rottenpotato
Member
Ok, I have seen several posts here that relate to this, but I still feel like I have been unable to resolve this problem. I recently found some amylase enzyme at my LHBS and I got excited, because I have been interested in experimenting with other grains, specifically rice. I understand that making sake requires the use of a fungus called koji, and that to use rice as an adjunct it either needs to be gelatanized or flaked. At this point I am not looking to make a traditional sake, but just to play with an all rice brew of some sort using the amylase. I did a little experiment a couple weeks back with disappointing results.
First, I cooked about 2 cups of sticky rice, just as if I were to eat it normally. When it was fully cooked I did a mini mash, adding water and amylase, keeping it in the range of 145 to 150 for about an hour. I expected to find that the amylase had converted the starch in the rice into sugars just like a regular mash, and that it would taste very sweet at the end. Unfortunately it just tasted like rice soup. What did I do wrong? Is the amylase I purchased not sufficient to convert rice starch into sugars? My understanding is that it should be able to convert any starch. Am I missing something? Has anyone else tried this experiment with different results? I have seen posts about people using rice as an adjunct successfully, just adding cooked rice to the mash. How did you know you had successful conversion?
any advice would be helpful. Thanks!
First, I cooked about 2 cups of sticky rice, just as if I were to eat it normally. When it was fully cooked I did a mini mash, adding water and amylase, keeping it in the range of 145 to 150 for about an hour. I expected to find that the amylase had converted the starch in the rice into sugars just like a regular mash, and that it would taste very sweet at the end. Unfortunately it just tasted like rice soup. What did I do wrong? Is the amylase I purchased not sufficient to convert rice starch into sugars? My understanding is that it should be able to convert any starch. Am I missing something? Has anyone else tried this experiment with different results? I have seen posts about people using rice as an adjunct successfully, just adding cooked rice to the mash. How did you know you had successful conversion?
any advice would be helpful. Thanks!