Rice Syrup Beer

[ExperimentalBrewer]

I brewed a beer from rice syrup, the kind you get in the Korean grocery store (I can't guarantee this is gluten free). The problem with it is it is very cloudy. Clarity isn't the most important thing for me, but I am curious if others can make suggestions. I don't use fining because it hasn't been a big concern for me up to this point.

Here is the recipe:
25oz rice syrup from Korean market
1t ground coffee
1T molasses
1oz casscade.

all boiled 45min in 1 Gal water. The idea behind the coffee and the molasses was to provide some color.

I don't have gravity readings.

4 weeks in primary all activity seemed to stop.
dry hopped w/ 0.25oz casscade for a couple days.
cold crashed in fridge for 1 week.
bottled in 2l bottles to see if it would clear under pressure.

after 1 week, you see the picture. The pressure isn't very great yet.

Any thoughts?

 

[ericbw]

Did it carb? Taste like beer?

 

[ExperimentalBrewer]

Did it carb? Taste like beer?

it is carbing, it's not done yet. When I filled the bottle I squeezed all the air out and the bottle was crumpled, you see now it has expanded, but the bottle is not rock hard.

It smells nice, it tastes pretty thin, a little fruity. I think it will be pretty drinkable when it carbs. I don't expect much given it's ingredients.

I'm just a little puzzled by the cloudy finish. It doesn't seem to have any bacterial infection, it should have been mostly frementable. I don't remember if I mentioned; the yeast is Red Star Pasteur, probably not the most flocculant, I usually have OK luck with it.

 

[Legume]

Every time I have made beer from rice syrup or unmalted rice (mashed with enzymes), it has been very slow to clear and never gets crystal clear.
It can taste good though.

 

[xflibble]

Here are two recent brews, one sorghum-based, another Korean rice malt syrup. As darker beers with no finings, they seem OK. I have another pure rice malt beer on the go and it is less cloudy than yours. Other brews with Belgian wit yeasts are really cloudy, as expected. Can also report that a parallel gluten/rice malt wit yeast experiment results in the rice malt version being much trubbier.

The lighter photo is the rice malt beer, used Mangrove Jack Belgian Ale yeast. Partial mash with flaked sorghum cereal. My other rice ale is using Mangrove Jacks new world strong ale. Should be bottled this weekend, I will try to post an update when carbonated.

Apologies for the bad orientation on pics

 

[ExperimentalBrewer]

your beers look great. Mine isn't making much progress. Even the carbing is going slowly. we'll see. I'll just let it ride and see were we end up.

 

[xflibble]

Everything we have done with rice malt syrup seems to take longer. We brewed a gluten wit and gluten-free recipe side-by-side with the same yeast, rice malt version took twice as long. At some point will try some experiments to see what that is about

 

[xflibble]

For comparison too, a not-quite-finished rice malt syrup beer using a wit yeast. Much cloudier. I realise too that pretty much all of the rice malt beer have 50-100 grams of some other simple sugar syrup (golden syrup, molasses), but you have used a little too.

Reading a little more about your yeast, what kind of beers/malts have you used it on before? I have a suspicion that the rice malt syrup is almost pure maltose (no idea how to test though), and a discussion on that yeast says it only really works on simple sugars...Maybe it hasn't been able to convert much.

 

[ExperimentalBrewer]

ok, I put took a gravity reading.... it is really high 1.020.

So I am thinking to get some ale yeast in there and see if we can get to finish. Does that sound like a good plan?

 

[xflibble]

Based on my experience, yeah, it should finish with ale yeast (a little slowly). Thanks for confirming my theory

 

[ExperimentalBrewer]

It has been almost 2 weeks since I put the ale yeast in. The gravity is down to 1.005 and I'm pretty happy with the taste, so I'm going to call it done. I'm going to bottle and let it carb and enjoy it despite the lack of clarity. In another 2 weeks I'll post a pict of it poured in a glass.

I just got some Nottingham yeast. I think I will try another batch with a similar recipe and that yeast. I'll have to visit the korean market again