Black lentil ale a first for me

I will admit that in my 50 plus years around beer I had never had, and would never have thought of, a beer brewed with black lentils. But these days with the tremendous creativity that characterizes American craft brewing, I probably shouldn’t have been surprised to find one at Jeremiah Johnson Brewing Company in Great Falls, Montana.

I absolutely love trying beers with local ingredients. I found Montana is a big agriculture state with a rich brewing heritage. There’s lots of top-notch brewer’s barley and wheat grown there. Jeremiah Johnson Brewing prides itself on supporting local ag by purchasing much of its brewing ingredients, especially barley malt, sourced from local farmers. I found out folks raise lentils in Montana too.

David Oien co-founder and CEO of Timeless Seeds, Inc., is a man with a passion for growing and selling organic and sustainably-raised legumes and grains. Dozens of the company’s organic farmers grow specialty legumes and have turned this “lentil underground” into a million dollar enterprise.

Last winter, Oien originally contacted Jeremiah Johnson, owner of the eponymous brewery, and inquired about his interest in doing a beer with a rare strain of purple barley that traces its roots to the mountains of Tibet, and ultimately back thousands of years to the Nile River Valley. The brewery folks were interested and were also very intrigued with the company’s whole line of unique specialty products. But because they would first have to figure out how to get the purple barley malted, they looked into some other unique products the company had that they could brew with right away.

Black Lentil Ale

Since almost no one in craft brewing is doing anything with lentils, they decided to do a lentil beer — why not. They chose to brew with the Organic Black Beluga Lentil, a trademarked variety that got its name because the seeds resemble caviar. Timeless Seeds describes it as rich in flavor with the highest protein content of any lentil.

From talking with Dane Patch, the Jeremiah Johnson brewer who made the Black Lentil Ale, I learned a lot about it.

“We decided to do a 100% Montana-grown grain bill,” said Patch, “so we reached out to our friend Ryan Pfeifle, who is the owner operator of Farm Power Malt.” Farm Power Malt is based at a 103 year-old Montana family farm and supplies a variety of heritage malts to local brewers.

Patch explained the Black Lentil Ale’s grain bill as follows:

26.5% Cleiv – a Vienna-inspired malt from Farm Power Malt
39.8% Sloan – a Bohemian inspired malt from Farm Power Malt
33.2% Raw Black Beluga Lentils from Timeless Seeds

The hops varieties used were Cascade, Amarillo, Hersbrucker, and Idaho #7.

Having never brewed with lentils before, Patch didn’t know quite what to expect. Using the coal black lentils, he crafted the recipe to make a Black IPA. He added the lentils to the mash and they swelled up to about four times their size — but the wort lost its black color during fermentation and came out amber colored, not black. Despite the color change, Patch and the others at Jeremiah Johnson were quite pleased with the way the beer turned out.

“Our Black Lentil Ale has a sweet, aromatic, slightly earthy or nutty nose, a thin head with strong foam retention,” Patch said. “It is a beautiful copper to amber color with great clarity. The flavor profile is very hop forward with a bitter floral and subtle spice flavors. The mouthfeel is dry and smooth moderately spicy with a medium carbonation level.”

The finished beer came in at 6.57% ABV and 68.4 IBU. I’d call it a very nice standard American IPA with a little twist. The beer was packaged in draft-only and sold at the brewery.

Local focus builds brands

It is always great to see small, local brewers creatively using locally-sourced ingredients. These activities build stronger connections to their communities and a greater appreciation for new flavors brought about by unique ingredients. It’s something that only a small brewery can really do well, giving their products something that will not be duplicated by a big regional or national brewer.

Oh, by the way, Jeremiah Johnson Brewing is still working with Timeless Seeds and Farm Power Malt to get the Purple Barley malted. They plan to use it to produce another unique beer. 

---

Jeremiah Johnson Brewing Company, which started out as The Front Brewery in 2012, got its new name when the old brewery was purchased by Jeremiah and Katie Johnson in 2018. Since that time, it began sourcing much of its beer ingredients — especially malts — from the local region. It is located in the heart of Montana’s “Golden Triangle” prime barley region.

The brewery hosted a dinner for attendees of the 2019 Beer Now Conference in June.

Jeremiah Johnson Brewing Company
600 3rd Ave. S
Great Falls, Montana

Jeremiah Johnson Brewing Company website link