Crystal IPA

[Richard]

8lbs 2-row
3lbs Crystal 110
2lbs Wheat Malt
1lb White Rice

2oz Northern Brewer (9% AA) @ 60
1oz Hallertau (7% AA) @ 20
1oz Hallertau (7% AA) @ 10

Mashed 149F 60 Minutes.

Dry-hop fuggles 2oz pellets.

S-05.

Note: this is experimental; I wanted to push the crystal-110 to silly levels to see what it would taste like, and then I dumped some rice in just for shits and giggles. Don't bother using this recipe yourself until we've seen it's alright.

[Richard]

In future I will not be afraid to use higher portions of Crystal in my beers... this one is actually very tasty, and closer to the US IPA's I've tried than other attempts.

The flavour is closer to an ESB than an IPA, but the signature is definitely there. I figure this is 21% crystal malt, and I recently found an article stating up to 20% is common. Live and learn.

[Jake]

Question: I see you did it in your last batch too, but what does white rice do to a beer?

[Richard]

When adding to the mash, white rice turns into maltotriose, maltose, and other simpler sugars, depending on the mash temp - like the rest of the starches. The major difference is that it doesn't have diastatic properties of its own - so you need to be careful about the ratios. Up to 25% is commonly considered acceptable, but it depends on the style. It does have a different (more neutral) flavour to barley.

Personally I'm starting to lean on (cooked) white rice in the mash-tun over adding sugar to the boil, as you don't have the potentially adverse affects (acetyldehyde mostly) of adding pure sucrose/fructose/dextrose.

If you want a cleaner beer, use rice. If you want a drier beer, use simple sugars.

[Shawn]

Richard: Do you find that using sugar, such as plain old table sugar, has contributed acetaldehyde to your beer? Normally, acetaldehyde is a sign of too-young beer, usually caused by racking the beer off of the yeast too soon.

I've used table sugar in several beers (mostly Belgians and IPAs where you want a dry finish) with great results. This may be because I leave all my beers in primary for a good three weeks, so I can't compare to a shorter primary fermentation...

[Richard]

It's more an issue with the younger beers, for me. They take longer to age. To boost up or dry out beers of higher OG I've been using a fair chunk with no adverse results. I'd normally expect those to take longer to age anyway, so I'd not run into the acetyldehyde.

Regardless; the taste of rice versus sugar usually comes out for me that sugar dries out the finish and dilutes the taste a little overall, whereas rice makes for a cleaner taste and supports the existing bill without drying out or diluting.

YRMV; after all I'm a homebrewer tasting his brews - not a lab tech able to measure products of the process

[Richard]

fwiw I suspect if you added maltose (not just mashed malted barley, which contains a massive number of other compounds) alone, along with sucrose/dextrose, you could approximate the rice. I think mashing rice also produces maltotriose, which as you'll know is a factor in the fermentability of the mash product.