What flavor does rice lend to a brew?

[Xier]

I am planning to use rice in my upcoming brew and would like to know more about the taste(s) it imparts on the final product. Have any of you ever used rice to brew? How well does it ferment? If I use a heavy dosage of non-fermentable specialty grains, how much rice would it take to balance my brew?

As always, thanks for the help!

 

[onthekeg]

Rice will "lighten" the flavor since it will contribute to alcohol but won't lend any maltiness or body to the beer.
I don't use it, but I do use corn in my adjunct lagers, and they would have similar traits.

 

[two_one_seven]

Rice adds very little to a beer. It ferments fine. It's normally used in american style lagers, think budwiser, miller and coors. If your not brewing this style then i'ts not going to be what your looking for.

Give us some information like recipie and the style you are going for and perphaps we can help more.

 

[Xier]

Onthekeg,
Does rice have any astringent aromas or tastes? Every single time that I drink a Chinese or American Pale Lager, I always feel that they taste like astringent piss. Well, at the very least, they taste like what I imagine astringent piss to taste like.

Two one seven,
Ok, that is what is important to me. I just want to be sure that the unpleasant tastes of Budweiser do not end up in the profile of my brew.

As a foreword to this recipe, I know that it is generally discouraged but I am the kind of person that likes to jump into something at a difficulty far higher than what I am ready for. I will not allude to my novity in brewing, it is how I learn and I am quite proud of my curiosity.

To answer your question, the recipe thus far is:
10% Roasted Barley
8% Flaked Barley
8% Oatmeal
8% Germinated and Roasted Peanuts
15% Black Rice
51% Pale Malt

I plan to call the style "Tianjin Royal Stout", once I have perfected it to being an actual style that is. At first, it will likely be lucky to even be classified as drinkable.

The point of the rice is two-fold. Firstly, I need to offset the heavy body that will be introduced by the peanuts and oatmeal. Secondly, The colour of royalty is purple and the black rice imparts a purple hue.

The complete write-up of what I am attempting can be found here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/my-first-brew-aka-brewing-nothing-pics-299885/

 

[TopherM]

Just FYI, using whole peanuts is going to kill your head retention and overall carbonation. The lipids/oils in the peanuts bond with carbonation like crazy and basically neutralize it. Same idea as the oil from your nose on soda carbonation - it's a killer!

Most brewers that want peanut flavor without the bothersome fats/oils will use peanut butter powder, like this:

http://www.google.com/products/cata...=X&ei=n9BDT5GbCs2ftweQqOyuBQ&ved=0CGwQ8wIwAQ#

 

[Homercidal]

More than likely, the piss flavor you encountered was a combination of fermentation profile and hops. Rice doesn't really add anything flavor wise that I can tell. But it can thin the beer down.

Bud uses rice.

Miller uses corn.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

To the OP: Kudos for striking out and plowing new ground. That's how we progress as an endeavor. If you want to really know what difference the rice makes, try brewing 2 batches back to back. One with the rice and one with an equal quantity of base malt such as 2 row or 6 row.

 

[Native302]

I brewed 10 gallons of an American pilsner last week with a tripple decoction with rice that came out great, sample I took today taste very good.

15lb Pils
12oz crystal 40
8oz carapils
5lbs flaked rice
saaz and cascade hops

 

[Schumed]

I brewed with rice once...triple cream ale.
7lb 2 row
2lb flaked corn
1lb flaked rice
.5lb Carapils

cascade 60minutes
cascade 10minutes

American Ale yeast

If you looking to go for a plain american light beer that isn't a lager..this will do it...pretty basic beer but appeals to my friends who don't like the more complex stuff.

Personally I don't think the rice added anything to this batch other than let me call it "Triple"

Also remember don't get rice confused with rice hulls. Rice hulls are used to help with sparging and nothing else.

 

[TTB-J]

That "astringent piss" flavor you talk about, in my opinion, is probably a combination of DMS and the fact that most of those beers are dry and highly carbonated. I definitely do not think it's the adjuncts causing that.

 

[Xier]

TopherM,
I am hoping that the flaked barley and oats will be able to counter the peanut oils to some degree. Also, sprouting the peanuts should remove some thirty percent of the lipids. Only time will tell though. Do you think that changing the flaked barley to flaked wheat would be of any use?

Homercidal,
That is great to hear. I hope it will work out how I have planned.

William_shakes_beer,
That is a great idea but for this first batch I want to figure out which yeast is a keeper. When I get that down, I will try to move out into adjusting the ingredients and such.

Native302,
Great, I am planning to use Saaz as well. What benefits do you think came from using flaked rice over non-flaked?

Schumed,
Actually, I am going for a beer that is pretty full bodied. I want to use the rice to make sure that it is not *too* full bodied.

TTB-J,
I guess that I will find out soon enough. it seems the majority opinion is that rice will be just fine.

Thank you all for your advice and experiences.