Expert: Ed Westemeier - 4/7/2004

Question
I wanted to use rice as an adjunct to a light ale, and being cheap (not wanting to buy rice flakes from my brew store) I decided to mash my own rice.  So, as an experiment, I cooked two cups of long grain white rice in one gallon of water until the rice was gelatinous.  I strained the liquid through a fine mesh bag, and used a hydrometer to measure the thick liquid.  To my surprise, it only registered 2% potential alcohol, or specific gravity about .012.  Why so low?  Because the processed rice yielded little fermentable sugar?  Is there another kind of rice that would give better results?  Would I be better off springing for the rice flakes?  Thanks, john w.

Answer
Depends on what you're trying to accomplish.
When using rice, you don't want to simply use the runoff water from it -- you use the whole gelatinized mess. You also may not have really gelatinized the rice, despite its appearance. You need temperatures over about 190 degrees F to start actually gelatinizing the rice, and this is a critical step.

If you want to simplify things, just use rice syrup, available at most homebrew stores.

Just as confirmation, consider that A-B spends a huge amount of time and money dealing with their specialized rice cookers in the Budweiser factories, not because they want to, but because properly gelatinizing the stuff is simply a pain!

Hope that helps.
Ed