Adjunct Adventures

I wrote about the pluses of corn in beer earlier this week. Once I finished the blog post, I posed a quick question on Twitter asking if anyone knew any brewers in Western Pa. that had or still use corn in any of their brews. I was surprised at the response I got. Here are some of the informative tweets I received.

@BurghBeerSnob Straub does. Technically, it's part of the American lager style.
— Craft Pittsburgh Mag (@CraftPittsburgh) November 5, 2013

@CraftPittsburgh @BurghBeerSnob yuengling uses corn syrup....
— Jake Johnson (@jacobecody) November 5, 2013

@CraftPittsburgh @BurghBeerSnob @StraubBeer uses flaked corn in Amer. Lagers as per their 140 yr. tradition. They also brew craft styles w/o
— Michelle Reid (@Pourthing) November 5, 2013

. @BurghBeerSnob @CraftPittsburgh We've also brewed w/corn: Pennsyltucky Uncommon, Classic American Pilsner, and S.W.I.L.L. all had it.
— Scott at EastEnd (@EastEndBrewing) November 5, 2013

Craft Pittsburgh and an old college friend were the first to note that Straub has and always used corn in the American Lager. So, I went ahead and double-checked. They both were correct. Flaked corn was on the malt bill in St. Mary's. As for the East End brews, I did recall uncovering that the Pennsyltucky Uncommon that was made for Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week included corn in some capacity. I just didn't recall it being used until that tweet jogged my memory, so to speak. The thing that stands out to me about the East End response is that none of those beers (or the brewery) was vilified or outcast for using corn.

Douglas from Baltimore commented on the post that initiated all of this corn stuff and mentioned that as long as the beer is well-crafted it shouldn't really matter. He has a strong point.

In case you haven't noticed, I don't care for the way the word adjunct gets thrown around. Or maybe that it's the way certain beer ingredients have been logged under that category. What I hate the most is that if a brewery uses it, there are some out there that don't consider said beer or brewer "craft" or "crafty enough."

Still, I don't feel as if I'm done on this subject. Adjuncts in beer might be a great topic for my usual Monday post. Eventually I might do a post on some beer's I;ve tried and enjoyed with corn in them in some form. We'll see. Stay tuned.