Yesterday I bought a 100g bag of wild rice from Coles for 3 dollars. Quite expensive, at least downunder. It was from a Canadian company called "Cambrian" and was organic. I opened the bag and caught a whiff of the very intense walnutty aroma. I'm just cooking it up to taste for dinner tonight and decide whether I want it in my beers. I'll let you know how it tastes, but I'm hoping that aroma stays in it after the 45 minute (!) cooking time.
Randy Mosher's book "Radical Brewing" has two suggestions for brewing with wild rice.
His "Wild Rizen" involves swapping out 2 pounds of wheat in his
Weizen recipe (which uses 49% wheat, 35%
SIX-row, and 16% munich) for 2 pounds of wild rice. Grind it into grits, then "cook" in water (boil? simmer?) for 30-45 minutes/till tender, then add to the mash. Obviously be aware that this method may have some sort of decoction effect.
His other idea is to enhance the nuttiness of an
Extra Special Bitter, which involves swapping out 1 pound of the pale malt for 1 pound of cooked wild rice grits, or to simply add it without substitution for a slightly stronger beer. He also suggests using less pungent hops than usual, and also a high-attenuating English ale yeast.
Let me know if I helped.
I'll post back about my dinner and any brews I do with wild rice.
EDIT: Actually he does say add "cooked wild rice grits" to the ESB mash. Oops. I've edited the paragraph to reflect this.