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Author Topic: rice lager  (Read 2952 times)

Offline Iliff Ave

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rice lager
« on: December 20, 2019, 09:47:45 am »
Should I cook and use regular rice or just use flaked rice? If I use regular rice should I adjust my mash water since the rice won't absorb additional water?
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Offline rburrelli

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Re: rice lager
« Reply #1 on: December 20, 2019, 10:14:28 am »
If you have not seen it, there is a Rice lager saison article on scottjanish.com from Dec 12th. They used raw rice in a multiple rinsing process.
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Offline Robert

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Re: rice lager
« Reply #2 on: December 20, 2019, 11:26:25 am »
I prefer flaked adjuncts for the simplicity of not having  a separate step, and the ease of figuring grist and water quantities.   If it's not readily available or is ridiculously expensive from your supplier, I have also heard of people using Minute Rice with great success.  The pre-cooking process apparently makes it very porous, so the starch is more easily available than with plain rice, although you would still "cook" (rehydrate really) it before adding to the mash.  I've never tried it myself, like I said, I'm a flake fan. 
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Offline kramerog

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Re: rice lager
« Reply #3 on: December 20, 2019, 11:47:01 am »
So I don't brew with rice but I do make rice wine (which is a beer) but has a very different mashing process.  In traditional rice wine making, you rinse the rice until the rinsate is clear, soak for an hour (I usually invert the first two steps) and then steam until the rice rather than boiling so that the rice doesn't stick together so much, but you'll still have to declump it manually after cooling.  Stop steaming when there is no white core when you cut open the rice kernel.

Alternatively, you could boil in so much water that you end up with rice soup, maybe 4 parts water to 1 part rice.  I've done that with oatmeal to fully gelatinize the oatmeal for higher mash efficiency.  I would probably go with this approach.  For estimating the amount of water you are adding to the mash, you could soak rice overnight, rinse/drain and then add a measured amount of water.

What Scott Janish describes appears to be the normal way of cooking rice and then adding to mash.

I guess I wouldn't adjust mash volumes unless you are adding rice with liquid water to the mash or unless your rice is >15% of the grist.   

A note about rice: Long grain rice wlll ferment out pretty completely.  Glutinous rice, e.g., sushi rice, will provide body.




Offline denny

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Re: rice lager
« Reply #4 on: December 20, 2019, 11:53:51 am »
I use Minute Rice, right into the mash.
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Offline Robert

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Re: rice lager
« Reply #5 on: December 20, 2019, 12:03:20 pm »
I use Minute Rice, right into the mash.
Good to know!  Works just like flakes then, but cheaper!  That will make it my future choice for rice.
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Offline denny

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Re: rice lager
« Reply #6 on: December 20, 2019, 12:41:19 pm »
I use Minute Rice, right into the mash.
Good to know!  Works just like flakes then, but cheaper!  That will make it my future choice for rice.

Gee, I  thought that was well known!  Sorry to have never mentioned it before.
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Offline Iliff Ave

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Re: rice lager
« Reply #7 on: December 20, 2019, 01:08:59 pm »
I use Minute Rice, right into the mash.
Good to know!  Works just like flakes then, but cheaper!  That will make it my future choice for rice.

Gee, I  thought that was well known!  Sorry to have never mentioned it before.

I think I forgot about this. Any worries of a stuck mash? I will be using a considerable amount so some rice hulls might be in order.
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Offline Richard

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Re: rice lager
« Reply #8 on: December 20, 2019, 01:15:10 pm »
It seems kind of ironic to buy rice that has had the hull removed and then buy rice hulls and mix them together. It is like buying nonfat milk and cream and mixing them to get whole milk.
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Offline riceral

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Re: rice lager
« Reply #9 on: December 20, 2019, 01:15:43 pm »

What Scott Janish describes appears to be the normal way of cooking rice and then adding to mash. 


From what I understand, this can be done with other grains and skip the cereal mashing. I have heard this about spelt, rice, quinoa, teff, millet, and other grains.

Can anyone confirm that by cooking the grain, then adding it to the mash, you can skip the cereal mash and still get the same effect?

Sorry about being slightly off-topic.
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Offline denny

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Re: rice lager
« Reply #10 on: December 20, 2019, 01:18:43 pm »
I use Minute Rice, right into the mash.
Good to know!  Works just like flakes then, but cheaper!  That will make it my future choice for rice.

Gee, I  thought that was well known!  Sorry to have never mentioned it before.

I think I forgot about this. Any worries of a stuck mash? I will be using a considerable amount so some rice hulls might be in order.


I don't think I've ever gone over 20% and never had a problem.  But it depends on your lauter design, and mine has never had a stuck runoff with anything, so I don't worry about it.  If yours  is prone to sticking you might want some hulls.
Life begins at 60.....1.060, that is!

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Offline denny

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Re: rice lager
« Reply #11 on: December 20, 2019, 01:19:24 pm »

What Scott Janish describes appears to be the normal way of cooking rice and then adding to mash. 


From what I understand, this can be done with other grains and skip the cereal mashing. I have heard this about spelt, rice, quinoa, teff, millet, and other grains.

Can anyone confirm that by cooking the grain, then adding it to the mash, you can skip the cereal mash and still get the same effect?

Sorry about being slightly off-topic.

That basically is a cereal mash.
Life begins at 60.....1.060, that is!

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Offline Iliff Ave

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Re: rice lager
« Reply #12 on: December 20, 2019, 01:21:13 pm »
I use Minute Rice, right into the mash.
Good to know!  Works just like flakes then, but cheaper!  That will make it my future choice for rice.

Gee, I  thought that was well known!  Sorry to have never mentioned it before.

I think I forgot about this. Any worries of a stuck mash? I will be using a considerable amount so some rice hulls might be in order.


I don't think I've ever gone over 20% and never had a problem.  But it depends on your lauter design, and mine has never had a stuck runoff with anything, so I don't worry about it.  If yours  is prone to sticking you might want some hulls.

Thanks. I usually don't have an issue but 20% rye gave me problems recently. I planning on over 30% rice.
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Up Next: mexi lager, Germerican pale ale

Offline Robert

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Re: rice lager
« Reply #13 on: December 20, 2019, 01:43:34 pm »

What Scott Janish describes appears to be the normal way of cooking rice and then adding to mash. 


From what I understand, this can be done with other grains and skip the cereal mashing. I have heard this about spelt, rice, quinoa, teff, millet, and other grains.

Can anyone confirm that by cooking the grain, then adding it to the mash, you can skip the cereal mash and still get the same effect?

Sorry about being slightly off-topic.
In a cereal mash using 5-10% of the malt (or bacterial alpha amylase,) alpha amylase liquefies the adjunct by attacking the amylopectin skin of the gelatinized starch granules.  This not only keeps the adjunct mash from becoming a gloppy, harder to handle and incorporate, mess, but also opens up the adjunct starch making it fully available for conversion.  It is possible to skip this and just boil the adjunct, if you don't mind handling the gummy mass and don't mind the reduced availability of the starches.  It is probably of less concern to homebrewers, who are not trying to pump their cereal mash and can accept reduced yield and efficiency, than to commercial brewers.
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Offline denny

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Re: rice lager
« Reply #14 on: December 20, 2019, 03:02:48 pm »

What Scott Janish describes appears to be the normal way of cooking rice and then adding to mash. 


From what I understand, this can be done with other grains and skip the cereal mashing. I have heard this about spelt, rice, quinoa, teff, millet, and other grains.

Can anyone confirm that by cooking the grain, then adding it to the mash, you can skip the cereal mash and still get the same effect?

Sorry about being slightly off-topic.
In a cereal mash using 5-10% of the malt (or bacterial alpha amylase,) alpha amylase liquefies the adjunct by attacking the amylopectin skin of the gelatinized starch granules.  This not only keeps the adjunct mash from becoming a gloppy, harder to handle and incorporate, mess, but also opens up the adjunct starch making it fully available for conversion.  It is possible to skip this and just boil the adjunct, if you don't mind handling the gummy mass and don't mind the reduced availability of the starches.  It is probably of less concern to homebrewers, who are not trying to pump their cereal mash and can accept reduced yield and efficiency, than to commercial brewers.

Exactly.  Simply cooking the adjunct is fine for us.
Life begins at 60.....1.060, that is!

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The best, sharpest, funniest, weirdest and most knowledgable minds in home brewing contribute on the AHA forum. - Alewyfe

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell