Adjunct Misinformation

That's fair. That was hyperbolic on my part. That said, its usage as only a shortening of "malt adjuncts" to the exclusion of other types of adjuncts certainly is both on the wane and a minority position in 2020 inside the industry, including among brewers. Again, listen to any of the major craft beer podcasts. Guys with decades of brewing experience regularly throw around terms like "adjunct stout" (to refer to stouts with flavorings added) with no hesitation or apologies.

There's much more strident insistence on the narrow usage here than in any other beer-related forum of any type that I've ever encountered. Much of the explanation for that phenomenon can be chalked up to groupthink and the fact that it's a pet peeve of some respected long-time participants around here (who likely informed and inspired each other in the past). Most craft brewers would say something along the lines of, "Yeah, I've heard that some people insist that 'adjunct' refers only to unmalted grains. Nobody around here uses the word that way or really cares."

 

Or, it’s inappropriate for the reasons you indicate in the last two paragraphs of your response. It’s use within the industry is changing because the word conveys meaning beyond its conventional use.

Had a technical term developed, specific to the brewing process or industry in the place of malt adjunct, I’d buy your argument. That technical term was never coined.

Parenthetically, I don’t use adjunct in the way it is increasingly being used. I don’t like it when conventions change. But, they do, and that is fine.

 

I'd argue that pushback by some (myself included) is precisely because that term was never coined.

A shift in technical brewing lexicon from the specific to the general benefits no one. I see no reason why, for example, the addition of rye malt or whole slices of key lime pie should be covered by the same terminology. They are added for different reasons, in differing times of the brewing process, to produce different results.

 

All this leaves one question, what do you call these days added ingredients which require the excess enzymes in malt to release fermentable sugars? Or conversely to mop up these enzymes and increase clarity.
People talk about American Adjunct Lager.It was the addition of adjuncts which allowed the use of American malt, until then considered unsuitable for brewing.

 

This is beginning to remind me of Ding and his obsession with the parameters of session beers.

 

I think it is cool that they listed all of the ingredients. Their use of the word adjunct here is not incorrect. They are simply using the standard dictionary definition of adjunct, meaning "a thing added to something else as a supplementary rather than an essential part." (source: Google). Therefore, the word adjunct can have multiple meanings in the brewing industry. This is a good opportunity for us beer nerds to explain to the masses the difference between adjuncts used in AALs versus adjuncts used as extra flavoring ingredients in craft beers. I would guess that the brewers at Platform know the difference.

 

I feel the arguments to maintain the line on session beer go beyond just that it was defined at some point in the past, therefore I won't change. Session beer has more tradition, history, culture and even a connection to human physiology... Ding [and @marquis] made/make a strong case that a greater harm is done than just a definition, and they mostly won that battle on these forums on the weight of those bigger arguments. The adjunct "purists" here haven't convinced me of the greater harm being done by expanding the definition of adjunct in the manner it's clearly already being used in the public domain and by brewers.

 

I agree with you. I agree with Ding and @marquis largely and was/am always entertained by the debates surrounding their opinions.

 

Forgot about that thread. I don't recall posting, but, so far as I can remember, oatmeal is the only adjunct stout I've had

 

You oughta check out Bo & Luke from AtG, big stout brewed with corn in the mash. A stellar adjunct stout, and they even have adjunct variants like grape jelly and cocoa hazelnut...

 

Their London Balling barleywine looks good too. I haven't been to Louisville since 2009 and, unfortunately, they don't seem to distribute up here.

 

To the broader point in contention, my personal preference is in favor of keeping the precise technical definition of adjunct in place and use a word like flavoring additive or something to refer to the myriad foodstuffs being added, often post fermentation, to beers these days. Not only does it avoid confusing statements like the one I made above, I'm also in the camp with @jasonmason that this misuse of adjunct in brewery speak is intentional and intended to add an air of legitimacy to things like breakfast cereal stouts (calling them flavored beers is a little to on the nose even for their creators).
However, @Roguer is correct in stating that the only true authority throughout time on definitions of words is "common usage". Doesn't matter what dictionaries or experts say, if a word comes into common use in expressing a given idea/concept then it's definition will eventually evolve to encompass that usage even in the eyes of the dictionaries and experts (although in linguistic history they tend to lag behind).
Given that reality it does appear that the potential for this words definition to change formally is on the horizon. There is certainly a chance that forces more powerful than any of us will be brought to bear to set the rogue brewers in their place and push the consumer mind set back in line as well. However, if that doesn't come to pass it seems like adjunct is destined to drift back toward it's broader common meaning and new precise words/phrases will be needed to distinguish between malt adjuncts (grains added to the mash to make use of the excess enzyme in malted barley) and flavoring adjuncts. Not an ideal scenario for sure, but it appears to be where we're at

 

The power of education?

Cheers!

 

You are more optimistic than me Jack.

And as I mentioned in my post, what will be the source of this education? Perhaps there will be an increasing trend of craft brewers who possess formal brewing education.
But as others have opined, even with a formal education they may well decide not to care and to continue to use adjunct in the broader sense.
Ultimately languageb,including technical jargon, changes over time and we may be witnessing one of those changes in real time

 

That has not happened in my industry but...

Cheers!

 

Perhaps not in the course of your career but surely over the course of the industries history it has. And adjunct has been a bit of brewing jargon for several centuries now so we aren't looking at an overnight change

 

And perhaps that terminology will exist within the industry another century+? If so, I will not be around for that change.

Cheers!

 

If nothing else its fascinating to see the debate play out in real time

 

My pet hate is pressurised. At one time you were simply pressed into doing something. Then you were pressured and eventually pressurised.