Author: Matt Del Fiacco

A staple in many regions of the world, rice is the seed of a specific species of grass that, in addition to being eaten, can be used to produce a wide variety of consumables including flour, glue, and sake. It can also be used as a way to impart a light, clean character to beer without contributing any color, something certain brewers of mass market lagers are known for, which has led many to view rice as an ingredient to be wholly avoided.

Suspending judgement for a moment, one will see there are a number of places rice actually fits in rather well even in modern craft brewing, for example, including a portion in a hyper-hopped Triple IPA to help keep it from becoming too syrupy. Due to its high starch content, rice needs to be gelatinized via cooking prior to use, or brewers can buy flaked rice that can be added directly to the mash.

I’d never used flaked rice in a beer. This may be because I don’t brew many American lagers, and in my mind that is where this ingredient best fits. But I’ve finally started settling into my new home, and with an upcoming house warming party on the horizon, I wanted to brew a beer that would be great for easy summer drinking and satisfy the palates of my macro-drinking and craft-drinking relatives alike. Interested to learn more about what flaked rice contributes to beer, I figured I’d put this one to the test.

| PURPOSE |

To evaluate the differences between a lager made with a portion of flaked rice and one made with no rice.

| METHODS |

Wanting to focus on a style that’s known for including rice, I went with a simple American Lager for this xBmt

Mr. Rice Guy

Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV 5.5 gal 60 min 15.3 IBUs 2.9 SRM 1.038 1.008 3.9 % Actuals 1.038 1.005 4.3 % Fermentables Name Amount % Pale Malt, 2-Row (Rahr) 7.75 lbs 79.49 Rice, Flaked 2 lbs 20.51 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % Hallertau 25.6 g 60 min Boil Pellet 4.5 Hallertau 20 g 1 min Boil Pellet 4.5 Yeast Name Lab Attenuation Temperature Harvest (L17) Imperial Yeast 72% 50°F - 60°F Notes Water Profile: Ca 54 | Mg 11 | Na 25 | SO4 81 | Cl 65 Download Download this recipe's BeerXML file

I spun up a couple starters of Imperial Yeast L17 Harvest a couple days ahead of time.

Having collected and adjusted my brewing water the night before, I started my brew day by setting the controllers to warm each batch to strike temperature.

As the water was heating, I weighed out and milled both sets of grain.

Next, I weighed out the flaked rice that would be added to one batch.

With the water adequately heated, I mashed in and checked to ensure each batch hit the same target mash temperature.

I stole samples about 15 minutes into each mash for pH measurement and found them to be essentially the same.

I weighed out the kettle hop additions for each batch during the mash rest.

Following the 60 minute saccharification rest, I removed the grains and began heating the wort. Each wort was then boiled for 60 minutes with hops added per the recipe, after which they were run through a plate chiller on their way to sanitized fermentation kegs.

Hydrometer measurements revealed the wort with flaked rice achieved a slightly lower OG than the all barley malt wort.

Samples of the chilled worts showed the one made with rice was slightly paler in color.

The filled fermentation kegs were placed next to each other in a chamber controlled to 48°F/9°C and given time to finish chilling before I returned to pitch the yeast.

Fermentation kicked off swiftly and activity was beginning to slow after 5 days, so I pressure transferred the beers to lagering/serving kegs.

After attaching spunding valves to each keg, I set the temperature in the chamber to 66°F/19°C and left the beers alone for a 3 day diacetyl rest. Hydrometer measurements taken at this point showed the beers finished at a similar FG, which given the difference in OG, indicated the flaked rice beer attenuated slightly less than the all barley beer.

The beers were burst carbonated and allowed to cold condition for a week before they were ready to serve to participants.

| RESULTS |

Cheers to the Wingnut Brew Club for allowing me to collect data for this xBmt during a local club meeting! A total of 25 people of varying levels of experience participated in this xBmt. Each participant was served 2 samples of the flaked rice beer and 1 sample of the all barley malt beer in different colored opaque cups then asked to identify the unique sample. While 12 tasters (p<0.05) would have had to identify the unique sample in order to reach statistical significance, only 11 (p=0.18) made the accurate selection, indicating participants in this xBmt could not reliably distinguish an American Lager made with a portion of flaked rice from one made without flaked rice.

My Impressions: Out of 5 semi-blind triangle tests, I was able to identify the correct beer 3 times, which isn’t perfect, though a hair more than random chance. To me, the beer made with flaked rice tasted slightly sweeter and seemed to have a generally lighter malt character that was quite pleasant, while I perceived the beer made without flaked rice as having a more prominent cracker character similar to what I get in classic European lagers. Ultimately, while both beers had a soft hop character and light malt flavor, I had a slight preference for the one made with flaked rice.

| DISCUSSION |

While barley and rice are both originate from a type of grass, they both play a unique role when it comes to their use in the brewing process. Whereas the bulk of the fermentables in most beers come from enzymatically converted starches contained in barley malt, rice is typically used as a means of lightening body without contributing much in the way of aroma, flavor, or color. Interestingly, tasters in this xBmt were unable to reliably tell apart an American Lager made with 20% flaked rice from one made with just barley malt, suggesting its impact may not be as perceptible as presumed.

Considering possible implications of these results, there are likely brewers on both sides of the rice debate who feel their perspective has been justified. For the sympathizers, these results show the grain can be used as a substitute for barley without negatively affecting flavor, while the anti-ricers may view this is proof the grain contributes nothing positive to beer. C’est la vie, c’est la mort.

While these findings suggest the beers in this xBmt were perceptibly similar, there were a some objectively measurable differences. The beer made with flaked rice was came it at 0.004 OG lower than the all barley malt beer, indicating less contribution of fermentable sugars. Additionally, the flaked rice beer was slightly paler in color and noticeably clearer than its all barley malt counterpart.

This being my first time using rice in my own brewing, I admittedly expected it to have a more drastic impact than it did, especially considering all the hate it gets. Of course, this is a single data point from a single xBmt on a single style of beer, it’s entirely possible flaked rice would be more noticeable in different situations. Still, this experience was positive for me and left me interested not only in exBEERimenting with rice in the future, but brewing more American Lager.

If you have any thoughts about this xBmt, please do not hesitate to share in the comments section below!

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