All grain malted rice brewing is currently kicking my ass

[EVILEMRE]

Okay so let me try to explain.
I used professionally malted pale rice. They didn't have any specialty malts so I baked 6.25 pounds to a dark brown.
I used 9 pounds of the pale rice malt. I was told by the malter that the rice malt would give me 10% less compared to barley of the same amount, so hence my large grain bill.
Mashed with 5 gallons at 170° and had a fairly thick mash.
Checked temp at 60 minutes and dropped to 153°. Iodine test was not great, quick to black.
Added 1 gallon water at 161° and left for 30 minutes.
Did the iodine test and it wasn't great again, still full of starch. Decided to lauter anyway with 190° sparge.
It was difficult to lauter, it did not want to drain. By the time I had enough wort the temperature had dropped considerably, 100°.
Boiled and all that, cooled to 79° and OG was 1.030 + 2 for temp adjustment and I was at 1.032. Not great right.
Added 1 pound of corn sugar, boiled and cooled, New OG was 1.037, and pitched yeast.
Hydrometer check after 1 week was 1.020
Bottled, not sure why, 1 week after that with a FG at 1.020.

So my alcohol content in the end is 2.2 and pathetic.

Any thoughts, suggestions, critiques. I'm new to all grain brewing and I'm unsure about everything. And I cannot get these grains to convert their starches well.
This is also my first post on this site so be gentle and speak in simple terms.

 

[Legume]

The malted rice is probably not as rich in enzymes as you would like.
if you can get "Promalt" or one of the other comercial enzyme coctails, that would probably take care of the poor conversion.

if you cant get any of the brewing enzyme coctails (they are unfortunately only readilly available to comercial brewers) you can try adding alpha amylase and gluco amylase to your mash...it will help but they are not as effective as the liquid enzymeblends used by comercial breweries.

 

[igliashon]

Your problem was mashing in at 170°F. I'm guessing you're using Gambrinus rice malt...curious where you got it. Anyway, make sure to grind it sufficiently, you want to go a bit finer than barley. Mash in ABSOLUTELY NO HIGHER than 158°F. Don't do a mash out. This stuff doesn't typically hit full conversion until after lautering, so you want to lauter at around 158°F.

The rice malt should be sufficiently diastatic to self-convert, unless they lied to me. I haven't tried the stuff myself as it's not produced in a dedicated facility, but I have explored the possibility of it.

 

[EVILEMRE]

Thanks for the tips. I was just guessing on everything with this brew. I'm not a fan of rice malt, and have found my true love, millet.
By the way, I dumped this batch after a few attempts to drink it.

 

[Bobbybob]

Oh crap! I just bought 9 pounds of it.

 

[EVILEMRE]

Perhaps you'll have better luck than me. Let me know how it goes.

 

[Bobbybob]

So I just got it in the fermenter and I have to say that stuff smells like chlorine. It also has a white/gray tinge to it. I decided to do a 2.5 gallon batch I did a double decoction mash to try to get a little better extract. I hit 1.040 but that was it so I added 1 pound of dark brown sugar to get to my goal of 1.050. I just hope the smell goes away.

 

[EVILEMRE]

Oh that smell. My second batch of rice beer I cut with half buckwheat and it still smells. Although after a month in the bottle it's easing. So if you don't mind letting your beer mature for a while I'd leave it in the bottle longer.
I have some information coming to me about rice malt and how to remove the smell. As soon as I have it I'll post it here. I was told it involves boiling the malt.
I also roasted some of my rice malt so I didn't have to look at that ugly colour.

 

[EVILEMRE]

The only thing I've learned about rice is to boil it for at least 90 minutes during the boil stage, to help remove the smell. My second batch of rice beer included buckwheat as an adjunct and the flavour is much better, great head retention, as well as the smell as lessened. And the smell does dissipate in time. My second and third batches with rice malt are mellowing out after a month in the bottle. Alcohol content was still low though. Rice apparently has enough enzymes to convert itself but if adjuncts are being added, especially buckwheat I'll use amylase next time. My next rice malt attempt is going to use millet and rice. Who knows what will happen.

 

[ricemaltster]

For starters...sorry people are having trouble with rice malt! I believe all of your experiences have been with Gambrinus malt. Gambrinus malting company is a great barley malting company. Their entry into rice malting has not been optimal. Their malt did have fragrance and taste issues. They have since pulled their product off the market. They may be back in the rice malting market if they can determine what went wrong and take corrective measures.

I also malt rice for brewing. I hope you will not give up on rice malt for producing great beer. That said, brewing with rice malt is much more challenging than barley. Rice malt is much lower in enzyme activity than barley. Mash times are extensive (3 hours or possibly more). Single infusion mash at 150F are possible, but step mash and decoction mash tend to work better. Addition of enzymes is an option, but I would suggest trying a batch without prior to this method. When using rice as an adjunct, barley brewers heat the rice to get gelatinization of the starch. This is generally achieved by boiling. As mentioned by one of the earlier people posting, this process will likely denature all the enzymes in rice malt and result in low or no conversion of starch. The variety of rice I use has a gelatinization temperature around 150F, so no need to exceed this by much.

Please see a similar thread on this forum for additional information.

Cheers,
Jim

 

[EVILEMRE]

I believe you ricemaltster, and I look forward to the day I can try again with rice. I live down the street from Gambrinus and have had a few chats with the owners, who will be trying again. Until then......
Do you have a step mash or decoction mash schedule you could share?

 

[ricemaltster]

I use what I believe to be a fairly standard step mash/decoction mash. I usually start with a protein rest in the 45-50C range (113-122F) for 30 minutes or so. I then generally heat portions of the mash to 65-70C then mix back to main mash until reach 55C (131F). I will hold this for 60 minutes plus, then heat portions of mash again and reintroduce to main mash until mash hits 65C (150F) and hold until iodine test is close to complete. I generally heat portions again until I hit 70C (158F) for 15-20 minutes. Then sparge and slowly heat to boil (there may be residual starch that needs to convert in the wort prior to full boil).

This is much more complicated than barley, but generally necessary due to limited enzyme activity in rice. Depending on enzyme activity of other gluten free malts (i.e. millet) there may be an opportunity to reduce mash times. Addition of outside enzymes may improve mash time also. I have not worked on either of these possibilities yet, so I can't comment directly on their use.

Hope this is helpful.

 

[glutarded-chris]

Just a question. You mention "sparge and slowly heat to boil". I thought that the sparge was performed after collecting first runnings in wart collection. When you say "sparge" does that mean add additional water before heating to boil to thin the mash?

After you heat to a boil, do you reduce for another rest? You don't boil and then immediately collect wart do you?

 

[ricemaltster]

I guess I was not clear in my response. When I mentioned boil I was referring to after collection of first runnings and any sparge of grain bed you would normally do. This would be the normal boil of all collected wort. The collected wort at time of boil may still have some residual starch and the slow heating of the boil will allow remaining enzymes to break down the starch before inactivation with the high heat of boil. Gambrinus malting also recommended this procedure for the same reason.

 

[glutarded-chris]

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks!

 

[Stickandstring63]

Thanks for the tips. I was just guessing on everything with this brew. I'm not a fan of rice malt, and have found my true love, millet.
By the way, I dumped this batch after a few attempts to drink it.

I was just given 25 lbs of millet. Never used it not sure what to do with it