Pilsner troubles

[Mobstar]

Good day.

I brewed a batch of Pilsner from this website which called for 2 lbs of flaked rice. I ended up only using 1 since that's all I had. I transferred into secondary and had a taste. Oddly the only flavor I was getting is of rice and a hint of hops. No malt flavors at all. And.. it's incredibly pale.

My question is, does the rice flavor eventually mellow out? I'm going to have a hard time drinking this or giving it away.. maybe I'll label it as rice beer.

Malts:
4.5 # Weyerman Pilsner 37PPG, 2L
4.5 # American 2 Row Lager 38PPG, 2L
2 # Flaked Rice ( optional )

Mashed at 154F for 60 minutes

Hops:
1 oz Sterling Leaf 6.7% AA @ 60 minutes
1/2 oz Liberty Pellets @ 30 minutes
1/2 oz Liberty Pellets @ 10 minutes

 

[BigEd]

10% rice isn't going to drown out the flavor of the base malt. Rice in beer essentially has no flavor. Maybe you are used to more aggressive ales and this beer is just underwhelming you.

 

[sudbuster]

Yeah, I agree with BigEd. Never had any overpowering rice flavors. Maybe the rice had pcked up some off flavors from improper storage?

 

[Mobstar]

Sudbuster, I guess that could be possible, I purchased it from my LHBS. They had it in a fridge "not sure for how long" and I used it the day after purchasing it.

The brew has a very pale "almost white" cloudy look to it. It's already in secondary so I'm not sure what I can add to make it a little maltier and to clarify. Guess I'll let it lager for a month and see what happens. My first gravity reading was quite weak "1.035"

BigEd: It's true that I'm more used to brewing Ale type beers but I do buy lighter beers such as Pilsner Urquell or Stella. My first attempt at making one so I'm quite nervous. I wish some of you experienced brewers lived in my neck of the woods so you can have a taste LOL. it really tastes like fizzy rice water "my aunt use to give me rice water back in the day when I was sick and had the runs"

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

A 60 minute mash and a "white cloud" in the beer? I'm starting to believe that you underconverted. I don't think I'd do a 60 minute mash when using rice. I'd go for the full 90.

M_C

 

[maltbarleyhops]

lack of or under converted.

colour -
im on my 3rd round of my pilsner. when its going into lagering, the colour of the 5 gal carbouy is near what a newcastle BA looks like in a bottle. but when you tap a standard pilsner glass of it, its so light and pale. kinda like a pastel yellow.

taste -
rice shouldnt have a taste at the 15% you show here. try this, take a taste with your nose pinched shut. your olfactory senses are designed to work with your taste receptors and at times will override your taste.

 

[oceanselv]

You may want to change the recipe slightly to give a more malty taste. Try using all pilsner malt instead of a mixture of pils and 2 row. Adding a small amount of cara-pils will also aid in head retention. Also try lowering your mash temp to 149 or 150. The conversion may take longer but the lower temps will give you a clean crisp taste. Hop additions like fine.

 

[BigEd]

Mobstar, I agree with the last three posters in that maybe you did not get the correct conversion in the mash and left a lot of flavor behind. Perhaps the malt wasn't milled fine enough, or everything wasn't mixed in well enough or some other problem. Changing the malt to all pilsner is also a good idea. Try again. A pound of rice and 9 pounds of malt should make a pretty good beer.

 

[barrooze]

Do you know if your thermometer is calibrated correctly? If it's reading higher than it should, you might not get full conversion of the pilsner after 60 minutes. What was the preboil gravity and yeast?