Rice Malt

[yankinoz]

I used it once. I recall it's made by using enzymes to convert rice, not by malting rice. It imparts more flavor than plain sugar does, but not much more. For the little it offers it's not cost-effective.

 

[Matthopperman]

Yes. Rice needs to be gelatinised, which happens when you cook it. Then it needs to be mashed to convert the starch to sugars. Flaked rice is gelatinised during it's production, so it just needs to be mashed.
So if you are looking for something that you can just add to the fermenter, then the brown rice syrup will work, I don't know how much flavour will carry over into the beer, probably not a lot but you might get some of it. Googling, I did find something that looks more neutral - Melrose Organic Rice Syrup.

But let's just step back for a second.
You are using sugar syrup that just happens to be made from rice. It is neutral in flavour. The reason why rice is used in Asian and some American breweries is because that is their cheapest/easiest form of carbohydrate to get to make the sugar syrup. In Australia, the cheapest source is sugarcane, which is why Australian breweries use that neutral sugar syrup in their beers.
So if you are just wanting to use a neutral adjunct, it makes far more sense to use dextrose as it is far cheaper than buying jars of clear rice syrup and you won't taste the difference.
If you wanting to use rice because it is fun and a talking point then go for it. I've made a few rice beers but I am an all-grainer and I use boiled home brand rice in my mash tun. Great beers but the rice contributes no flavour and I might as well just add table sugar or dextrose to the boil.

I did notice that Melrose stuff having a lighter colour. I think some people have mentioned the maltose rice malt you can buy from Asian grocers.

What you're saying about corn/rice being a cheap adjunct does make sense, but I do want to try brewing an American light lager as true to the recipe I'd like to follow as possible. In the explanation of the recipe in How to Brew, he says:

Rice extract is available in both syrup and powder form, and will produce a beer similar
to Heineken or Budweiser. High maltose corn syrup will produce a beer similar to Miller or Coors.

And so it seems it might lose something just by using table sugar in replicating the style. Issue is that the 'rice syrup solids' he mentioned doesn't seem to be available in Aus, and neither 'High maltose corn syrup'.

 

[yankinoz]

I did notice that Melrose stuff having a lighter colour. I think some people have mentioned the maltose rice malt you can buy from Asian grocers.

What you're saying about corn/rice being a cheap adjunct does make sense, but I do want to try brewing an American light lager as true to the recipe I'd like to follow as possible. In the explanation of the recipe in How to Brew, he says:



And so it seems it might lose something just by using table sugar in replicating the style. Issue is that the 'rice syrup solids' he mentioned doesn't seem to be available in Aus, and neither 'High maltose corn syrup'.

The corn syrup sold in the US is bland, adds little if any of the flavour associated with corn-adjunct lager. High-maltose corn syrup is basically malto-dextrin in solution. No idea what rice syrup solids are.

If you want to replicate US lagers that use corn adjunct, consider a partial mash, malt and flaked corn, in a bag.

Budweiser was always distinctive for the use of rice and for using beechwood shavings in secondary. It is a notoriously hard beer to clone. Budweiser of old was brewed to about 5.8% abv and use Saaz hops for its late additions, so it had some character. It's well below 5% now and at last rumour I heard they were using Willamette, very lightly of course.

Personally, I drank these brews at other people's houses. At home I bought all-malt lagers, of which there were several even before craft brewers came along.

 

[bradmcm]

I hope it all goers well and let us know how you go. Personally if you are super keen to use rice, your next step would be to get some flaked rice and the same amount of crushed lager malt from your homebrew store and do a mini-mash. It's an easy process.