Okay, feel free to. Every summer here in the Palouse (mid-northern Idaho) there’s a lentil festival. People have made things as crazy as lentil ice cream and lentil jam, and all were strangely not disgusting… the ice cream was actually good. Has anyone here ever heard of anyone brewing with any kind of legume? This is right up there with Cock Ale in outlandishness, but I’m kinda curious to see what I could come up with even if it’s just something to laugh at
First off I don’t think lentils are anywhere near as outlandish as raw chicken.
Secondly I’m sure you add some to a beer if you wanted to. I don’t know anything about them really. Do they have sugars/starches in them that could actually contribute to the mash?
It’s largely classified as a starch food. Lots of protein, fiber, and carbs but very little sugar, no fat, and just a dose of vitamin K. I’m still not even sure it can be done.
I don’t think that proteins and beer are a good match. But so many wild things have been used in beer so I would assume that it could be done. Would you add them with the hope of getting fermentables, flavor or both? People have used sorghum, quinoa, millet and any number of things to enhance the mash. You would need to talk with someone (or a couple of someones) who know a lot about lentils and also know about beer so you can decide if you can use them and if so, the best way to prepare them for the mash. I’ve heard of people using day-old soft pretzels and Corn Pops cereal in their mash! 
Ps. If it’s a ‘starch food’, this could be good. The goal of the mash is to convert starches to sugars so that’s a start!
according to some super basic research it’s sounding like I’ll have to gelatinize the lentils, and that, like above mentioned, the starches give it a lot of promise. As far as the proteins go it sounds like it would only lend a negative haze to the beer which can be fixed in several different ways (I’m just thinking vigorous racking schedule).
… Or cold-crashing, a gel solution, etc. The great beers of the world may have never been brewed were it not for adventurous brewers! Brew it, LentilMan!
I would suggest doing a separate ‘cereal mash’ with the lentils and then add that to the mash. Basically, just cook the lentils with a minimal amount of water until you have a thick porridge. Adding some amylase powder to this will greatly loosen it up and make it easier to mix into the mash. NB doesn’t sell any, but many other homebrew stores do. Just add the amylase a tsp at a time until the cooked lentil porridge thins out. Then just add this to the mash and proceed as normal. The amount of lentils that you will need to add to your mash will need to be experimented with until you get the flavor profile that you want.
Enjoy.
I was thinking more along the lines of some type of beer infused lentil soup.
You could do a small test batch with a couple of pounds of pale malt and see how the process goes and if the flavor is good. I’d start with a 10% lentil 90% pale mash and adjust from there. If the flavor and lauterability work go for it. Summer festival beer sounds like something light and “drinkable” would be really enjoyed, maybe cream ale.
I think it is a great idea, and what better place to enjoy lentil homebrew with a bunch of friends than a lentil festival. Even if you couldn’t taste a big (or small) difference, a great tasting homebrew made with lentils would be a guaranteed hit.
http://chefshop.com/Celebrate-NON-GMO-m ... 8C553.aspx
Breakthrough! Since they’re grown locally they weren’t hard to find either. I’ll be doing some small test batches in the coming weeks.
Do lentils have flowers? If so maybe some lentil honey.
lol !
And I shot coffee out my nose onto the monitor. Great stuff KL. Priceless.
This entire thread reminds me of sleeptalkinman. He HATES lentils. Really funny stuff if you haven’t checked it out.
http://sleeptalkinman.blogspot.com/