Brew A Rice Stout

A full recipe for how to brew a rice stout.
It is similar to an oatmeal stout, but using flaked rice rather than oats. Lightly based on the style of an English stout, with crystal malt and chocolate wheat malt to give it richness and a smooth finish.
This is an extremely balanced ale, that is light enough to be refreshing during summer, yet rich enough to satisfy any dark beer lover during winter in front of the fire.
The yeast used is White Labs WLP002.
#fermentation #braumeister #fermenting #homebrew #homebrewing #speidel #whitelabs #WLP #002 #ssbrewtech #ricebeer

[@paulschroeter4987]

corn would be interesting to try. but.... i think the rice is a good option in fact i think rice is the best option

[@brewandbuild]

😁I love the way you talked yourself around there.
Corn would work I'm sure, and would probably create a nice beer. However, I find corn thins a beer out quite a lot, whereas rice leaves a nice smooth body and some sort of residual sweetness.

[@philipdrew1066]

I lived and worked in Sri Lanka in the early 90's and am fairly sure they used Rice in their beers. I always associated Rice with severe hangovers based on my drinking experience there

[@brewandbuild]

😂😂 I have a feeling we might be blaming the volume consumed, rather than the rice alone.
I haven't had that effect from my rice brewing, but then I don't drink it in anywhere quite the volume of my younger years....

[@iancrofton4857]

I have to say im a convert to chocolate wheat malt. I find regular chocolate malt (barley) can be harsh depending on usage. Im only new to the chocolate wheat train so i look forward to using it again in my next stout. Cheers from Ireland

[@brewandbuild]

Without doing a direct comparison brew, I would say that so far, my experience is also that it's smoother.
Thanks for sharing your experiences.

[@grahamhawes7089]

This is such an interesting idea! Sounds great. I may have to brew something like this tomorrow.
Do you feel that the chocolate wheat was indeed “softer” than a traditional chocolate malt?

[@brewandbuild]

That's a really good question. I think I'd be disingenuous if I said definitely yes it's softer. I haven't ever done a side by side direct comparison brew between choc wheat and regular chocolate.
On this beer however, if it had that quantity of regular chocolate (300g) plus the roasted barley, I would definitely have expected more bitterness. The result on this was very smooth, more like a very high quality dark chocolate vs a dark cooking chocolate/cocoa.
Do I think this would work with regular chocolate malt? Yes. The rice, crystal and yeast all go a really long way to smoothing it all out, but I think it works better with some sort of de-bittered malt.
Have a good brew day tomorrow. 🍺

[@geoffdickinson1310]

Hi from Australia.
That appears to be a great recipe and I am keen to try it. I have watched a lot of your videos and enjoy the channel.
If I may ask a question on the Braumeister and your method.
You add 25 litres of water to start but you don’t appear to do any sparging or topping up.
Is your recipe based on the total water used of 25 litres less the grain absorption and the boil off amount. If I am correct with my observations what final volume do you achieve using the BM in this manner.

[@brewandbuild]

Hi, thanks for tuning in, and it's good to hear from you.
I originally started on the Braumeister by sparging, but there is only a relatively small amount of water you can leave out on this system, before the heating elements risk getting exposed, due to the way it recirculates. So the couple of litres of water used for sparging was not really doing anything. I stopped sparging, and didn't notice any change in efficiency.
So your observations are all correct. Therefore the final volume I achieve is usually about 18- 18.5 litres. I use these quantities so that I can fit any beer into any of my fermentors, right down to my 19 litre keg fermentor.

[@geoffdickinson1310]

@@brewandbuild thank you for clearing that up. The BM is a marvellous piece of equipment.👍
Back to beer, I intend to try a few of your recipes as they look quite good…cheers 🍺🍺

[@brewandbuild]

I genuinely hope they work for you as well they have for me. 🍺🍺👍

[@clubroot8995]

Did it have a nice chewy mouth fee, like an oat meal stout?

[@brewandbuild]

Not really. It's silky smooth, more than barley alone, but not as thick or as you say "chewy", like you would get with oats.