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Japanese Rice Lager
This might be the tastiest homebrew beer we've ever made. We wanted to mimic a traditional Japanese beer such as Asahi or Sapporo. Honestly, the results blew us away. If you're looking for a unique light lager that loosely resembles commercial beers made with rice, but is a heck of a lot better, this is it. It was also a super nice day when we brewed this beer so we made 5 gallons of it in Kyle's backyard using our 10 gallon home brew system. Here are the full recipe details.
Full Japanese Rice Lager Recipe and Brew Day Video
Water Chemistry
We started with 7 gallons (26.5 liters) of Asheville city water. We added a gram of Gypsum to ours, but this will be different for everyone depending on your water.
10 minutes into the mash we checked our pH.
Inserting probes to test pH
We were looking for something in the range of 5.2 - 5.4. We had a pH of 5.2 without having to add any lactic or citric acid.
Grains
We used 4 pounds (1.81 kilograms) of white rice, 5 pounds (2.27 kg) of pilsner malt, and 8 ounces (227 grams) of acid malt. The acid malt helped drop our pH into the desired range, which is part of the reason we didn't have to adjust chemistry any further.
We crushed our rice and then cooked it
We also crushed our pilsner and acid malt
Mash
We mashed at 158 degrees Fahrenheit for 60 minutes. For our European friends, that's 70c.
The contents of our mash on a wooden spoon we used to stir it with
A compost pile is a perfect place for your spent grain to go after the mash
Hops
We exclusively used Sorachi Ace hops in this beer. This hop variety is the same hop used in Sapporo beer and has a high percentage of alpha acids along with a lemon flavor and aroma.
We added .4 ounces (11.33 grams) at 60 minutes and then 1.6 ounces (45.4 grams) as a whirlpool addition.
Yeast and Fermentation
Yeast: We used two packs of Saflager W-34/70 dry lager yeast.
Pitching yeast
Fermentation: 10 days at 55 degrees Fahrenheit. (12.77C).
After 10 days we warmed it up to 70 degrees Fahrenheit for a 3 day dialectal rest. (21.11C)
We lagered it for about two months at 35 degrees Fahrenheit (1.66C).
Tasting
The beer finished with a low ABV of 3.8% and was extremely crushable. It turned out really light, really crisp, and really smooth, all with a bit of hop character up front. The rice also came through as well. This beer left us wondering why every light lager made with rice couldn't taste this good. We highly recommend you brew this beer at home, we may keep it on tap all the time now.
Rice is very dusty, I’d recommend rinsing thoroughly before using..
Mine came out to 2.68% abv and a lot lighter in color than yours. The OG was 1.044, but the attenuation was much lower than expected and the fg was 1.024… weird… i’m force carbonating now if it’s good i may give it another go but make a yeast starter with dme and a bit more pilsner malt
Hi brewerfriends,
What if you bottle the beer? Is the lagering of 2 months in the bottle (conditioning)? Or how does it differ from kegging?
Want to brew this one next weekend just in time for tasting on my 30th birthday!
Many thanks
hi guys!
tried this recipe yesterday but post boil gravity was too low – roughly 1034 – which would imply a final abv of ~3%. (most likely because i didn’t crash the rice).
any idea on how i can increase abv? maybe do a secondary fermentation and add some sugar?
cheers!
I followed this recipe and was scratching my head with how powerful the sorrachi ace hops are? was very nervous with it but after two months in secondary they just mellowed out, what a drink!
Clawhammer is my favorite brewing channel and I like the fact that you don’t take yourselves too serious but you are serious about brewing.
Keep the videos coming.
David
adding the grain Bill into brewers friend this only gives a 2.00 abv roughly i followed your instructions and had 2 add corn Sugar and dme malt to bump it way up, next time I would use flaked rice as well
FLAKED RICE CAN DO THE JOB AND YOU CAN JUST ADD IT STRAIGHT TO THE MASH I BELIEVE
JUST WONDERING IF YOU CAN USE mINUTE RICE AND NO COOKING. i USE MINUTE RICE ALL THE TIME IN MY LIGHT LAGERS.
JUST WONDERING IF YOU CAN USE mINUTE RICE AND NO COOKING. i USE MINUTE RICE ALL THE TIME IN MY LIGHT LAGERS.
Hey guys just wondering if you have an overall profile for the water. I’m in Boston and want to know what to add to make it right. Thanks
Did you intentionally undercook the rice? I’m doing the math and you should have used 1.4 gallons of water to cook 4lb of rice and there definitely isn’t 1.4 gallons on Kyle’s stove top. Thanks.
Just wanted to point out an error in the metric units for the acid malt; 8oz is 227g, not 28.3g