Cook rice the night before brew day?

[jwalker1140]

I'm making a cream ale this weekend that calls for a pound of rice. I'm going to use normal long grain rice because I have one of those huge Costco-sized bags that I can't seem to use up.

Can I cook the rice the night before and just let it sit out in a sealed Tupperware container until I add it to the mash the next day or is it important to cook it the day of? I did a search and found a post where one person mentioned something about oxidation but I don't know at what point that would become a problem, assuming it's a real risk.

Just trying to cut down on what needs to happen on brew day. Thanks!

 

[ChessRockwell]

I have no experience brewing using rice, but it looks like the last poster in this thread (Dr Malt) has some pretty good information:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/mashing-rice-22697/index2.html

Hopefully that helps a little. As far as cooking it the night before, I would think it would be best to avoid that, as you're only giving bacteria and other bad things more time to find and attack your rice.

 

[Stauffbier]

I've never used this method, but if I did I would cook the night before, chill it quickly, store it in the fridge over night and then put it in the mash the next day. That is just a theory on my part, though....

 

[jwalker1140]

Thanks for the replies. That post by Dr. Malt is the one that initially had me concerned about oxidization.

Since this will be my first time brewing with rice, and because I'm using a fresh vile of yeast that I intend to rinse for future batches, I think I'll go the safe route this time and buy some minute rice. That should give me a solid benchmark against which I can compare future experiments. Thanks again!

 

[TimpanogosSlim]

I've brewed with brown rice a few times and have had no off flavors.

The first time, i cooked it according to instructions to make perfect brown rice in a pressure cooker. 2x water by volume and 18 minutes at pressure, then take it off the heat and wait for the pressure to drop naturally.

The 2nd time, I used too much water and held it at pressure for 20 minutes, waited for the pressure to drop naturally, and then added it to about 25% of my strike water in a 14qt pot, heated to the same temperature as the rest of the strike water.

When the 75% batch of strike water reached my target temperature, i added that water to the mash tun.

Then i added the non-rice portions of the grain bill.

Then i added the goopy rice soup and stirred before lidding up. 30% of the grain bill, no rice hulls added, and no problems sparging w/ morebeer stainless false bottom.

I'm pretty sure i got better extraction the 2nd time, but the 1st time the extraction wasn't exactly bad either.

I've never used minute rice or flaked rice. My guess is that flaked whole rice, unless shipped and stored frozen or packed in nitrogen or co2, oxidizes right on the shelf, where brown rice has a longer shelf life because the hull has not been badly damaged.

That would be consistent with wheat, anyway. You can store whole wheat for a long freakin time. A year or three just in a bucket with a tight lid. A super long time if you nitrogen flush it before sealing the container. I know this because i grew up in a house where we milled the wheat for our bread. I can state from experience that whole wheat flour starts to lose it's flavor in hours. In days it's sub par. In weeks it's slightly rancid. After 2 months or so i consider it inedible. I've never had a mass-market whole wheat product that did not taste rancid to me, because i grew up eating bread made from freshly milled flour.

 

[jwalker1140]

TimpanogosSlim, thanks for this information. One of the other concerns I had about cooking rice on brew day was missing my mash temp. Your 2nd attempt is an approach that I hadn't considered and seems like a great solution. I'll probably do something like this next time.

 

[tre9er]

I'm thinking of doing this with basmati rice that I have on hand. Probably cook it tonight (measure the recipe weight in UNCOOKED rice, right?) and store in tupperware until tomorrow. It's only 0.5lb, so I'll add it to the mash first while strike is a touch high, then dough in with the rest of the grain.