Red Rice Berliner Weiss?

Blauvelt · 04-09-2010, 01:24 AM

I was thinking of making another Berliner Weiss. I love the Spurhund Zunge recipe on here but I wanted to change it up a bit. I should say I love it already.. it is still in the primary!

I have read that Berliner Weissbier was traditionally made with 65% or more malted wheat and the remaining grain pilsner malt. I would like to amp it up a bit and make a beer with 75% malted wheat, 15% pilsner or 6-row malt, and 10% red rice. The red rice adds more dryness and the wheat malt a bit more thickness to provide a richer beer at low gravities. I would prefer to use pilsner malt but I don't know if it will convert all the starches.

Is there any way to make sure there will be sufficient diastatic power to convert the starches in an adjunct beer? especially one with such a high proportion of malted wheat.

Inspiration provided by the "Pink Menace red rice pils" on page 150 of 'Radical Brewing' by Randy Mosher.

maskednegator · 04-09-2010, 06:42 PM

Sounds rad. Subscribed.

Blauvelt · 04-10-2010, 12:44 AM

does anyone think that the diastatic power of these grains will be a lil' low? my grain bill would be something like:

6 lbs malted wheat
3 lbs 6-row
1.5 lbs red rice

it would not be good if I got a batch of unsavory wheat water.

**Edcculus** · 04-10-2010, 04:03 AM

There is so little malt in a Berlinerweiss, I'm not really sure you would really notice anything. Also, isn't 10.5lbs a little much? I thought the max OG should be around 1.045?

To your question though, that grist would have more than enough diastatic power to convert the rice. Malted wheat actually has more diastatic power than barley. I don't forsee any conversion problems with that grist.

Blauvelt · 04-10-2010, 02:38 PM

thanks for the input! I was under the impression that malted wheat had something like half the diastatic power of 6-row. I don't know why.

yeah i might scale it back a little. I sometimes get bad efficiency with small batches, as in 60%, so I like to give myself a little more grain. I would rather add a little water to a beer that is a little sugary than have the OG too low. I was aiming for 1.046 which I think is what you would get at 60% efficiency.

thanks!