If you have not tried this beer, plunk down the five plus dollars a bottle and try it. I won't say its as amazing as the white ale from Hitachino nest but it is a vary interesting beer, with a host of unique flavors you might not expect out of such a simple recipe.
If you go to the Hitachino web site, the ingredients are listed, and the malts are Pilsner and Flaked Barley, but no rice let alone red rice?
So this got me thinking of an unfiltered sake I drank a couple months ago that had a pink hue to it, much like the red rice beer does. so I'm thinking that this beer might utilize the Koji fungus used to create the rice malt for sake fermentation, but to "mash" or convert the starches in the flaked barley to fermentables.
So i think i might try this idea out, of using Koji spore's (in a separate brew area) on 1/2-1lb of steamed flaked barley and let it grow for a few days at 90ºF , then add it to a pilsner only mash at my mash out and sparging step before the boil.
I don't think I'll get the pink color, because id bet that is a specific characteristic of the Koji strain used, but i might get some interesting flavor profiles out of this, or it'll taste like moldy bread...
If you go to the Hitachino web site, the ingredients are listed, and the malts are Pilsner and Flaked Barley, but no rice let alone red rice?
So this got me thinking of an unfiltered sake I drank a couple months ago that had a pink hue to it, much like the red rice beer does. so I'm thinking that this beer might utilize the Koji fungus used to create the rice malt for sake fermentation, but to "mash" or convert the starches in the flaked barley to fermentables.
So i think i might try this idea out, of using Koji spore's (in a separate brew area) on 1/2-1lb of steamed flaked barley and let it grow for a few days at 90ºF , then add it to a pilsner only mash at my mash out and sparging step before the boil.
I don't think I'll get the pink color, because id bet that is a specific characteristic of the Koji strain used, but i might get some interesting flavor profiles out of this, or it'll taste like moldy bread...