Brewing with Alternative Rice Forms
Rice and other adjuncts, mainly corn, were first added to beers made from 6-row barley sometime in the mid-19th century to counter its high protein levels. Using adjuncts had two benefits. The first being that they were cheaper than barley, reducing production costs associated with an all-malt recipe. Secondly, the addition of adjuncts created a bright beer with a lighter body and without the chill haze that the high-protein American-grown 6-row malt caused in the day.
The most commonly recognized brewing influencer to suggest using adjuncts to counteract the high proteins in 6-row barley was Anton Schwarz (1839–1895). Schwarz, a Bohemian brewing chemist, moved to the United States where he founded the Brewers’ Academy of the United States in New York, and with the discovered benefits of adjuncts in brewing he revolutionized the brewing industry. These beers found great favor with consumers, leading to more sales, which found great favor with the breweries.
Pre-Prohibition adjunct levels of 10 to 20% were common and the resulting beers were quite tasty. However, things changed post-Prohibition when brewers continually increased the adjunct level to save money until it went as high as 50%. As adjuncts provide little flavor, these new beers were much more bland and adjuncts like rice and corn got a bad rap from some consumers who favored the more flavorful beverages. To this day, many breweries continue to use adjuncts as a less expensive way to boost alcohol levels (while the macro breweries churning out light lagers are the most well-known to do this, many craft brewers do as well). The reputation that adjuncts have gotten is unfortunate, I believe, because a lower percentage of adjuncts in a grain bill can enhance the overall flavor and make a crisp, thirst-quenching beer that really hits the spot after a vigorous lawn mowing session.
Corn and non-malted rice, which requires a cereal mash, are by far the most common adjuncts used for brewing in North America. However, there are many other adjuncts that can be used. Some that I have recently become more interested in are the other forms of rice including rice syrup, dried rice extract, malted rice, and flaked rice.
Thinking about this recently, I decided to give myself a challenge. The goal would be to brew four beers of different styles, each using a percentage of an alternative rice form. The only rule: No light lagers. (For those interested in learning more about using rice for their brews in the more traditional form, using unmalted rice, check out the sidebar on page at the end of the article.)
Now, I did promise to write an article on the results, which gave me seven weeks to brew and evaluate these beers. This meant I was under some restraint to what styles I could brew.
One thing I did not consider when giving (and accepting) the challenge, is that this was in the middle of summer, and temperatures were very high every day. I usually don’t brew as much in the summer as a way to avoid the heat, but there was no turning back now. However, I was going to schedule my brewing with the heat in mind.
Brew one — Nut Brown Ale
I decided to make the first beer using a no-boil beer kit, something that I’d been considering experimenting with for quite a while but had never done. I chose to start out with Muntons Connoisseurs Nut Brown Ale. Most no-boil kits call for added sugar, which makes them a good base to experiment with various sugars, extracts — or in this case — rice. Instead of the recommended brewing sugar, I substituted in 2.2 lbs. (1 kg) brown rice syrup in addition to the kit’s 4 lbs. (1.8 kg) of hopped extract.
I chose brown rice syrup to use with the no-boil kit because it’s a perfect fit with the whole no-boil, easy peasy extract nature of the kit. Using malted rice, flaked rice, or rice grits and a cereal mash, would have required a far more complicated, drawn out brew day, defeating the whole purpose of the no-boil kit. Plus, being a brown ale meant that the rice syrup wouldn’t have much effect on the color of the finished beer. The syrup boosted the gravity up to the same level that plain sugar would have. This beer had an original gravity (OG) of 1.044 and finished with a gravity of 1.017, with an SRM of about 18.
No-boil kits are the absolute easiest way to make beer. There’s very little heat employed; the kit calls for heating water to near-boiling, but any temperature over 160 °F (71 °C) or so would work to dissolve the extract and brown rice syrup, making this a way to brew without making the kitchen into a sauna.
After chilling the wort to yeast-pitching temperature I took a hydrometer reading and gave it a taste. It had a subdued malt aroma and taste. I’m not sure exactly how this would compare to using plain sugar like the recipe recommends as it was my first time brewing with this kit, but my expectation is since the sugar is simply to boost alcohol, the rice extract did not have a significant effect on taste.
I tried one of these beers after seven days in the bottle (while I did not prime with the syrup as I used it all in the brewing process, that would be another fun option homebrewers could try). There was a nice psssst and it poured with a decent head that laced beautifully. It had a nice dark brown color and was mildly malty tasting. It had a malt-forward aroma, with the crisp edge that’s usually associated with lagers. The roasty aroma and flavor usually associated with brown ale was also somewhat more subdued than I’d expect in an all-malt brown ale, but what one should expect when using a no-boil kit that relies on adding sugar to boost alcohol.
Brew Two — Saison
When it was time to move to my next brew it was still uncomfortably warm in my brew room, so I decided to go with a beer that likes the warm weather: Saison. Most Belgian ales use some form of sugar to boost gravity and dry out the finish, making them good candidates for adjuncts.
Gluten Free Home Brewing (www.glutenfreehomebrewing.org) carries seven different rice malts from pale at 1.4 SRM to extra dark at 400 SRM, with crystal, amber, biscuit, brown, and dark falling in between on the color scale. With such rice variety many beer styles are achievable to brew with only rice malt. However, I was still interested in brewing a malt beer with a percentage of rice.
For this batch, I decided to go with my usual all-grain brew day. The recipe I came up with (on page 46) called for about 10 lbs. (4.5 kg) of malt and 2.1 lbs. (0.95 kg) of rice malt. Because rice malts come with an intact hull there there is no need for adding rice hulls to the mash.
One thing to note about rice malt is it needs to be milled at a wider gap than barley to avoid turning it to dust. After milling the rice and my other malts for my saison, it was time to begin brewing. Grouse Malting & Brewing Co. recommends mashing rice malt at 163° F (73 °C) for 90 minutes, however Gluten Free Home Brewing states that mashing from 150–165 °F (66–74 °C) is sufficient. Mashing at the higher temperature would have meant a separate mash just for the rice malt and a much longer brew day (which I was trying to avoid), so I took a chance and mashed the rice malt with the barley malts at my normal saison time and temperature of 152 °F (67 °C) for 60 minutes. I hit my mash temperature right on the nose and after boiling and chilling the wort down I had the exact OG I was shooting for of 1.054, leading me to believe there were no ill effects of the lower-than-recommended mash temperatures for the rice malt.
I pitched the yeast at 2 p.m. at 64 °F (18 °C) and the airlock was bubbling every two seconds the next morning. At that point, I allowed the temperature to rise to where it wanted to go. A week and a half later I bottled with a final gravity of 1.004.
When ready, the saison poured with a good head that laced nicely. The taste was spicy with a nice peppery edge to it. It had a dry finish and was quite refreshing.
Brew Three — Black IPA
For my third rice beer, I brewed one of my favorite beer styles: Black IPA. The weather was still a bit warmer outside than I like to brew in so I formulated an extract with specialty grains recipe that could be boiled for just 30 minutes on the stove.
IPAs of all kinds are often brewed with sugar to help produce a dry, easily drinkable beer, making them a good style to try other fermentables like dry rice extract. This time I went with dry rice extract, which matched the rest of the recipe’s base fermentables and made for fairly easy and quick brew day. For this recipe, I used 6.63 lbs (3 kg) of dried wheat malt extract and 1.63 pounds (0.74 kg) of dried
rice extract.
After chilling the wort down to 62 °F (17 °C), I pitched the yeast at 1 p.m. on Friday. There were slight signs of fermentation by the end of the day and the airlock was burping every second or two the next morning when I awoke. The temperature in the fermenter got a bit higher than I would have preferred, but I was hoping the US-05 yeast would prove to not throw off too many esters, although extra esters wouldn’t necessarily be all that bad.
This batch ended up with a nice crisp edge to it similar to the brown ale. It was nicely hoppy with the minor amount of roast that I prefer in a black IPA. And it had a beautiful, long lasting head that laced all the way down the glass. The US-05 handled the heat fine.
Brew Four — British Strong Ale
I originally planned to brew a barleywine, but with limited time and my fear it wouldn’t finish in time, I revised the recipe to lower the OG by 30 points and went with a style new to the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) guidelines: British strong ale.
Barleywines and many other British ales often make use of various sugars and other adjuncts. British brewers more often use corn rather than rice when adding non-sugar adjuncts, but since this is an article about using rice, that’s what I went with. For this brew, I decided to use flaked rice. Like rice malt, flaked rice goes right into the mash, with the added benefit of not being recommended to mash at a higher temperature or longer time like rice malt. Flaked rice does not need to be milled; just mix it in with the other crushed grains. However, unlike rice malt, there is no hull, so brewers may want to consider the addition of rice hulls if using a high percentage of flaked rice.
I formulated a recipe that used 2 lbs. (0.9 kg) of flaked rice to complement 13 lbs. (5.9 kg) of malt. The flaked rice was therefore 13% of the grain bill, so I opted to skip the addition of rice hulls and had no problems lautering this mash. If using a higher percent of flaked rice or if your system is prone to a stuck mash — you may want to consider utilizing rice hulls to protect against the possibility of a slow lauter. Brew-in-a-bag is another good option available to homebrewers.
The all-grain brew day and fermentation went off without a hitch. After three weeks I kegged my British strong bitter and force carbonated it. This batch had a nice full body with a crisp edge to it that the flaked rice contributed. It poured with a nice head and was very smooth and delicious. I’m definitely going to brew this one again.
My Conclusions
Rice extracts, dry or syrup, are the easiest form of rice to incorporate and can be used in any recipe that you care to experiment with and can be added at any time in the brewing process. Both of these forms can be stored similarly to malt extracts and have a similar shelf life.
Rice flakes are the next easiest form to use and can be added directly to the mash with your other grains for any all-grain or partial mash recipe. Flaked rice also has the added benefit of being widely available — if you need it in a pinch and don’t live close to a homebrew store, flaked rice can be found at many markets.
Gluten Free Home Brewing recommends milling rice grain at a wider gap. I tried milling some at my normal setting and it was so difficult that I feared it was going to damage my rollers, so I adjusted the gap as wide as it would and it went much more smoothly. I really like the versatility and availability of options of malted rice. Being primarily an all-grain brewer, it’s the form that I’m most likely to use in the future, especially since I found mashing it at my regular time and temperature with the rest of the grains works just fine.
Rice indeed has a place in brewing: Any style that normally uses sugars or other adjuncts can successfully be brewed with one form of rice or another. It can also be used in pretty much any recipe that you wish to experiment with. Sure, doing a cereal mash with umalted rice is traditional, and will save you a little change, but I’ve found these rice alternatives are up to the task when time and energy need to be saved.
Performing a Cereal Mash
A cereal mash is the traditional way adjunct grains are used in the brewing process. In order to gelatinize the starches, which makes them available for conversion, you need to cook the grain. Of course, there are easier ways to do that these days (you can instead use Minute Rice or one of the rice alternative products mentioned in this story), but if you’re a stickler for doing it the “old school way” you can prep your rice with a cereal mash. And as an added bonus, you can use the same method with other grains like corn.
Sure, you could very carefully raise the grains to a precise set of temperatures, but there’s little reason for that level of care here. We’re trying to swell, hydrate, and blow out the starch granules, not massage them lovingly. Basically, you’re making gruel, porridge, the basic foodstuff of mankind, and we’re feeding it to our mash. You’re not aiming for perfectly plump and separate fluffy grains of whatever — you’re going for a fully exploded thing.
You start by grinding the grain into smaller particles. You can get away without grinding, but it will be a little easier to get gelatinization if the grains are cracked, and will also improve brewing yield of these adjunct grains. If you have an old Corona mill laying around it works great for this purpose. Powerful blenders, like the Vitamix, also work well for turning hard grains into fine bits. Bring 1–2 quarts/liters of water per pound of grain to a boil and stir in the coarse ground grits. Boil for 15–20 minutes, stirring constantly. Let cool slightly and add to your mash to boost the temperature. Keep in mind, you’re not trying to make perfect rice. You want it really broken down.
Want to be even more traditional? You’re going to need to do a bit more work. Stir in 20% of your initial cereal weight in pale malt. (e.g. if you mash 5 pounds/2.3 kg of rice, add in 1 pound/0.45 kg of pale malt) with your rice and heat to about 158 °F (70 °C). After 10–20 minutes rest time in which the enzymes are attacking the starches and prevent retrogradation of the starch, hit the heat and start stirring to bring everything back to a boil. You’ll add this lava goo to your main mash as a heat booster. (You can skip the boil if you’re not trying to raise your mash between rests).
Congratulations – you’ve just performed an American-style cereal mash. This standard labor-intensive method is pretty much the way macro American lagers and other commercial beers with adjuncts are brewed. Modifications and simplification to the method will work, just as long as you heat everything up and blow up the starch.
A caveat — if you try these methods, don’t let the mass cool all the way. Retrogradation will occur — basically everything will get bound up again — but it’s more difficult gelatinizing the starch the second go around, so use the cereal mash immediately after boiling is complete. If not used immediately, you’ll have to heat up the cereal even more than before to blow out the starches again. Think how crunchy your leftover rice gets when left in the fridge over night. It may be perfect for making fried rice, but it’s lousy for making beer. If that should happen to you, add some boiling water, stir the mass up, and gently heat to a near boil.
If you’re only adding a small percentage of rice, you can simply use a microwave. Seriously, just make rice porridge.
Why go through all the hard work cooking grains? Maybe you want to do things traditionally. Others hold that the less processed an ingredient the better/fresher it will be as well as being less expensive.
A final note – this basic process will work on just about any grain out there. Quinoa? Millet? Amaranth? Spelt? Wild rice (OK, technically that’s a grass, but still)? If you’re in doubt about the temperatures at which their starches will unfurl, a basic porridge will always do the trick.
Recipes
Ricey Saison
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.054 FG = 1.004
IBU = 25 SRM = 7 ABV = 6.6%
Ingredients
4.75 lbs. (2.16 kg) pale ale malt
2.1 lbs. (0.97 kg) rice malt
1.75 lbs. (0.8 kg) Carawheat® malt (45 °L)
1.75 lbs. (0.8 kg) Vienna malt
1.4 lbs. (0.625 kg) Munich malt
6.7 oz. (186 g) Caramunich® II malt (46 °L)
8.75 AAU Sterling hops (45 min.) (1.25 oz./35 g at 7% alpha acids)
1 tsp. Irish moss (15 min.)
Lallemand Belle Saison or Wyeast 3711 (French Saison) yeast
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
This is a single infusion mash. On brew day, crush all of your grains. The rice malt will need to be crushed separately on a wider setting so it is not pulverized to dust.
Mash the milled grains at a 1.5 quarts-to-1 pound ratio of strike water (3.1 L/kg) at 152 °F (67 °C) for 45 minutes. Vorlauf until wort runs clear. Sparge with enough water to collect about 6 gallons (23 L) of wort in the kettle.
Boil for 45 minutes, adding the hops and Irish moss per the recipe. After the boil is complete, chill the wort to 64 °F (18 °C), rack to fermenting vessel. Aerate the wort and pitch the yeast. After 24 hours, allow the temperature to naturally ramp up by a couple of degrees per day. Bottle or keg after 3 weeks.
Ricey Saison
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.054 FG = 1.004
IBU = 25 SRM = 7 ABV = 6.6%
Ingredients
3 lbs. (1.36 kg) pale ale liquid malt extract
1 lb. (0.45 kg) dry rice extract
1 lb. (0.45 kg) Vienna liquid malt extract
1 lb. (0.45 kg) Munich dried malt extract
1.5 lbs. (0.68 kg) Carawheat® malt
6 oz. (168 g) Caramunich® II malt
8.75 AAU Sterling hops (45 min.) (1.25 oz./35 g at 7% alpha acids)
1 tsp. Irish moss (15 min.)
Lallemand Belle Saison or Wyeast 3711 (French Saison) yeast
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
Place the milled specialty grains into a grain bag and steep in about 2 gallons (7.5 L) of water at 160 °F (71 °C) for 30 minutes. Lift the grain bag out of the steeping liquid and rinse with warm water.
Thoroughly mix in the extracts and add enough water to the steeping liquid to make a pre-boil volume of about 6 gallons (23 L) and bring to a boil. Once the wort is boiling, add the bittering hops.
Follow the remainder of the all-grain recipe.
Paint it Black IPA
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.075 FG 1.018
IBU = 68 SRM = 23 ABV = 7.6%
Ingredients
7 lbs. (3.2 kg) pale ale malt
5 lbs. (2.27 kg) wheat malt
3 lbs. (1.36 kg) rice malt
8 oz. (224 g) chocolate wheat malt
4 oz. (112 g) Carawheat® malt
27.7 AAU Warrior® hop pellets (20 min.) (1.66 oz./47 g at 16.7% alpha acids)
7.8 AAU Ahtanum® hop pellets (9 min.) (1.66 oz./47 g at 3.3% alpha acids)
14.2 AAU Warrior® hop pellets (0 min.) (0.85 oz./23.8 g at 16.7% alpha acids)
0.4 oz. (11.8 g) Ahtanum® hop pellets (dry hop)
3⁄4 tsp. yeast nutrient (10 min.)
Safale US-05 or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) yeast
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
This is a single infusion mash. On brew day, crush all of your grains. The rice malt will need to be crushed separately on a wider setting so it is not pulverized to dust.
Mash the crushed grains at 1.5 quarts-to-1 pound ratio of strike water (3.1 L/kg) at 152 °F (67 °C) for 45 minutes. Vorlauf until wort runs clear. Sparge with enough water to collect about 6 gallons (23 L) of wort in the kettle.
Boil for 45 minutes, adding the hops and yeast nutrients as per the recipe. When boil is complete, remove kettle from the burner and add the 0-minute hop addition. Stir to create a whirlpool and cover kettle for 20 minutes befor chilling to yeast-pitching temperature.
Rack to fermenting vessel, aerate, pitch yeast, and ferment at 66 °F (19 °C). Add dry hops after 18 days. Bottle after 21 days.
Paint it Black IPA
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.075 FG 1.018
IBU = 68 SRM = 23 ABV = 7.6%
Ingredients
5 lbs. (2.3 kg) wheat dried malt extract (DME)
1.625 lbs. (0.74 kg) wheat DME (end of boil)
1.625 lbs. (0.74 kg) rice DME (end of boil)
8 oz. (224 g) chocolate wheat malt
4 oz. (112 g) Carawheat® malt
27.7 AAU Warrior® hop pellets (20 min.) (1.66 oz./47 g at 16.7% alpha acids)
7.8 AAU Ahtanum® hop pellets (9 min.) (1.66 oz./47 g at 3.3% alpha acids)
14.2 AAU Warrior® hop pellets (0 min.) (0.85 oz./23.8 g at 16.7% alpha acids)
0.4 oz. (11.8 g) Ahtanum® hop pellets (dry hop)
3⁄4 tsp. yeast nutrient (10 min.)
Safale US-05 or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) yeast
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
Heat 2 gallons (7.6 L) of water to 158 °F (70 °C), remove from heat source and put milled and bagged specialty grains in to steep. After 30 minutes, remove the specialty grains and rinse with warm water.
Thoroughly stir in 5 lbs. (2.27 kg) wheat DME and add enough water to give a pre-boil volume of about 6 gallons (23 L). Return to heat source and bring to a boil. Total boil time is 30 minutes, adding hops and yeast nutrient as indicated.
When the boil is complete, remove the kettle from the heat source and thoroughly stir in the late addition malt wheat and rice extracts and add flameout hops. Conduct a 20-minute whirlpool. Cool wort to yeast-pitching temperature as quickly as possible.
Follow the remainder of the all-grain recipe.
