Brewday: Tailgate Ale

I've been wrestling with exactly how to do this for a couple of weeks. For an explanation why I'm trying to make a tasteless beer check out the link.

• 5.5 lb 2-row
• 3.0 lb flaked corn
• 1.0 lb Jasmine rice

The biggest un-planned headache here was what to do with the rice. Most recipes call for 'minute rice', added dry directly to the mash. I wanted to try and use real rice so I was faced with either doing multi-step mashing (rests) or cooking the rice.

I went for the latter, but didn't stir like I should have and burnt some rice on the bottom of the pan. I was extra careful to keep the burnt stuff out of the mash, though. Cooking directions went like this:

No rinse, boil water at a ratio of 1:1.2 (rice:water), add rice and simmer for 20 min.

Hops and yeast:

• .5 Sanz - 60 min
  
• .5 Williamette - 60 min
  
• US-5, dry

I hit my target mash temp of 152F on the dot using the Tw formula.

Tw = (.2/R)(T2-T1) + T2
R = 14/ 9
Tw = (.2 / 1.556)(152-72) + 152
Tw = 162

Like I said I went with just a single initial rest with cooked rice, although for the high-reaching amongst you I think there is merit to using a rest. There is also a very complicated and long-drawn-out way of cooking the rice which I didn't like Not that I'm an expert, but it seemed like over-kill. I think the two best options are to either go ahead and buy minute rice or simply do a 20 minute cook in a small pot.

And then the best news of the day:

1.046 grav X 5.8 gal / 9.5 lb grain = 28 (!)

By far my highest so far, and very encouraging. That puts E% at about 74% when you take into account the ingredients.

Boil went well, glad I picked up a box fan for $2 at a garage sale on the walk home from the store...90 minutes of boiling has a way of warming up a room.

I ended up a tad short of 5 gallons but added some clean water to get there. The plan is to let it sit for three weeks in the primary at ~65F and then bottle.