bradmcm
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If you use malt syrup - you don't need to mash. If you use raw rice - you do need to mash.I'm not familiar enough with mashing yet - I'm at the extract plus specialty grains stage. If you just mean boiling up some rice and using the water then see recipe because that is what I did. If you mean something else can you explain as I may have another crack if it doesn't work out (or if it works but needs improving).
When you boiled the rice what you did was gelatinise it (the temp is somewhere between 70-85 depending on the rice), which is the first required step. It then needs to be mashed with malted barley, otherwise you are just adding starch to the beer. Mashing is where enzymes that are present with the grain convert the starches into sugar - which is what the yeast eats to make alcohol and CO2.
Having a beer full of starch is not good as it will be cloudy and highly susceptible to infection. You may also have a very 'chewy' mouthfeel.
What I tried to say originally, is not to bother with using raw rice until you are at the all-grain stage. Rice is a neutral flavoured adjunct, just like dextrose or cane sugar is, so it's much much easier to use that to lighten your beer.
There is no magic surrounding rice, breweries in Asia and America use it to lighten the beer because it is cheaper than buying sugar there. In Australia, sugar is used because it's cheaper to use than rice.
Not to say making a beer with rice isn't fun, I've done it and it was a great beer, but really I could have got the same effect with the equivalent amount of dextrose in the boil.
It won't make it LESS prone to infection - but if it does get infected it will spread at a slower rate at colder temperatures.It's using a lager yeast and will be transferred to secondary and lagered for a week or two a 2 deg so maybe that + finings will help lessen the cloudiness. If it doesn't work then I may have another go following some of the suggestions here. The low temp should hopefully make the ferment less prone to infection but we'll have to see.
Yes, either dried - as 'dry lager enzyme' or in liquid form - 'Amylo 300'.@bradcmc: would I be likely to find amaylase at my LHBS?
This will convert all the remaining starches and dextrins into simple sugar for the yeast - so your final gravity will be close to 1.000. It might help recover the beer if you are not happy with what's happening in the fermenter.