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This article is about unmalted grains used to brew beer. For adjuncts in grammar see Adjunct (grammar).
A bag of wheat, often used as an adjunct

Adjuncts are unmalted grains (such as corn, rice, rye, oats, barley, and wheat[1]) or grain products used in brewing beer which supplement the main mash ingredient (such as malted barley), often with the intention of cutting costs, but sometimes to create an additional feature, such as better foam retention, flavours or nutritional value or additives. Both solid and liquid adjuncts are commonly used, as well as spices.


Ingredients which are standard for certain beers, such as wheat in a wheat beer, may be termed adjuncts when used in beers which could be made without them — such as adding wheat to a pale ale for the purpose of creating a lasting head. The sense here is that the ingredient is additional and strictly unnecessary, though it may be beneficial and attractive. Under the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot purity law it would be considered that an adjunct is any beer ingredient other than water, barley, hops, and yeast; this, however, is an antiquated view. This purity law originated in 16th-century German and did not initially include yeast due to the fact that it had not been discovered yet.

The term adjunct is often used to refer to corn and rice, the two adjuncts commonly used by pale lager brewing companies as substitutes for barley malt. This use of ingredients as substitutes for the main starch source, (to lower the cost of production or lighten the body) is where the term adjunct is most often used.

Types of adjuncts and adjunct products[edit]

Adjuncts can be broadly classified according to the physical form in which they are used into solids and liquid syrups.

  • Solid adjuncts are either starchy adjuncts which need to be converted to simpler sugars, or solid sugar adjuncts which can be added after conversion. Solid starchy adjuncts are normally produced from cereals and are used in the form of flakes, grits, flour or purified starch and must be added before the mash tun to convert the starch into simple sugars which the yeast can use during fermentation. Cereals with a higher gelatinisation temperature than the standard mashing temperatures must be cooked in a cereal cooker to gelatinise the starch before adding to the mash. Solid sugar adjuncts include granulated sugar and glucose chips.
  • Liquid adjuncts are either sucrose syrups or syrups from a grain (maize, rice or wheat), are added directly to the wort kettle and therefore can be used to reduce loading on the mash and lauter tun and effectively increase the brewhouse capacity. Liquid adjuncts may also be added after fermentation as primings sugars to give sweetness to the beer for secondary fermentation as in cask or bottle conditioning.

Sources of starch adjuncts[edit]

Barley is used as an un-malted grain at up to 10% of the grist. Barley provides both carbohydrates and proteins to the wort, on the negative side the cell walls of the un-malted barley contain high levels of beta-glucans impacts on wort viscosity and haze problems in the bright beer. Barley is also used in the mash as roasted barley to provide colour to the beer.

Cassava is a novel adjunct used in Africa either as a wet cake or as a purified starch.[citation needed]

Corn is commonly used in the production of American-style pale lagers, particularly malt liquor. Corn is generally used in brewing as corn syrup, and as such is highly fermentable. Corn is cheaper than barley, so it is used as a cost-saving measure.

Oats are used in oatmeal stouts. Oatmeal stouts usually do not specifically taste of oats. The smoothness of oatmeal stouts comes from the high content of proteins, lipids, and gums imparted by the use of oats. The gums increase the viscosity and body adding to the sense of smoothness.[2]

Rice is sometimes used in the production of pale lagers, most notably Anheuser-Busch's Budweiser. Anheuser-Busch is the largest North American buyer of U.S. rice.[3] Rice may be used to lighten the body and the mouthfeel, or increase alcohol content, or add a little sweetness.

Rye is used in roggenbiers from Germany and in rye beers from America. Rye is notoriously difficult to brew with, so most rye beers only include a small amount of rye.[citation needed] Rye provides a spicy flavour to beer and dramatically increases head formation.

Sorghum is used in Africa as a local ingredient saving on expensive imported malt and developing the local agricultural sector. Sorghum has a high gelatinisation temperature and is added to a mash cooker to gelatinise the starch before adding to the mash tun. Sorghum has been used for hundreds of years as the main ingredient in many of the indigenous traditional African beers. Sorghum can be used in the malted or the un-malted form.

Wheat is used in German and American wheat beers, in lambic and other Belgian ales, and in English ales. Wheat lightens the body, improves head retention, and provides a tart flavour. Wheat beers are often served with fruit syrups or slices of lemon in the US and Germany.

Sugar adjuncts[edit]

Sugar adjuncts provide only carbohydrates and if used at high levels will result in wort lacking in amino acids and this may lead to poor yeast growth causing tailing fermentations and poor yeast crops.

Primings sugars such as maple syrup, honey, and molasses are common in craft beers and homebrew.

Candi sugar is a common ingredient in strong Belgian ales, where it increases the beer's strength while keeping the body fairly light; dark varieties of candi sugar also affect the colour and flavour of the beer.

Caramel syrup is used to provide colour to brews and can either be added in the wort kettle or at filtration when needed to correct low beer colours. This caramel is not sweet and provides little or no fermentable extract.

Grain syrups (primarily corn syrup in North America) may be made from maize, wheat, rice or sorghum and are normally added in the wort kettle during the boil. The carbohydrate profile of these syrups may be tailored to suit the brewers' requirements and normally have a fermentability of between 70 and 100%. Typically these syrups are 74 to 80% w/w extract.

Honey is a primary fermentable in honey beer (known as mead) supplies a portion of the sugars converted during fermentation and is used primarily for flavour.

Sucrose may come from sugar-cane or from sugar-beet.


A number of traditional beer styles are brewed with spices. For example, Belgian witbier is brewed with coriander, Finnish sahti is brewed with juniper berries, and traditional beers in Britain are brewed with honey and spices. Also, some strong winter beers are flavoured with nutmeg or cinnamon, while ginger is a popular flavouring for a range of beers. Many commercially available pumpkin ales are made with pumpkin pie spices without any actual pumpkin.

Spices may be added to the wort during the boil or spices or spice extract may be added at any time during fermentation depending on desired results.

Spices used in brewing include:

Other, less common flavourings include chocolate, coffee, milk, chili peppers and even oysters.

Fruit or vegetable [edit]

Magic Hat #9 fruit beer in a mug

Beer may be brewed with a fruit or vegetable adjunct or flavouring.

Fruit flavouring and adjuncts

Fruits have been used as a beer adjunct or flavouring for centuries, especially with Belgian lambic styles. Cherry, raspberry, and peach are a common addition to this style of beer. Modern breweries may add only flavoured extracts to the finished product, rather than actually fermenting the fruit.

One of the most prominent brewers of fruit beer is Yanjing Beer, one of the largest Chinese breweries, which widely markets Pineapple and Lemon beer. New Glarus Brewing Company, of New Glarus, Wisconsin, produces Raspberry Tart, a framboise made with raspberries, wheat and year old Hallertau hops, and fermented in large oak vats. Magic Hat Brewing Company of Vermont brews '#9', quite popular in the northeastern U.S. and is a 'not-quite-pale ale' flavoured with apricots. RJ Rockers Brewing Company of South Carolina released Son of a Peach Wheat Ale in 2009 which is made with peaches added during the fermentation process.[4] Früli is a Belgian fruit beer made from 70% wheat beer and 30% fruit juice.

Vegetable flavouring and adjunct

Anheuser-Busch brews Tequiza, a beer flavoured with tequila from blue agave nectar. Desperados is a tequila-flavoured beer popular among German and French youth.

Pumpkin-flavoured beers are brewed seasonally in the autumn in North America. An example, Pumking, is produced by Southern Tier Brewing Company.

Chile pepper is used to flavour pale lagers. One of the most popular American chile beers is produced by Eske's (aka Sangre de Cristo Brewing) in Taos, New Mexico. Eske's "Taos Green Chile Beer" is made with New Mexico roasted green chiles. Black Mountain Brewing Company in Cave Creek, Arizona, brews "Cave Creek Chili Beer", the only internationally marketed chile beer.[citation needed]

Great Leap Brewing, a Beijing microbrewery, uses Sichuan pepper in its Honey Ma Blonde to attract Chinese drinkers familiar with the taste.[5]

See also[edit]


  1. ^ Goldammer, Ted. "6: Beer Adjuncts (selected excerpts)". The Brewers' Handbook. Archived from the original on 2008-05-11. 
  2. ^ Galante, Stephan (October 1997). "Brew Your Own: The How-To Homebrew Beer Magazine - Beer Styles - Oatmeal Stout". Retrieved 2011-11-28. 
  3. ^ Budweiser ingredients at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "Spartanburg Herald Journal, "SC fruit inspires local brewery's new creation", April 8, 2009". Retrieved 2010-02-24. 
  5. ^ Levine, Jonathan (June 20, 2013). "Beijing's microbrewery boom". CNN. Retrieved May 13, 2015. 

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