Wild Rice?

[Thaumaturgist]

I'm just curious if any one knows if you could make a beer using wild rice? Any recipes? I go out ricing every fall, and I'm always looking for new things to do w/ the rice.

Thanks in advance!

 

[sirsloop]

do you like sake? Thats basically rice brew...

 

[flippindiscs]

I know Minocqua Brewing Co. in northern Wisconsin use to make a wild rice ale that was okay. Not the best brew in the world but they did it. Not sure how much rice needs to be used for a 5 gal batch but I would expect it does not take much since it has a strong taste. I think it would be more for the flavor of the rice vs using it as fermentable sugars.

 

[Thaumaturgist]

do you like sake? Thats basically rice brew...

I don't know. I've never tried it. I know a buddy of mine has tried it and didn't like it though. I just thought it would be a novel project.

 

[Orfy]

You can't make beer from rice. But you can use it as an adjunct (addition).

Where do you live?

 

[Buford]

Wild rice and white rice (what sake is made from) taste completely different. Wild rice has a bit of a nutty taste to it.

 

[Fish]

What does "ricing" entail? You go out hunting wild rice? Never heard of it.

 

[Thaumaturgist]

You can't make beer from rice. But you can use it as an adjunct (addition).

Where do you live?

I live in Minnesota

What does "ricing" entail? You go out hunting wild rice? Never heard of it.

Wild rice is technically a grass/reed that grows in some shallow lakes, and slow moving rivers. The "rice" is the seed heads that form. Basically you can rice with one person, or two. When the rice is ripe (Around here, it's usually late August, Sept.) you take a canoe out and one person pushes the canoe through the rice "reeds" and the other person has two poles that they use to pull in the rice, and then hit the reeds to make the rice fall off into the canoe. Then when you have collected the rice, it has to be processed to remove the hull from the rice. It's a lot of work for some wild rice, but it's a good way to spend some time in the great outdoors.

 

[Orfy]

Sounds good.

You can put some in beer but not much. It's used because it's cheap adds little colour or flavour.

 

[Rhoobarb]

Perfect timing for this question, as I am doing my first ever wild rice lager this weekend! So, I've been doing some research on this. In fact, I was working on the recipe last night. I've thought about brewing a wild rice lager ever since I had James Page Boundry Waters Lager which was made with wild rice. I used to love it on a hot, sunny day. Sadly, JPB was bought out by some marketing types a few years ago and run into the ground.

Wild rice is a grass, not a really a 'rice' at all. It has to me harvested in paddies, usually in Minnesota, Michigan, northern Wisconsin and Canada. From what I've read, you have to be licensed to do that. Because of that, it is expensive to brew with. I found it on sale at a local grocery this week for $12/lb. - and I'm using 1.5 lbs. (11%) in my recipe! I'm sure it would've been cheaper getting it by mail-order, but I was too lazy and shelled out the $$$. If you can get it cheap, do it! It is dark brown in color and adds a nutty flavor. Using 10%-20% in your grain bill is recomended.

BYO has some good info here.

 

[Thaumaturgist]

Perfect timing for this question, as I am doing my first ever wild rice lager this weekend! So, I've been doing some research on this. In fact, I was working on the recipe last night. I've thought about brewing a wild rice lager ever since I had James Page Boundry Waters Lager which was made with wild rice. I used to love it on a hot, sunny day. Sadly, JPB was bought out by some marketing types a few years ago and run into the ground.

Wild rice is a grass, not a really a 'rice' at all. It has to me harvested in paddies, usually in Minnesota, Michigan, northern Wisconsin and Cancada. From what I've read, you have to be licensed to do that. Because of that, it is expensive to brew with. I found it on sale at a local grocery this week for $12/lb. - and I'm using 1.5 lbs. (11%) in my recipe! I'm sure it would've been cheaper getting it by mail-order, but I was too lazy and shelled out the $$$. If you can get it cheap, do it! It is dark brown in color and adds a nutty flavor. Using 10%-20% in your grain bill is recomended.

BYO has some good info here.

It can get expensive to buy it. And yes, you definitely have to be licensed here in MN to harvest, and there are all kinds of regulations that deal with it. Everything from your canoe width, to the weight of the beating rods. A one day license is about $16.00, and then you can expect to pay some more for someone to parch, and separate the grain from the hull for you. On an OK day my partner and I can gather approximately 80-100 lbs of unprocessed rice. Expect to loose approximately 50 percent of the weight when the hull is removed. So you are talking approximately 25 to 50 lbs of rice split between two people. I figure that if I buy the one day license I end up paying about $3.00 per pound, plus the day spent doing some hard labor. You can buy a season license too, and if you go out, and the more you go the cheaper it gets.

 

[Rhoobarb]

... I figure that if I buy the one day license I end up paying about $3.00 per pound, plus the day spent doing some hard labor...

Sounds like a good deal! Plus, you're outdoors and you've done it yourself!

 

[pjj2ba]

Rice is a grass, as is barley, wheat, corn, etc. Wild "rice" is most closely related to wild oats.

Man, first is was the spelling police, and now its the Botany police.