Ashcan School
The Test Brewery

floor-malted pilsner malt and nixtamalized wheat on water

This is unfiltered Kölsch brewed with nixtamalized wheat. –A rather novel bastardization of the style.

Inspired by the success of El Mural, we began looking into the tradition of cooking grain in alkalized water, a technique rooted in ancient food traditions around the world. The method involves combining grain with alkaline water [originally from wood ash] and boiling or soaking it. The process creates multiple upshots: nutritional enhancement, improved digestibility, flavor development, and food preservation.

Apparently, centuries ago, somewhere in either Italy, Germany or France, someone, somewhere, began giving dough a bath in ash water. They’d roll the dough out, tie it in knots and bake it. It became a work of symbolism that immigrants would eventually carry through Ellis Island.

So, we nixtamalized wheat and fermented it like a kölsch.