Rice n malt whiskey

[aircarbonarc]

I made my first rice based vodka mash, it was 20lbs of rice and 18lbs of a 71%wheat 29%Pilsner malt blend. I used EC1118 for yeast and it's been fermenting happily. I was then thinking if this turns out I may try making a lighter whiskey, one that is 25% rice and 75% malted barley/corn/rye/wheat. Do any commercial distilleries do this? And has anyone tried making a light rice whiskey? I would like to make something that's light, tasty and clean. I was thinking the neutralness of the rice would give a 10% rye in my grain bill a chance to come through.

[aircarbonarc]

So here is what I've come up with for a recipe
I'm going simple here, no ESB, Munich, Crystal or chocolate malts in this one.

12gals
20# 2 row
5# rye
10# rice
Maybe Safael 04 for yeast.

OG 1.084.
7.94%
FG. 1.024

[rubber duck]

I've done some whiskies and then bumped the abv with rice malt extract. It lightens up the flavor but that's not necessarily a bad thing, I kind of like it on a white dog, it's more like a thin mash that's been done with corn sugar.

[aircarbonarc]

I've done some whiskies and then bumped the abv with rice malt extract. It lightens up the flavor but that's not necessarily a bad thing, I kind of like it on a white dog, it's more like a thin mash that's been done with corn sugar.

Thanks! A light ,"thin whiskey" is exactly what I'm looking to make. I will keep everyone posted

[Swedish Pride]

are you a beer brewer by any chance?
Never seen anyone bar beer brewers shooting for such a high FG, mash at lower temps and you'll get lower FG = more bang for your buck.
and you'll be able to use less grain/ more water then as well, else your ABV might go a bit high

[aircarbonarc]

http://www.brewersfriend.com/allgrain-ogfg/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow this is accurate most.of the time

[Swedish Pride]

yes, if you mash at beer temps, mash at slightly lower temps and you'll get close to 1.000 FG

[wishbone77]

What temperature and for how long are you adding rice to the mash? Did you use a rice malt, and if so where did you get it (local home-brew shop maybe)?

Are there any other nuances during preparation with rice, I have no experience with using it but sounds intriguing

[aircarbonarc]

What temperature and for how long are you adding rice to the mash? Did you use a rice malt, and if so where did you get it (local home-brew shop maybe)?

Are there any other nuances during preparation with rice, I have no experience with using it but sounds intriguing

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =14&t=5368
I just got my inspiration from this thread. Rice is actually pretty easy to make into fermentable sugars. I boiled my water, added my rice semi ground rice and mixed it up hard using my drill and mud mixer, then it turned to glue let it sit for an hour and a half at 180° then added my malt at 170° which then I mixed hard then let that rest for an hour and a half and then got the water from the glue and I had rice n wheat wort!

[wishbone77]

Thanks aircarbonarc! And thanks for the thread link, I did a quick search but missed this one, so thanks.

Let us know how it turns out.

[aircarbonarc]

I was reading on the rice vodka thread and there seems to be a common theme. I actually made my test batch of rice vodka without fully reading the thread, so I left my starch conversation to malt power!! Also I was skimming through and wondered how hard it would be to separate my wort from my rice chunks. So I added a bunch of malt and when it seemed to be converted I lautered it the same way I'd do my corn wort. It worked well, I would recommend a 2 or 3 step straining process. Like using cheese cloth or a pasta strainer to get the first easier liquid out then going finer. Lautering or sparging with hot water does work great. Either today to tomorrow I'll start my first batch of 25% rice 75% malt whisky with Safael 04 yeast, I did however score 2 nice 40lb sacks of scented Jasmin rice! I seem to grow my knowledge and skills with this hobby by taking steps and leaps out of my comfort zone. My forst AG corn liquor was a big leap from sugar and fruit washes. Now it's time to be creative and try something amazing.

[MichiganCornhusker]

Btw, if you run across this beer try it, I think you'll like it.
http://www.kbrewery.com/beer/dripadoubl ... -pale-ale/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[aircarbonarc]

Btw, if you run across this beer try it, I think you'll like it.
http://www.kbrewery.com/beer/dripadoubl ... -pale-ale/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

How is it? A friend of mine is making a "piss beer" he's been using minute rice and 2row with some generic hops. It tastes actually very good and light, it's sort of like MGD. I've seen rice and corn make an appearance in craft beer as it should.

[MichiganCornhusker]

The beer is one of my favorites.
Each time I check out this thread I think of it.

It's actually a pretty high gravity beer and I keep thinking that a clone, without the hops, might get you where you want to be with this idea.

[Anode Effect]

I just did a stripping run on this recipe,12.5 #'s of each grain: Corn, rice, oats and 2 row malt barley. I started another ferment yesterday. I stole a sip during the stripping run and it tasted good. I still need to do more batches before I do a spirit run but it seems promising. I've been curios about adding rice to a whiskey recipe and decided to try it myself.

[aircarbonarc]

I just did a stripping run on this recipe,12.5 #'s of each grain: Corn, rice, oats and 2 row malt barley. I started another ferment yesterday. I stole a sip during the stripping run and it tasted good. I still need to do more batches before I do a spirit run but it seems promising. I've been curios about adding rice to a whiskey recipe and decided to try it myself.

That's a nice grain bill. Would be some damn good spirit. Yesterday I made my first batch of rice whiskey, using the Safael 04, seems a bit different than 05 as for the first 24 hours+ it forms a thick yeast cap on the top which seems to go down as it starts bubbling.

The wort I made had a slightly lower gravity as I had previously planned for, no big deal as I also collected a bit extra (I started with 8gal water, sparged with another 6, ended up with 13ish gal) it took a bit and I'd probably add rice hulls next time as this was a bit of a challenge to wash the sugars from the grain. I will be making a twin mash today as well 2 replacement sour mashes using the backset. My still is an electric beer keg so usually 4 12gal batches of beer will give me enough to make a big efficient spirit run.

[aircarbonarc]

So both fermenters are just bubbling down, they seemed to have had a healthy ferment, and the cap is almost sank! I will be stripping this on the weekend and maybe just going to run the spirit in a 5gal copper amelbic I borrowed off a friend. I'm really curious and very excited to see how this works.. stay tuned

[aircarbonarc]

Well I ran my rice vodka mash, it was 20lbs of Wheat pilsener blend and 18lbs of Rice, with 1118. I also tossed in 8lbs of cane sugar once the ferment had died down and let it spring back to life and once the gravity hit 1.000 (it was a tad under 000!) Cooled it down for 24 hours and syphoned all 12 gal into my still. Since it was an experiment I decided to run it slowly with my reflux still. I ran it too slowly but I did get a consistent 91% and the heads were less fragrant and actually cleaner than previous sugar and grain runs. Unfortunately it was late and I was running a little too slow and had to shut it down before I got near the tails, I was falling asleep and it was a long day. I did get 2.5l at 91%which is probably a very nice light flavored sweet and tasty wheat vodka. It has sweet floury notes in the nose like a small hint of red Delicious apple , and a thick silky mouth feel with a lovely soft wheat flavor. It has a slight aftertaste reminding me of sake .

One of my batches of rice whiskey was ready to strip which I gladly took care of the next day, the gravity hit below 1.000 and it was actually a pretty tasty but somewhat acidic beer. Ran it hard, no puking and took off at 50% using my very short and fat stripping head, I ran it till it hit 15% and then used the hot backset to cook another batch of rice. Unfortunately seemed to not cook the rice and seemed very acidic so I'll be adding some calcium carbonate and some 5.2 to deal with that.

In all, rice is a great source of fermentable sugar, yeast loves it, stills love it and so does my palate. I'll be posting more once the spirit run for my rice whiskey is ran and ready.

Rice is good!!

[aircarbonarc]

Well I finally finished my rice whiskey. It was pretty damn tasty. I got a few litres of 160 proof out of 24gallons. Wasn't too bad I gave a big heads cut on the stripping run and spirit run, the heads really lacked strong offensive odours overall and the hearts were lovely smelling and smooth. I ran the hearts run till it was at about 75% then collected tails till I was at 60% which I will water down and maybe filter through some charcoal and run in my reflux at a later date to recover some ethanol
I did make a very drinkable grain Spirit, I tried some watered down alot to around 30%. First the smell of the 2 row and rye really come out well, it was a clean earth grainy odour. The flavor was amazing, it had this thick mouth feel which was very similar to the Rice vodka I had made. The rye really came out spicy and then the 2row had that nice grainy goodness with a slight sake aftertaste. It was light l, thick and just all around just a great drinkable white dog or grain Spirit. I'll be trying this again, using the Safael 04 and maybe a wheated grain bill. I found with my vodka that wheat and rice really like and compliment eachother, giving a long complex layed flavor.

In conclusion to this experiment I would say that adding rice to a grain bill is a great idea and I will be trying different variations over time. One I would like to try would be a 25% each corn,rice, light distillers malt and wheat. I'm concerned though that corn and rice will either get along or fight on palette. So I'll be posting my results of the next batch once it's spirited enough!

[aircarbonarc]

On the weekend I completed batch #2 of the rice malt whisky. I used Saf 04, and stuck to simple a grain bill of 25 rice 75 2row. The Gravity was around 1.06+/- for 3 12gal batches. The final was all 1.00 with Safael 04. First thing I did notice is the smell of the beer was very clean, a little bit fruity but what got me was the nice malt smell, had a hint of Ovaltine. It stripped out well, and was impressed by the lack of heads with the whole run. The spirit run was near 170pr take off and collected to close to 135proof. I sampled a drop or 2 as I was running the spirit run and was thoroughly impressed. I sat down and sampled some lastnight with friend and we were pretty impressed with the flavor. It has a very nice, sweet grassyness with a clean dry finish. Almost like instead of an afterburn it just has this clean neutral exit. Next I'll be aging some with a piece of sherry barrel I was given to see how it matures and if the rice addition will get along with oak and age.

[aircarbonarc]

Well batch #2 got some great reviews! It's light, sweet and easy to drink. So I'm going to make batch #3 lighter and easier to drink. It'll be a PITA to get the wort out of the grain but I'll give it a try. Here is the grain bill:

25% rice
20% malted wheat
55% 2row

Maybe I'll add a bit of secret specialty malt for an extra buzz in flavor. Thinking honey malt and light crystal

[MichiganCornhusker]

I like where this is going, ACA, very interesting grain bill.
The specialty grain might be more pronounced because of the rice.
I'll be doing some version of this for sure.

[aircarbonarc]

I like where this is going, ACA, very interesting grain bill.
The specialty grain might be more pronounced because of the rice.
I'll be doing some version of this for sure.

A simple 25/75 rice n malt with an ale yeast seems to be a great white grain Spirit. I did add a little bit of chocolate malt and used some ESB as a base malt and got some complexity of flavor. My friend who's a Scottish born Distiller and single malt enthusiast was very impressed. He was sitting there sipping on a glass of it and admiring the "nose" kept saying it's a fine spirit and that this would age into something amazing. Be awesome if you did a batch and let me know how it turns out.

[RedwoodHillBilly]

I like where this is going, ACA, very interesting grain bill.
The specialty grain might be more pronounced because of the rice.
I'll be doing some version of this for sure.

A simple 25/75 rice n malt with an ale yeast seems to be a great white grain Spirit. I did add a little bit of chocolate malt and used some ESB as a base malt and got some complexity of flavor. My friend who's a Scottish born Distiller and single malt enthusiast was very impressed. He was sitting there sipping on a glass of it and admiring the "nose" kept saying it's a fine spirit and that this would age into something amazing. Be awesome if you did a batch and let me know how it turns out.

25/75 sounds interesting considering that irish (read Jameson) uses malt and gns. I would assume the the rice would be similar to the gns. What their mix is I don't know. When I get time I'll have to experiment. Anybody have any experience?

[aircarbonarc]

I like where this is going, ACA, very interesting grain bill.
The specialty grain might be more pronounced because of the rice.
I'll be doing some version of this for sure.

A simple 25/75 rice n malt with an ale yeast seems to be a great white grain Spirit. I did add a little bit of chocolate malt and used some ESB as a base malt and got some complexity of flavor. My friend who's a Scottish born Distiller and single malt enthusiast was very impressed. He was sitting there sipping on a glass of it and admiring the "nose" kept saying it's a fine spirit and that this would age into something amazing. Be awesome if you did a batch and let me know how it turns out.

25/75 sounds interesting considering that irish (read Jameson) uses malt and gns. I would assume the the rice would be similar to the gns. What their mix is I don't know. When I get time I'll have to experiment. Anybody have any experience?

I have yet to make a 100% rice spirit, but I found that rice isn't fully neutral and adds a small amount of flavor. I would think that it would be similar to an Irish style whiskey. At the moment I have some aging on used oak chunks and I'll switch that to a piece of sherry barrel in a few months to finish. Also I think the type of rice will have an effect on flavor, I used scented Jasmin rice which seemed to have alot of aroma when I was cooking it. I did score some really cheap sushi rice which I'll try next.

[aircarbonarc]

Well about 4 and a half months later i took a sneak taste of the aging rice n malt whisky... wow!! Its doing very well. Its sweet, very light flavor reminds me of a Canadian whisky and its got a lovely light nose. Very user friendly

[Still Life]

Well about 4 and a half months later i took a sneak taste of the aging rice n malt whisky... wow!! Its doing very well. Its sweet, very light flavor reminds me of a Canadian whisky and its got a lovely light nose. Very user friendly

Gotta love success. How much longer you got in mind for aging?
(I'm hoping to keep my hands off my barrels for a year, minimum.)

[aircarbonarc]

I took a seasonal break from distilling. Usually the weather gets warmer, fast cars and work seem to take over my life. Well i decided to try the malt n rice recently. Was very impressed it tasted like a nice light malt whisky. Lacked character from only being aged a short while in a big jar with a few pieces of used oak. Had a corn whisky flavor from the oak chunks which was nice and a good clean malt flavor in the middle. It wasn't overpowering just light enough it was enjoyable with a really clean pleasant quick and a tad sweet finish. I'm happy with it, turned out well and it has alot of potential. As I type this I'm stripping my first batch since April, decided to mix things up and go with some thing different with a blend of flavors. Trying a mixed mash of 47% 2row, 31.25% rice and 21.75% corn. It'll be ran 3 times through this very basic cone style stripping head I like to use. Hoping for a sweet light flavored grain liquor that can be drank around a fire pit.

[jb-texshine]

Rice and millet is good.
Mch,I like the beer minus hops idea.now I gotta go read a bunch of beer recipes...

[aircarbonarc]

I've never used millet, how is it?