International Pale Lager Japanese Rice Lager

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Kegged mine up last week. Soooo light and easy drinking. Maybe a touch too light. I think I would back it down from 30% rice to 20% just to get a little more pilsner malt character. The light cashmere dry hop worked nicely giving a soft citrus and floral aroma with just the slightest hint on honeydew.
FA46AF35-CAFB-4EFE-961C-499C384FB333.jpeg
 
Kegged mine up last week. Soooo light and easy drinking. Maybe a touch too light. I think I would back it down from 30% rice to 20% just to get a little more pilsner malt character. The light cashmere dry hop worked nicely giving a soft citrus and floral aroma with just the slightest hint on honeydew. View attachment 717046
Looks great!
 
Kegged mine up last week. Soooo light and easy drinking. Maybe a touch too light. I think I would back it down from 30% rice to 20% just to get a little more pilsner malt character. The light cashmere dry hop worked nicely giving a soft citrus and floral aroma with just the slightest hint on honeydew. View attachment 717046
Carbonation looks good as well.
How much did you carbobated? Co2 volume ... 3.0?
Didn't had time to do it last weekend.... hopefully will have time this week.
I have the intention as well to lower a bit the rice to 25% 😅
 
I have 10 pounds of Vienna malt and a fresh bag of jasmine rice pieces. Thinking about brewing this again with Vienna instead of pilsner, and some Crystal hops. Not sure if I'll go 20% rice or 25%.

So many beers to brew, so few weekends to do it.
 
Carbonation looks good as well.
How much did you carbobated? Co2 volume ... 3.0?
Didn't had time to do it last weekend.... hopefully will have time this week.
I have the intention as well to lower a bit the rice to 25% 😅

I’ll be honest. I have no idea what I’m carbing to. I burst carbed at 35psi for about 18 hours. Checked it. Needed a little more. 35psi for another 6-8 hours. Let it sit a couple days and it was perfect and bright.

pretty much how I carb every beer. I do it to taste and mouthfeel
 
Today i brew this rice beer.
Well i ended up putting
3.18 kg pilsner (70%)
1.30 kg of jasmin rice (28.4%)
0.1 kg acidulated (2.2%)
1/2 table spoon calcium chloride

Cascade 7gr. At 60 min.
Perle 7gr. At 20 min.
Citra 7gr. At 20 min.
Citra 7gr. At 10 min

My ph was 5.3
Got a OG 1.057
Next time i will gave to lower my grain because OG was supposed to be 1.048 !!
But it went very well.
Cant wait to try it 🤣
 
Today i brew this rice beer.
Well i ended up putting
3.18 kg pilsner (70%)
1.30 kg of jasmin rice (28.4%)
0.1 kg acidulated (2.2%)
1/2 table spoon calcium chloride

Cascade 7gr. At 60 min.
Perle 7gr. At 20 min.
Citra 7gr. At 20 min.
Citra 7gr. At 10 min

My ph was 5.3
Got a OG 1.057
Next time i will gave to lower my grain because OG was supposed to be 1.048 !!
But it went very well.
Cant wait to try it 🤣
It'll still be beer! That's all that matters. :bigmug:
 
Brulosohpy did an experiment with 34/70 at ale temperature. Apparently it was indistinguishable from one fermented at lager temps... I haven't done it but it might be worth a try. Otherwise a kolsch yeast like 029 is a great choice for this beer.

The rice flavor might come througha little. I don't really detect it. It's mostly to lighten the body and a bit of fun/interesting way to brew

Good luck and post back with your results!
This is a bit late to the party, but I've tried 34/70 at 67 (ambient house temp) and it worked great. Currently trying it at the same temp with a rice lager recipe and I'm getting way more sulfur/egg smells than normal. We'll see how it cleans up.
 
This is a bit late to the party, but I've tried 34/70 at 67 (ambient house temp) and it worked great. Currently trying it at the same temp with a rice lager recipe and I'm getting way more sulfur/egg smells than normal. We'll see how it cleans up.

there’s been a big social media buzz about Wayfinders “cold IPA” the last couple of weeks. They use 34/70 at 65f for that beer and still get a nice clean character. Brulosophy has used the Augustiner yeast (imperial harvest/omega bayern) the same way fermenting it warm.
 
If you ferment in a corny keg you can also ferment lager yeast warm (room temp) under pressure and get similar results to fermenting cold not under pressure.

I’ve always wondered what you do with all of the yeast and trub at the bottom when you ferment in keg. I always go a 5.5-6g batch to account for loss when xfering to keg.
 
You leave it there. I brew 3-4 gal batches most of the time anyway, though.

Also, they make 10gal corny kegs. :)
 
You leave it there. I brew 3-4 gal batches most of the time anyway, though.

Also, they make 10gal corny kegs. :)

How do you leave it there; do you have to trim a little off the dip tube? Also maybe the first mug you draw is a nasty mess of yeast and then they are clear after that? I assume you mean you serve it from the fermenter.
 
Today i brew this rice beer.
Well i ended up putting
3.18 kg pilsner (70%)
1.30 kg of jasmin rice (28.4%)
0.1 kg acidulated (2.2%)
1/2 table spoon calcium chloride

Cascade 7gr. At 60 min.
Perle 7gr. At 20 min.
Citra 7gr. At 20 min.
Citra 7gr. At 10 min

My ph was 5.3
Got a OG 1.057
Next time i will gave to lower my grain because OG was supposed to be 1.048 !!
But it went very well.
Cant wait to try it 🤣

I wanted to give update ...
Started the fermentation 15th of February.at 13 degrees. I used the 34/70 yeast. On the 6th of march i did a ez rest fermentation at 14 degrees. Why did i do a ez-rest? Honestly i had some neck problem and didn't feel lifting 21 liters if beer lol. So for me that was a very convenient reason to extend the fermentation. I transfered today to a secondary. My FG on my refractometer was 1.025. My OG was 1.057 so it bring me to a 1.010. It smelled really good. I lowered the temperature to 11 degrees now. I will continue lower the temperature every day by 2-3 degrees per day until i will reach 1 degree. I intend to lager it for at least 5 weeks.
Cant wait to taste it!!! 🍻
 
How do you leave it there; do you have to trim a little off the dip tube? Also maybe the first mug you draw is a nasty mess of yeast and then they are clear after that? I assume you mean you serve it from the fermenter.

As @kmarkstevens said, I use a floating dip tube (CBDS, specifically). People do clip their dip tubes, though.
 
In some cases, yes. For heavily dry-hopped beers I sometimes transfer to a serving keg, but for lagers I mostly serve in the fermenting keg. I recently left a mild and a Helles on the yeast for several months without any issues.

From what I understand the fears of yeast autolysis are overblown and unlikely to occur with the fermenter geometry and volumes homebrewers use.
 
In some cases, yes. For heavily dry-hopped beers I sometimes transfer to a serving keg, but for lagers I mostly serve in the fermenting keg. I recently left a mild and a Helles on the yeast for several months without any issues.

From what I understand the fears of yeast autolysis are overblown and unlikely to occur with the fermenter geometry and volumes homebrewers use.
Thanks for the info.

I have had some jars of yeast slurry in the fridge for over an year without getting funky which made me wonder if you really have to worry so much about getting the beer of the yeast. Something else that I have noticed is beer over saved yeast seems to clear better and faster than some of the beers in the kegs.
I really like the idea of fermenting and serving from the same keg, not looking to go out a year but maybe 3 or 4 months combined conditioning and serving.
 
I have not actually tried fermenting and serving from the keg but perhaps I should.

In my experience, the case for leaving wort on the yeast cake and getting off flavors is seriously overblown.

@deadwolfbones Do you have an airlock on your keg, or periodically vent the release valve or some other trick?
 
I have not actually tried fermenting and serving from the keg but perhaps I should.

In my experience, the case for leaving wort on the yeast cake and getting off flavors is seriously overblown.

@deadwolfbones Do you have an airlock on your keg, or periodically vent the release valve or some other trick?
I just use a gas QD blowoff until ferm is done and then seal it up for the crash.

Sometimes I use a spunding valve at the end of ferm.
 
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Haven't tried this specific recipe, but a Japanese rice lager is definitely on my 'To Brew' list at some point.
I made one a little while ago sort of based on the original recipe in this thread. Got scared off from using sorachi ace tho (too many people told me to was way too dill forward) and used Saaz in its place. What I made was good, but tasted more like American lager than anything else. Going to try again with sorachi ace I think but not 100% on the rest of the recipe yet
 
My last lager was a rice adjunct lager.

85% American 2row and 15% minute rice, bittered with magnum and late hops of saphir to 20IBU, fermented with S-23. I was shooting for 4.5%ABV but better efficiency and attenuation then planned took it to 5.4ABV.

It is still lagering and I have not tried it yet but it at about 6weeks so I should take a taste soon to see how things are going.
 
If you're looking to stay "authentic", keep in mind that Japanese macro adjunct lagers contain not only rice but corn as well, and also some kind of mystery starch (it just says "starch" on the label).
 
If I had to guess, I'd imagine it's something like maltodextrin. Someone who took the brewery tour nearby said that they use two yeasts for Super Dry. Maybe the second one dries it out so much that they need to add a little body back? Just a wild guess.

One of these days I should buy a can of Super Dry and check the final gravity.
 
I used corn starch once, got gravity points like I used corn sugar but it did not dry it out like a pound a corn sugar would have.

Most adjuncts cost more than barley malt for the homebrewers but corn starch is almost the same price. Easy to work with too, just mixed with the malt and mashed as normal.
 
If you're looking to stay "authentic", keep in mind that Japanese macro adjunct lagers contain not only rice but corn as well, and also some kind of mystery starch (it just says "starch" on the label).
Honestly I’m not as concerned with authenticity as I am with flavor. I imagine the “starch” contribution is just whatever cheap neutral source of starch they can use to create sugar and ultimately dry out the beer. I should be able to use just rice in the right relative amount to achieve the same thing.
 
I've been in Japan for 20+ years. I'd say go with the Saaz, definitely not the Sorachi Ace.

As far as flavor is concerned, I honestly don't get much flavor out of Japanese adjunct lagers. I'm always a bit perplexed when people want to clone them. I guess it's just a challenge that people want to attempt?

Japanese adjunct lagers are clean and dry. It's not so much about the rice. It's about the process.
 
I used corn starch once, got gravity points like I used corn sugar but it did not dry it out like a pound a corn sugar would have.

Most adjuncts cost more than barley malt for the homebrewers but corn starch is almost the same price. Easy to work with too, just mixed with the malt and mashed as normal.
I prefer flaked rice rather than cereal mashing plain rice for rice lagers ( love them ). I have found that Indian/sub continent grocers sell flaked rice that is half the price of home brew shop flaked rice and works the same.
 
I've been in Japan for 20+ years. I'd say go with the Saaz, definitely not the Sorachi Ace.

As far as flavor is concerned, I honestly don't get much flavor out of Japanese adjunct lagers. I'm always a bit perplexed when people want to clone them. I guess it's just a challenge that people want to attempt?

Japanese adjunct lagers are clean and dry. It's not so much about the rice. It's about the process.

I like rice lagers in summer ( australia ), and I’m after clean, light bodied and dry. Do you dry hop with Saaz?.

I actually prefer adjunct lagers to fuller body euro lagers
 

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