Definition
Ingredients which are standard for certain beers, such as wheat in a wheat beer, may be termed adjuncts when used in beers which could be made without them — such as adding wheat to a pale ale for the purpose of creating a lasting head. The sense here is that the ingredient is additional and strictly unnecessary, though it may be beneficial and attractive. Under the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot purity law it would be considered that an adjunct is any beer ingredient other than water, yeast, barley or hops; this, however, is an extreme view (a 16th century German law) that would exclude hundreds of highly regarded specialty beers, especially from Belgium and the US.
The term adjunct is often used to refer to corn and rice, the two adjuncts commonly used by pale lager brewing companies as substitutes for barley malt. This use of ingredients as substitutes for the main starch source, (to lower the cost of production or lighten the body) is where the term adjunct is most often used.
Read more about this topic: Adjuncts
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