Flaked Rice in a Blonde ale

I've used rice a bunch of times in the past. Even some more expensive varietals. If you're wanting to used flaked rice to lighten the body and up the ABV, just use dextrose. Same outcome without the extra work, IMO.

 

Thought Cream Ale was corn?

 

For your consideration below is an extract from American Handy-Book of the Brewing, Malting and Auxiliary Trades by Robert Wahl & Max Henius, 1902:

“Cream or Present Use Ale

Material – Seventy per cent of malt, 30 per cents of unmalted cereals,; or 75 per cent of malt, and 25 per cent of sugar added in the kettle.”

The type of unmalted cereal (i.e., corn, rice) is not explicitly specified. Also, a Cream Ale could be brewed without using unmalted cereals but with sugar instead.



A more contemporary source of information is the 2015 BJCP style guidelines which does specifically mention corn:

“History: A sparkling or present-use ale that existed in the1800s and survived prohibition. An ale version of the American lager style. Produced by ale brewers to compete with lager brewers in Canada and the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest states. Originally known as sparkling or present use ales, lager strains were (and sometimes still are) used by some brewers, but were not historically mixed with ale strains. Many examples are kräusened to achieve carbonation. Cold conditioning isn’t traditional, although modern brewers sometimes use it.

Characteristic Ingredients: American ingredients most commonly used. A grain bill of six-row malt, or a combination of six-row and North American two-row, is common. Adjuncts can include up to 20% maize in the mash, and up to 20% glucose or other sugars in the boil. Any variety of hops can be used for bittering and finishing.”

I took note that in the History discussion there is mention of .”An ale version of the American lager style”. Well, rice was also used to produce American Lagers in the 1800’s (think Budweiser which was first brewed in 1876). It would not surprise me if some of the American Ale breweries preferred to use rice as their adjunct. Maybe @jesskidden has some examples he could cite for this?

Cheers!

 

Good deal, I was always under the impression Cream ale = corn. Thanks for the info!

 

Flaked rice would make a nice Blonde/Cream Ale I think. I used 1# of flaked rice and corn in my last cream ale that's long gone. For any more robust style I would suggest balancing the adjuncts with some continental Munich.

 

Some of the many NY and New England lighter ales*, post-Repeal, used other adjuncts, or none at all. Hampden Mild Ale used rice and (corn) sugar and was one of the few examples I can think of that where a brewery "admitted" to sugar usage in promotional material.

In another ad, noting rice's superiority over corn, they claimed:

Croft Cream Ale was all-malt, although I've always wondered if they, too, didn't add sugar since they qualified the "all malt" with "...no other cereal grains used."

In NY, not positive that Utica Club Cream Ale (my preferred NYS cream ale over Genesee's) used rice but some brewery info in the '70s suggested that U.C. Beer and Ale contained the same ingredients, - in different quantities - and the lager was brewed with both corn grits and rice. Once Matt Premium went to an adjunct recipe, it also (probably?) used rice.

Pre-Pro, Greenway's Cream Ale (Syracuse) advertised it was:

Those are the 4 that come to mind but gotta admit that I never real paid close attention. As you said, if a brewer used rice in its lager, it was possible that they'd use the same adjunct in their ale but not always. Harvard in Lowell used rice in their lager but corn grits in their ale.

* By the post-Repeal period, US brewers weren't particularly exacting (compared with the modern beer geek) about what they labeled "cream ale". As has been noted frequently in writing most of the beers called "cream ale" were closer to the pre-Pro era's "sparkling (or lively or present use) ales" and once Genesee's blended product of ale and beer took off in the 1960s, things got even more confusing as far as yeast, hopping levels and ingredients went.

 

Could taste like it has A cereal fruitiness if that's what you're going for. Last time I used Kohatu in an IPA it tasted like fruity pebbles in a weird way

 

It certainly won't be a traditional cream ale, but I liked the character Loral gave to Stone's Hop Revolver, so I think it would work in this application.

 

Traditionally, yes, but . . . you know . . . brewers like to take their liberties with "styles".

Every time a US brewer makes a Kolsch, I just cringe. They tend to bear little resemblance to what you'd find in Cologne. Kolsch =/= Blonde Ale. /rant

 

Utilizing a Kolsch yeast strain and proper fermentation conditions followed by lagering is key as well.

Brewing beer is not just a case of ingredients but just as importantly (more importantly?) brewing process as well.

Cheers!

 

Pretty sure u can just use the box of minute rice since it has been pre-geletanized. I see no reason to pay so much for flakes rice.

 

I always thought it was either, but probably because American lagers went either way and because cream ale has been described as a response by ale breweries to paler lagers gaining market share. I don't know how authoritative this BT article is but it does suggest rice could be used.

 

Yep. Just pour 'em right in the mash tun. No need to cook them in a cereal mash as they've already been cooked.

 

And finishing hops. And proper fermentation temperatures. And lagering (sometimes).

 

Late hops in a traditional Kolsch aren't really typical (nor unheard of). But I'd wager most commercial American "Kolsches" use late hops.