Rice Flakes

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dangove

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Hello

I have these brown rice flakes. Can I just add them to the mash, or do they need to be boiled first?

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Wait a minute!!! Rice cereal, but "May contain wheat"? D'oh!

I think it says that to protect the vendor from allergy claims, because the warehouse handles all grain product including wheat products.
 
I used them directly in the mash. I made a 10 gallon batch, and I usually get close to 80% efficiency.

My recipe was:
12 lbs 2-row
3 lbs flaked rice

Anyhow, it didn't seem to work. My efficiency went way down to 65%. When I put the numbers in BeerSmith, it seems that only the 2 row contributed to the OG, as though there wasn't any rice contribution at all.

Maybe next time I will try boiling them first.
 
If I take a recipe a brewed from HBT (Cream of the Three Crops adjusted for my setup). I used 5.9% rice flakes in the mash. BS estimates 4.7% ABV. If I delete the rice flakes then BS estimates 4.5% ABV. We see the rice flakes add minimal fermentation. IMO, the rice flakes add more of a flavor. I do realize I personally like the corn taste in a cream ale better than the rice flavor. Just my own personal preference.

By "My efficiency went way down to 65%" does this mean mash efficiency or overall brewhouse efficiency?

"I usually get close to 80% efficiency." Same question.

How were the grains milled? Yes, I even mill the rice flakes too.
 
My Brewhouse OG should have been around 1043. Instead I ended up with 1035.

In BeerSmith, If I simply remove the Flaked Rice from the BeerSmith, it estimates my OG to go down to 1035. Reduction in brewhouse efficiency from 80% down to 65%, on a 10 gallon batch. So, it is as though the rice didn't add anything to my fermentable in reality. I have BeerSmith dialled in pretty good, with about 50 brews on it.

I didn't run the flaked rice through the mill. I just tossed it into the mash as is. I have made the same recipe a few times with flaked corn instead, and everything usually works close to where it should.

The rice sort of formed a "paste in the mash" and as much as I could stir it up, I couldn't really get it to form the same consistency as when i used corn, or straight barley.

I would have expected the rice to perform similar to the corn. Thats why I was thinking maybe I needed to cook the rice first, or something else was going on?
 
What about mash efficiency? Brewhouse efficiency takes a LOT of things into consideration.

I am puzzled. The flaked rice should have produced the expected results. I guess time to experiment. Do a smaller batch, but this time do boil the rice before using in the mash.
 
I’m going to do a smaller batch next time with only 10% rice flakes. If I also get no performance out of them a second time, maybe it’s just sawdust that I have
 
Boiled rice converts very well. I would expect your rice flakes to be precooked, but maybe they're not. The cooking instructions for rice cereal don't really say.

If you have more of the flakes, try another batch and boil them first to compare! Or just use white rice next time (it's probably cheaper) and know that you have to boil that.
 
https://www.highgravitybrew.com/store/pc/Flaked-Rice-p3102.htm

There's no need to do anything to flaked grains aside from actually adding them to the mash. The process of creating the flakes does everything that a cereal mash would do. I use a lot of flaked oats, lesser amounts of flaked wheat and flaked barley, and have only used flaked rice a few times, but in all cases the flakes went straight from bag to mash, and I never missed my OG...

Cheers!
 
Boiled rice converts very well. I would expect your rice flakes to be precooked, but maybe they're not. The cooking instructions for rice cereal don't really say.

If you have more of the flakes, try another batch and boil them first to compare! Or just use white rice next time (it's probably cheaper) and know that you have to boil that.
Is there any issue if I boil rice flakes that have been pre cooked?
 
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