Tsing Tsao Style Rice/extract Asian Beers

[bradmcm]

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).

If you use malt syrup - you don't need to mash. If you use raw rice - you do need to mash.
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'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.

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.

@bradcmc: would I be likely to find amaylase at my LHBS?

Yes, either dried - as 'dry lager enzyme' or in liquid form - 'Amylo 300'.
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.

 

[manticle]

Thankyou.

Very informative.

 

[Newbee(r)]

Thankyou.

Very informative.

Bump!

Manticle, I realise there's been a few brews since this post, but curious how it turned out. My wife is not a big fan of the ales, but likes tiger etc. After making some "skanky Hoe's" (hoegarrden inspired beers) I need to put another brew on for her.

Cheers

Jake

 

[manticle]

Look in the recipe DB for fourstar's vietnamese rice lager.

So many brews since I did anything with extract but I remember it tasted OK (not great and not a lot like asian rice lager) and stayed cloudy. Never made it again.

 

[Newbee(r)]

thanks for that, will do.

J

 

[redunderthebed]

Correct me if im wrong but if you want to make a american style lager (not that i would want to do so h34r: ) that the yankee breweries use more rice syrup than dextrose. :beer:

 

[Newbee(r)]

Correct me if im wrong but if you want to make a american style lager (not that i would want to do so h34r: ) that the yankee breweries use more rice syrup than dextrose. :beer:

Thanks - the recipe Manticle was referring to is an all grain -(which suits me just fine as there is now a remote chance I'll drink it!) and avoids the extracts altogether.