Rice

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Brewme

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Hi,

I have read a topic somewhere in this forum about adding boiled rice to the mash.

What does it actually do to the flavour of the beer?

Am still learning AG.

Cheers
 
linky : [URL="http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=48499&hl=cereal+mash"]http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...;hl=cereal+mash[/URL]

BribieG is a good source of info on this topic

Search for "Cereal Mash"

Rice can be used in place of malt where you want alcohol but no extra body, ie lagers

From what I read the big brewers add malt to the cereal mash prior to boiling to get some extra conversion while it heats up (big volume takes a long time to boil so adding malt pre-boil helps speed things up). On the small scale it is probably easier to boil the rice, cool it to cereal mash temp then add the grain

Cheers
 
Rice adds a sort of nuttyness or creaminess, especially if mashed at higher temperatures when some of it is converted to dextrins and other 'mouthfeel' components. Also the part that gets converted to fermentables ends up as maltose, not glucose / fructose - so it gives a quite different flavour than adding sugar or dex.

Originally rice was added to mashes made on the high nitrogen malts of the time (150 years ago and still going strong in the USA). This used up the spare enzymes in the malt and gave a lighter bodied clear beer at the time when affordable glassware became available and ppl stopped drinking out of tankards so clarity was a new factor.

However in the USA it became the accepted taste of beer, and they still use heaps of rice in their mainstreams (as does Corona) even though the rice is probably more expensive nowadays than the malt :p In the UK however rice became attractive after the repeal of the malt laws in the 1880s. Before that rice (and maize etc) was taxed as a malt, after that it was classed as a sugar and especially during malt shortages in two world wars became basically a malt sub and a cheapener. Again however it became the taste of beer and I often slip a bit of adjunct into UK beers for a 'historical' effect to echo the beers I grew up on. I note today however most UK breweries seem to be back to all malt which is now cheaper, and only use sugar as a gravity adjuster.

Endeth the essay, I'm on holiday so WGAF :lol: :rolleyes:

Edit: yes as L-bomb says it doesn't add heaps of body as such, but a nice smoothness and definitely not the thin twang you can get from over use of sugaz. And it can give you a couple extra ABV without the beer becoming cloying if you are a 6% + fan.
 
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