Horchata milk stout (first attempt)

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Bsquared

Bsquared

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About a year ago we had the owners of Old mission brewery from Encenada BC MX come to one of our CHUG meeting. we where sampling their beers and I had the idea to do a milk stout with Horchata. This last weekend I finally got around to trying to brew this beer.

with some discussion with other home brewer's I decided the best way to get an horchata profile into the beer was to add it to the fermenter. For those who don't know Horchata is a sweet milky drink that is made from soaking rice that it ground into a corse powder with sugar cinnamon and water over night, so there is no cooking, and could result in sanitation issues if added to the fermenter.

I addressed this problem by pasteurizing the horchata in a 140ºF water bath for 2hr. I also made the horchata with Lactose instead of sugar that the yeast would be able to ferment out.

For the Horchata I ground 1bl of long grain rice to a corse powder, and added 1 lb lactose and 1 TBS of ground Cinnamon. I added enough water so the ricer was covered ~2 cups. then steeped that over night in the refrigerator.

then i strained the horchata through a stainless steel mesh colander, and rinsed it with cold water till I had collected 1 liter. and placed it in a 140ºF water bath for 2hr. ( I used 2L of water in a slow cooker on low)
IMG_2434.jpg

Recipe: Horchata Stout
Style: 13B-Stout-Sweet Stout

Recipe Overview

Wort Volume Before Boil: 13.00 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 11.50 US gals
Volume Transferred: 11.10 US gals
Water Added: 0.00 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 11.10 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 10.04 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.046 SG
Expected OG: 1.056 SG
Expected FG: 1.020 SG
Expected ABV: 4.8 %
Expected ABW: 3.7 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 25.3
Expected Color: 31.1 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 62.8 %
Mash Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Duration: 60.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 64 degF

Fermentables
US 2-Row Malt 19lb 0oz (81.7 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Roasted Barley 1lb 0oz (4.3 %) In Mash/Steeped
Belgian Debittered Black Malt 12.00 oz (3.2 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Chocolate Malt 8.00 oz (2.2 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Caramel 80L Malt 8.00 oz (2.2 %) In Mash/Steeped
Sugar - Lactose 1lb 8oz (6.5 %) Start Of Boil

Hops
UK Golding (5.5 % alpha) 56 g Loose Pellet Hops used 60 Min From End
US Chinook (10.5 % alpha) 12 g Loose Pellet Hops used 60 Min From End

Other Ingredients
Whirlfloc Tablet 58 g used In Boil
Horchata concentrate

Yeast: White Labs WLP007-Dry English Ale yeast
Mash Schedule
Mash Type: Full Mash
Schedule Name:HERMS
Step: Rest at 130 degF for 5 mins
Step: Raise by direct heating to 156 degF for 15 mins
Step: Rest at 156 degF for 30 mins
Step: Raise to and Mash out at 165 degF for 20 mins

Recipe Notes
Horchata will be made with 1lb lactose and 1/2lb long grain rice and 1 table spoons of cinnamon. then pasteurized and added to fermenter.Batch is split Half with horchata and half with out
Click to expand...
IMG_2432.jpg
IMG_2436.jpg
 
Well this beer did NOT have any horchata flavor, but it is a really nice sweet stout. Next time Ill be trying to bump up the horchata flavor some how, Might have to experiment with the horchata powder.
 
Did you consider using orchata? The commericially available liquor. It smells and tastes just like the stuff you are describing. You could add a few ounces in secondary next time.
 
Osedax said:
Did you consider using orchata? The commericially available liquor. It smells and tastes just like the stuff you are describing. You could add a few ounces in secondary next time.
Click to expand...

No I have not, Ill look into that, but I'm not a big fan of boozy beers, so I would prefer to use some thing with out added alcohol, but that can be adjusted for.
 
I blended horchata with lagunitas wilco tango foxtrot the other day... Was pretty tasty actually. I think id try a brown ale
 
I just visited Cigar City this past Saturday, they had two different Horchata beers (both 7%, low srm, with little to no hop flavor) in their tasting room. They were amazing! My first thought was I need to make a stout or a brown with Horchata. Too bad this didn't work out for you, looks like I have some more research to do.

Edit* the bartender in the tasting room said they make their Horchata with almonds, sesame seeds and cinnamon. That's all that he knew about it.
 
allenH said:
I just visited Cigar City this past Saturday, they had two different Horchata beers (both 7%, low srm, with little to no hop flavor) in their tasting room. They were amazing! My first thought was I need to make a stout or a brown with Horchata. Too bad this didn't work out for you, looks like I have some more research to do.

Edit* the bartender in the tasting room said they make their Horchata with almonds, sesame seeds and cinnamon. That's all that he knew about it.
Click to expand...


Thanks I might try and email Cigar city and see what their ratio was, and how they made their Horchata. Maybe they will respond.
 
Bsquared said:
Thanks I might try and email Cigar city and see what their ratio was, and how they made their Horchata. Maybe they will respond.
Click to expand...

I should do that also, Wayne Wambles (head brewer) has been surprisingly open on some of his recipes, and not so much on others. This was in their tap room, brewed on their pilot system for on site consumption only, which is where they develop their new recipes. I will report back here if I get a reply.
 
This sounds like an amazing concept for a recipe. I love horchata, as it takes me back to my days growing up in SoCal and would be amazing in a milk stout. Sucks it didn't turn out the way you wanted. Can you elaborate as to how it wasn't ”horchata” enough? I know for me the one thing I always notice with horchata is the mouthfeel when I drink it as well as the cinnamon. I know this sounds crazy, but I was thinking that the horchata paletas that they sell in the mexican market seem to always be super concentrated with the horchata taste. Hey, if you threw some paletas in at the end of the boil they could even double to help cool the wort and would be pasteurized in the process :)
 
Ok, I just sent an email to Wayne at CCB, hopefully he will respond with some helpful information. I believe he is at an unveiling for a colab brew with Widmer Bros, so it may take a few days.
 
Ok, here is the reply I got, 10 minutes after I sent the email-

Allen,

First, I recommend that you read this article:

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/stickaforkinit/2013/05/the_bruery_horchata_beer.php

About 6 months ago, I came up with a series of beers which I called the Cervezas Frescas series, which I named after the Aguas Frescas concept that is often served in Latin restaurants and bodegas. I submitted a statement of process to the feds. This document has to be dated and acts as a "patent" of sorts...more of a "I did it first" document.

I was surprised when I found out that The Bruery had made one too. It must be some odd collective consciousness situation.

If you read the article, what they are doing in their beer(their list of ingredients and process) is exactly what I did with ours. It is an Imperial Rice Cream Ale base beer that is fermented with a neutral yeast and spiced with vanilla beans and cinnamon.

I rarely to never give out recipes. Hopefully, you will be able to figure the rest of the puzzle out for yourself.

Best of luck!

Cheers,
Wayne Wambles
Brewmaster
Cigar City Brewing
[email protected]


What a great guy, I'm going to have to look into this after work today. I'm not sure how "lots" of rice will work out in a stout, looks like we have some experimenting to do. I have a 5% stout on deck for this weekend (growing the yeast for a Hunahpu-ish 11% imperial stout), hopefully I will be able to try this out.
 
That's rad! Thanks so much for the information! The Bruery is just up the road from here, so I might have to see if they have an Horchata beer on tap so I can check out how they are doing it.

Indianhead: I really got no horchata flavor, I had a quite a few people taste the beer side by side with and with out Horchata, and no one picked up and horchata flavor. I want to avoid using a concentrate, and would like to try to keep to traditional adjuncts, but if all else fails I might try the mix.
 
Bsquared said:
That's rad! Thanks so much for the information! The Bruery is just up the road from here, so I might have to see if they have an Horchata beer on tap so I can check out how they are doing it.

Indianhead: I really got no horchata flavor, I had a quite a few people taste the beer side by side with and with out Horchata, and no one picked up and horchata flavor. I want to avoid using a concentrate, and would like to try to keep to traditional adjuncts, but if all else fails I might try the mix.
Click to expand...

I will be playing around with a recipe over the next couple of days. From the article, it looks like the rice should be mashed (minute rice), lactose in the boil, vanilla and cinnamon in secondary? That's what I'm guessing.
Also, did you read the comments on the article? MK Brewing Co from Mexico says they made the first Horchata Stout called Black Snow. Maybe some of your MX guys has a "in"with them for some info, not that all MX brewing companies are friends, haha.
 
I saw that too, but could not figure out where or who MK Brewing is. The Baja brewing scene is very interesting, there are several full scale (7bbl+) breweries, but there are quite a few 5-15 gallon brewers that are licensed to sell beer.

Honestly, I think if you mash the rice in you will just increase the ABV, and not get much flavor from that. I did come across a few horchata recipes that where made from Almonds and sesame seeds, cinnamon and vanilla , I think that in the secondary, or bright tank my be a better way to go.
 
Did anyone do more work on this? I made a Horchata sweet ale earlier in the year and it turned out ok and would like to try it again.
 
Hey guys, just wanted to bump to see if any one else had worked on this idea at all. I've been developing a recipe for a horchata porter/stout and think I have the malt bill and spices figured out, just trying to figure out how to add the itself.

For the malt bill I plan to use 2-row, aromatic, caramel 80, Flaked barley and oats, honey malt, roasted barley, and chocolate malt. I'll also add lactose and some cinnamon to the boil, and vanilla beans and more cinnamon sticks to secondary.

I plan to make a base (unspiced and unsweetened) horchata using long grain white rice and almonds. I've thought of xxx ways to add this to the beer. My fear is that (as Bsquared mentioned) if rice is added directly to the mash it will likely just thin the beer and not add any rice flavor (as in a BMC lager). However, I also know, for what it's worth, that when making sake you need to use Koji to correctly ferment the starches in rice as a special enzyme is needed to do this. Anyway, so far the options I've considered are as follows:

1) Make a batch of this base horchata large enough to serve as my entire mash and sparge volume.

2) Make a 1-2 gallon batch of horchata and cook it down until it is a thick syrup to be added at the end of the boil, to the fermentor, or at bottling.

or 3) Make a 1-2 gallon batch of horchata and add it to a 4 gallon batch of the stout, either at around 5-minutes until the end of boil or to the fermentor (using a pasteurizing technique as described by Bsquared).

Any thoughts?
 
That belching beaver horchata is really good. I was impressed with how much it was flavored like horchata. I'd love for some one to post a clone recipe for it or for any of the other beaver brews.
 
I'm currently working on their peanut butter stout. I'll be brewing that up in a couple weeks.
 
Looks great! I'd love to see a clone recipe for that AND the peanut butter stout!
 
I have not revisited this yet, but its on my radar. I'm thinking next time I make it Im going to use a Horchata mix and see what flavor profile I get. I might go out to the belching beaver brewery and ask if they have any tips.
 
Ask about both of those beers and report back. I was gonna email them some questions, but couldn't find the contact info on their website.
 
I drank the stout last night. It started out good but ended up tasting nasty towards the end. Very phenolic.
 
Gosh, I've never had horchata made of rice. All the ones I had growing up were made of tigernuts and the occasional almond. Like a sweet nutty milkshake.
 
Bsquared, I would love to chat with you on preparing a recipe on the horchata. I am Mexican and I definitely know what a good horchata tastes/should taste. My mom used to make it from scratch when I used to live at home. I have been wanting to make such type brew for a while now.
 
CADETS3, My buddy here in San Diego's mom is from Durango,MX . And she gave me the first recipe for my first batch. The problem with using an actual Horchata recipe is that you end up adding a lot of fermentable in to the beer that the yeast just eat up so the beer gets too dry and strong. I think the trick is to use just what gives you the flavor components. If you have a good recipe though Id love to see it. I really like Horchata.
 
I never had it until I moved to San diego. I've grown to love it, so I'd love a great recipe. I think adding a healthy dose of cinnamon and vanilla to a milk stout would be a decent starting point. I'll try it after my peanut butter milk stout. Or maybe brew 10 gallons and split it.
 
I am thinking that the best way to go is to pitch in the horchata recipe into a secondary for a couple of days while adding a bit prior to bottling. Leaving it in a secondary longer will result in higher ABV.... Although i love boozy beers, i would like this to be fair in ABV but loaded with horchata flavoring.
 

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