Wheat tea

So far, I gave two brewing lessons as gifts and participated in both. These are relatively expensive gifts and both parties appreciated it greatly. We had a blast both times and I'd very much like doing it again. Totally worth it and relatively inexpensive so far as cost of education. Compare that with University and it's a bargain at 10X the cost. But that's because University is ridiculously expensive. Information wants to be free! And it is free on the internet. But learning from the internet, you don't end up with ten gallons of beer as part of the deal.

Problem is, I don't like beer that much.

In both lessons we taste-tested the beer in progress. First while the wheat brew is near finished steeping, and again after the hops is added. In both cases, (all four times) I thought, Man, I really like this stuff better than fermented beer. It's sweeter before the yeast consumes all the sugar. It makes a great tea, actually better than tea made from tea leaves, and better tasting than coffee.

At home I have only regular wheat grain to mill into flour for bread. But this place directly below my apartment, CoBrew, has some thirty or so varieties of grain. Maybe more. Their grain is mostly barley and that will do the same thing as wheat. Their grain is malted, that is, dampened and allowed to germinate, then toasted to stop the germination activity. That germination process releases enzymes that begins to break down the grain so that its potential for growing into a wheat plant is activated. We decided this discovery that germination improves beer was made by accident, most likely by early beer brewers having their wheat become wet, and roasting it to stop the germination, then using the grain anyway.  Brewing concerns toast their purchased grain to varying degrees in this malting process. Very much like coffee beans are toasted for varying intensities and complexities of flavor. You can even do this yourself at home, fix poorly roasted coffee beans by roasting them further in a pan just as they do, to increase the flavor. The grains make excellent tea, brewed in the exact same ways of tea and coffee.

I have no idea why toasted wheat tea isn't more popular. Why isn't it the most popular thing? I like it better than tea and coffee that are just flat gross by comparison, and with their psychophysical reactive qualities that veritably disqualify themselves. They stain your teeth, they coat your tongue, give you bad breath, they affect your nerves and when the wheat version is fermented to beer then it makes you drunk. Gawl! Who even wants those things? Crazy people do. I'm surrounded by crazy people who all want the wrong things. Fallen down drunks and jittery nervous wrecks. Come on!

Smoke a joint already, if you must, and get over yourselves already. Have a cup of nice pleasant roasted wheat tea.

It's almost like miso, except miso is also fermented. And salted.

See? Each bin has its own little flag for country of origin.

The numbers indicate intensity of malt flavor imparted.

My wheat-tea is fine from grain that is not roasted. But it's even better when it's been malted. Like tea and coffee there is a very broad range to choose from. Some of these grains are roasted so heavily they're actually black and they taste terrible by themselves. Others like the kind my friends chose are milder and a lot more pleasant as tea.

I'm going down there right now and buy a couple pounds of malted grain for tea. And possibly for bread. We'll see how well it works.