I’m creating a “concept beer” of an American adjunct lager, aiming for a “lawnmower beer.” Self-imposed and non-negotiable restrictions include: 1) it must be a lager of some sort; 2) it must use Montana-sourced base malt; 3) it must use rice as the adjunct; 4) it must use Sorachi Ace (because it is a hop of Japanese origin and because my LHBS has it in stock). (the beer is in honor of a particular scientific discovery)
Here is my draft recipe:
10 lb. pilsner malt (Montana Craft Malting)
1 lb. flaked rice
0.25 lb. rice hulls
0.35 oz. Sorachi Ace (13% alpha) to hit 17 IBU
Diamond Lager yeast
As currently built, the recipe hits 1.049 o.g., 1.009 s.g., 5.3% abv, 3.7 SRM, 17 IBU. I’m planning to do a 90 minute mash at 146. Water will be built from scratch, for a relatively low mineral profile.
So, my questions for the wisdom of the crowds:
Should I add some CaraFoam to improve head / head retention? Or will the adjuncts swamp out any impact of the CaraFoam?
Would I regret dry hopping or whirlpooling with ~0.65 oz. of Sorachi Ace? (I’m assuming a 1 oz. package from my LHBS, and also thinking I want to use it all up)
Would I regret dropping the pilsner malt to 9 lb to drop the gravity (down to 1.044)?
I’d say - start with what you’d want the flavor to be and are you trying to emulate anything in particular?
For instance - at 1 lbs in your mash, you have your rice addition as less than 10% of the total grist. A beer like Budweiser would have it closer to 20-30% of the grist. Your starting gravity is also about 10 points higher than you’d see in a NAIL like Bud. (Partly referencing the Dougweiser recipe that our club has been doing for years.)
But if that’s not what you’re going for and want more malt flavor and more “oomph” then I think you’d be fine - it will just read less “rice lager”.
Carafoam won’t hurt, but it’s not necessary.
With the dry hop - what are you trying to achieve? Against a body like this, you’ll read the hop very highly and lose the rice/malt (fine if that’s the intention).
The other thing to think about is that Sorachi Ace seems to be a very divisive hop. Some people like it, some people hate it. I rarely ever see someone say that they love it.
Thanks for the feedback and thoughts! I’m not aiming for any particular flavor, other than “crushable.” I don’t necessarily want it as flavorless as Bud, and would like a bit of the malt to come through, which is why I tilted towards less rice.
I’ll probably drop the carafoam.
The divisiveness of Sorachi Ace has been in the back of my mind…I hate “wasting” hops, so a dry hop was a way to be extra frugal. Given all of that, perhaps I’ll adjust the hopping a bit and nix the dry hops (which would also lead to potential retained haze…I want a clear beer!).
This is all very helpful as I think through the concept.
I would say that the “crushability index” (CI?) goes up with the amount of rice. So I’d play with that variable in my mind. I’d worry that at 10% you won’t read the rice as clearly, but that goes to what your goal is.
I can’t see the CaraFoam doing anything for you, but maybe. Up to you on that one.
I don’t know if you would regret it, but I certainly regretted the only time I tried to showcase Sorachi Ace. The beer ended up tasting like Dill. Could have been the crop year or it could have been that I was just sensitive to the flavor, but I’d leave the dry hop out for sure.
Yeah, you might regret that one. 5.3% is still in “crushable” range, but maybe 4.5-5% would be better??
I’ll use my Ph.D. powers to state that “crushability index” is a thing now, defined as the ratio of adjunct:non-adjunct malts. Now open for peer review.
I’m going to leave CaraFoam out of the equation, and work in the direction of better beer (and against my cheapskate instincts) to leave the Sorachi Ace as a single bittering addition and not use up the full package just for the sake of using it up. Also dropping the gravity a touch.
I was just at my LHBS to get ingredients, and the hops are 9.7% alpha, so I’ll adjust accordingly. I am also using Novalager as the yeast, because it just seems to fit a bit better than Diamond for a recipe that’s all about unobtrusiveness.
I want to know what scientific discovery this in honor of! Fellow scientist here that seeks enlightenment- even in this political climate! (sorry I couldn’t stop myself …)
The discovery is an old-ish one (announced 10 years ago) – Aquilops, the oldest horned dinosaur from North America. Found in Montana, its closest relative lived in Japan around the same time (hence the malt+hop combo; a lager with rice seemed like a good nod at the various beer brewing traditions involved, too). I was lead author with a team of colleagues for this project (the fossil was found in the 1990s, and I was invited to help get the project over the finish line given my experience with this particular group of dinosaurs)…I made an oatmeal stout in its honor back when we published the paper.
This particular lager is in celebration of Aquilops almost certainly making an appearance in a well known dinosaur-themed film franchise this summer. (I’m not 100% certain on that yet, but those in the fandom tell me that if they’re marketing Legos and action figures with the animal, it’s going to be in the movie; let me tell you that it’s very surreal to see “our” dinosaur as a Lego set, including having its own minifig…).
I brewed this beer yesterday – here is my final recipe:
9 lb. Montana Craft Malting pilsner malt
1 lb. flaked rice (Briess)
2 oz. rice hulls
0.4 oz. Sorachi Ace (9.7% alpha), 60 minute boil
Novalager yeast (2 pkg.)
Water built to hit target of 59 ppm Ca, 105 ppm Cl
Targets of 1.044 s.g., 15 IBU, 3.5 SRM
90 minute mash at 146 degrees; 60 minute boil
I had slightly better efficiency than expected, so had a starting gravity of 1.049…this will probably kick me north of 5% abv.
Having smelled the hop pellets, I think it is a wise move not to dry-hop with them; the dill comes across very prominently in this particular set of hops!
goes up with the amount of rice. So I’d play with that variable in my mind. I’d worry that at 10% you won’t read the rice as clearly, but that goes to what your goal is.