and also because the triticale adds a haziness to the beer, as well as the fact that the grain itself is grown and malted locally in North Carolina. Fullsteam sources their triticale from Epiphany Craft Malt, a new maltster also in Durham.
Epiphany malts two million pounds (907,184 kg) of grain per year and joins a growing list of US maltsters supplying local craft breweries and homebrewers, bridging the ever-shrinking gap from plant to pint. In addition to the triticale, Epiphany supplies local breweries and homebrew supply retailers with pale 2-row, 6-row, dark Munich, and a new roaster will soon produce specialty malts. You can also source triticale from other maltsters such as Valley Malts Hadley, Massachusetts, and Briess Malt & Ingredients has a flaked version.
Sebastian Wolfrum, Epiphany’s Owner and Maltster, says he sourced his triticale from a surplus at White Hat Seed Farm in nearby Hertford County, North Carolina. The farmer had some left over from the autumn harvest, and Sebastian gave
it a try.
Triticale Background
Like other brewing grains, triticale has a longer history as a staple crop. It was originally cultivated as a super grain in a European laboratory in the late 19th Century, either by the Scots or the Germans, depending on whom you ask.
Today, it has established acceptance as an economic and hardy feed grain in many countries, and it even has potential as a bio-fuel. Also, The Guardian recently reported that as many as 30% of thatched roofs in Great Britain use triticale straw due to the plant’s great strength. This perception as a modern super food led the creators of Star Trek to envision a future variant called “quadro-triticale.” The dedicated Trekkie may recall a 1967 episode of The Original Series titled “The Trouble with Tribbles,” when the adorable alien infestation multiplies exponentially after eating a cargo-hold full of the fictional super-grain, leading to . . . ahem . . .trouble for the Enterprise’s crew. In 2016, for the Star Trek 50th Anniversary and the premiere of the film Star Trek Beyond, Stone Brewing released a 9.3% ABV Belgian Quadrupel using triticale called Quadrotriticale as part of their Stochasticity Series. As an homage to The Enterprise, Stone used out-of-this-world hop varieties, such as Galaxy and Comet, as well as Admiral as a salute to James T. Kirk.
Back here on Earth, scientists cultivated this super grain to combine the yield potential and grain quality of wheat with the disease and environmental tolerance of rye. This helps to explain the much-debated proper pronunciation of the name itself. Many seem to agree on the first half: “trit-i-” but disagree on the second half: “-kay-lee,” “-cah-lay,” or “-kale” (like the leafy vegetable). Considering that triticale is a portmanteau of the Latin names for wheat (triticum) and rye (secale), the conclusion should be the Romance language pronunciation of the vowel sounds for “a” and “e,” which are “ah” and “ay” respectively, thus declaring “trit-i-cah-lay” as the winner.
Profile
As for flavor, triticale combines many of the desirable characteristics that beer drinkers enjoy about both wheat and rye; however, many people have misconceptions about what exactly those characteristics are. For example, some associate wheat beers with the fruity banana and clove profiles of traditional hefeweizens or wit beers, but those flavors come from the esters produced by yeast. The wheat itself adds more to the mouthfeel of the beer. In comparison, triticale adds
the gentle rounded mouthfeel of wheat, but more so, which works to subdue the prickliness of higher carbonation typically associated with wheat beer styles.
Likewise, many beer drinkers shy away from rye beers due to the association with the fennel flavor of caraway seed, which is often added to rye bread. On the contrary, rye can range from peppercorn to the bitterness of grapefruit pith. In fact, pumpernickel bread offers a closer flavor profile, producing an earthiness without the sour flavor of caraway. Triticale leans more to that earthy, spicy flavor without the intensity of plain rye.
Brewing with triticale shares the same considerations as brewing with wheat or rye. Compared to wheat, it has a higher protein content, resulting in excellent head retention. It has a high fiber content, which can produce greater haze in the beer, and which can be filtered out just like wheat if desired. Like brewing with wheat and rye, triticale has the potential for causing a dreaded stuck mash. Therefore, similar to mashing with wheat or rye, flavor-neutral rice hulls should be added to the grist (1-4% of the total grist weight or 8 ounces/227 g of rice hulls per 5-gallon/19-L batch should suffice). Brian Mandeville of Fullsteam recommends beginning the mash with a few inches of “foundation water,” just enough to submerge the false bottom in the mash tun. Brewers should add half of the rice hulls to this foundation water before mixing in the rest of the grist and strike water along with the remaining half of rice hulls. Although, to avoid stuck mashes, many brewers choose decoction and step-infusion mashes, this is unnecessary with triticale. A simple single infusion mash at 148–154 °F (64–68 °C) produces a more than workable runoff with the addition of enough rice hulls.
As for the recipe, James Naquin, self-proclaimed “maltster-in-training” at Epiphany, says, ”Don’t be afraid to replace any recipe that uses wheat or rye with the same amount of triticale.” The curious brewer should be bold in his or her curiosity, so a malt bill using triticale as half of the base malts would produce a great result for understanding the flavor.
Ideally, the hops and yeast choice should allow the spiciness of the triticale to shine through in order to get a true feel for how it works with other ingredients in the beer, but bold spicy hops and flamboyant yeasts can also play with the triticale to produce a beer that truly defines a style all its own.
Top: John Watts at Epiphany Craft Malt.
Bottom: Brian Mandeville, Head Brewer at Fullsteam Brewery, displaying a handful of Epiphany Triticale malt.
Logan’s Triticale IPA
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.065 FG = 1.015
IBU = 55 SRM = 8 ABV = 6.9%
Ingredients
6.3 lbs. (2.9 kg) triticale malt
6.3 lbs. (2.9 kg) 2-row pale malt
1.4 lbs. (0.64 kg) Gambrinus honey malt
8 oz. (227 g) rice hulls
11 AAU Idaho Seven hops (60 min.) (1 oz./28 g at 11% alpha acids)
1 oz. (28 g) Idaho Seven hops (5 min.)
1 oz. (28 g) Idaho Seven hops (0 min.)
2 oz. (57 g) Idaho Seven hops (dry hop)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) or Safale US-05 yeast
2⁄3 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Heat 4.5 gallons (17 L) of water, treated to imitate the waters of London, so the mash temperature lands in the 148–154 °F (64–67 °C) range. Add enough of this water to the mash tun to cover the false bottom and mix with 4 oz. (113 g) of the rice hulls. Let soak for a few minutes. Add the grist, remaining water and rice hulls, stirring to combine and break up any dough balls. Maintain 148–154 °F (64–67 °C) for 50 minutes. Add 1 gallon of 190 °F (88 °C) to the mash tun to mash out for 10 minutes. Vorlauf until the wort runs clear, then sparge with 170 °F (77 ° C) water and collect 6 gallons (23 L) into the kettle.
Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops at times indicated in the ingredient list and adding 1 tab of Whirlfloc at 10 minutes remaining.
Quickly cool to 68 °F (20 °C), aerate the wort, and pitch yeast. After 6 or 7 days, when airlock activity slows to less than one bubble every 60 seconds and primary fermentation appears complete, transfer the beer off of the trub and into a secondary fermenter and add dry hop addition for 10 days.
Bottle and add priming sugar or keg and force carbonate to 2.3 volumes.
Logan’s Triticale IPA
(5 gallons/19 L, partial mash)
OG = 1.065 FG = 1.015
IBU = 55 SRM = 8 ABV = 6.5%
Ingredients
3.3 lbs. (1.5 kg) wheat liquid malt extract
3.3 lbs. (1.5 kg) golden light liquid malt extract
3 lbs. (1.36 kg) triticale malt
1.4 lbs. (0.64 kg) Gambrinus honey malt
11 AAU Idaho Seven hops (60 min.) (1 oz./28 g at 11% alpha acids)
1 oz. (28 g) Idaho Seven hops (5 min.)
1 oz. (28 g) Idaho Seven hops (0 min.)
2 oz. (57 g) Idaho Seven hops (dry hop)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) or Safale US-05 yeast
2⁄3 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Heat 6 qts. (5.6 L) of water up to about 165 °F (74°C). Place the crushed grains in a large grain bag and submerge in the water. The mash temperature should land in the 148-154 °F (64-68 °C) range. Maintain 148-154 °F (64-68 °C) for 50 minutes. Remove grain bag and place in a colander. Slowly wash the grains with 1 gallon (4 L) hot water, collecting the wash water in the kettle. Stir in the liquid malt extract and top off to 6 gallons (23 L) into the kettle. Boil for 60 minutes. Follow the remainder of the all-grain version of this recipe.
