Buckwheat Beer

Ingredients

• 3 lbs malted buckwheat (recipe follows)
• 1 cup corn sugar
• 1 oz Saaz hops
• 2 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker hops
• 6 lb rice syrup ***
• 1 pkg. ale yeast (EDME)

Directions

1. Put crushed malted buckwheat into strainer bag, add to 1½ gallons of water in brewpot.
2. Keep buckwheat in brewpot, stirring, until water starts boiling.
3. Remove buckwheat and add rice syrup, corn sugar and ½ ounce each of the Saaz and Hallertauer hops.
4. Boil for 30 minutes and add ¼ ounce each of the Saaz and Hallertauer hops.
5. Boil for 15 minutes and add another ¼ ounce of each type of hops.
6. Boil for another 15 minutes to make a total boiling time of 1 hour, then let the remaining 1 ounce Hallertauer hops steep in the wort for 2 minutes.
7. Strain into your fermenter and pitch yeast when cooled.
8. This "beer" will ferment for longer than most ales, for about 10 days.
9. Add ¾ cup corn sugar for bottling, and let the beer age for at least 1 week before drinking.

Instructions for malting buckwheat

1. Luckily, this is a pretty simple process. First, obtain raw (that is, uncooked and untoasted) buckwheat from a health food store or co-op.
2. Rinse about and let it sit for 30-48 hrs completely submerged in water, rinsing it off every 8 hours or so.
3. The buckwheat will expand as it soaks up some of the water and also produce a sticky oily substance which should be rinsed off.
4. Now put the buckwheat into a strainer or fine-mesh colander and let it sit in the open air in a cool dark place, rinsing off every 8 hours to prevent mold.
5. After 1 day you will see rootlets forming.
6. Let the buckwheat sit in the open air for about 2 days, or until some of the rootlets are about twice as long as the grain bodies.
7. Spread the buckwheat out in a thin layer on several cookie sheets and bake in a 200-250 degree oven until the buckwheat becomes hard and crunchy (and tastes remarkably like grape-nuts) at this point you may increase the temperature and make dark-roasted buckwheat, for darker-colored beers.
8. Use a rolling pin or a glass jar to crush the buckwheat.