Japanese Rice Lager

So... What is it?

The Japanese rice lager incorporates rice as a key ingredient alongside the usual barley, giving it a lighter and crisper profile compared to traditional lagers. The style originated in Japan as brewers sought to create a beer that paired well with the country's cuisine, particularly sushi and other delicate flavors. Rice helps to give the style its signature clean, refreshing character and subtle sweet dry finish.

What's ours like?

Coming in at an easy drinking 4.7%, its crisp, fresh, lightly sweet and citrusy and has a beautiful dry finish! The Rice certainly imparts the signature light body and dry finish of the Japanese style and the Motueka hops are perfectly balanced, providing just enough bitterness to keep it drinkable, with subtle citrusy and floral notes that make a near perfect replacement for the signature Japanese Hop, Sorachi Ace. Certainly a beer ill be brewing again and again!

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Batch Size & Stats

• 47L (2x 19L & 1 9L corny kegs) / 12.4 gal finished beer
• 51L (13.5 gal) wort
• For a smaller 19L (5 gal) batch size simply half the ingredients of this recipe
• Starting gravity – 1.044
• Final gravity 1.008
• ABV – 4.7%
• IBU - 16
• Colour - 4.7 EBC
• Mash Efficiency - 94%

Brewfather link

What ingredients?

Water 

With sparging

• 30L (7.9 gal) for a 64°C (147°F) mash  (you can use our strike water calculator to find your ideal strike temp)
• 30L (7.9 gal) sparge water at 78°C (172°F) - fermenter topped up with 4L (1 gal) post boil to reduce OG

Without sparging

• 55L (14.5 gal) for a 64°C (147°F) mash  (you can use our strike water calculator to find your ideal strike temp)

Malts:

• Pilsner Malt – 5.01 kg (11 lb) - 62%
• Flaked Rice – 2.83 (6.24 lb) - 35%
• Gladiator (dextrin) Malt - 240g (0.53 lb) - 3%

Hops & whirlfloc tablets  

Motueka

• 28g (1 oz) 12 IBU's – 60 mins
• 60g (2.1 oz) 5 IBU's – 5 minutes left in the boil

Rice Hulls

• 400g (0.88 lb)

Whirlfloc tablets 

• 1.5g (0.052 oz) / 2 tablets – 15 minutes left in the boil

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Yeast options & fermentation temperatures

• 23g (0.8 oz) Saflager S-23 – ferment at 14°C (57°F)
• 23g (0.8 oz) Saflager W-34/70 – ferment at 14°C (57°F)

Water Profile

• Ca²⁺23
• ‍^‍Mg²⁺ 5
• ‍Na⁺ 15
• ‍Cl^- 31
• ‍^‍SO₄^2- 32
• ‍^‍HCO₃^- 57

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Step by step process

Step 1 – Milling

• Mill grains to medium crush (set mill rollers to a gap of approx. 1.00mm / 0.039 inches)
• Just keep in mind roller gap settings are not universal so as you brew more batches you will find the ideal crush size for your setup
• Alternatively if you don’t have a grain mill you can order your grains crushed from most homebrew stores, both online and in person

Step 2 – Mashing 

• Mash for 60 minutes at 64°C (147°F) 

• Set your strike water to a few degrees above the target mash temperature, you can use our calculator to determine what your strike temperature should be

• ensure you mix in the grains thoroughly with a mash paddle to prevent dough balls from forming (big spoons, spatulas or whisks will also work)   

• its easier to mash the grains and prevent dough balls if you add a little grain at a time, mix, add more grain and repeat until all the grains are mixed

• if you don’t have a mash tun with heating then ensure after you have finished mixing the grains in to insulate your mash tun (thick neoprene or heavy blankets both work well)

Step 3 (optional) – Sparging

• if your setup has the capability to sparge then do so with 30L (7.9 gal) sparge water at 78°C (172°F)
• if you are not sparging and using a BIAB (brew in a bag) method then remove grains from mash tun and twist and squeeze the bag to get as much liquid out of the grains as possible
• as you start sparging (or straining your BIAB bag) begin raising the temperature of your wort to a boil

Step 4 – Boiling

• Once your wort begins to boil start a timer for a 60-minute boil and add your bittering hops, 28g (1 oz) of Motueka
• At 15 minutes left in the boil add 2 whirlfloc tablets
• With 5 minutes left in the boil add your flavour and aroma hops, 60g (2.1 oz) of Motueka

Step 5 – Cooling

• After 1 hour of boiling start cooling wort down to yeast pitching temperature
• once you’ve reached yeast pitching temperature take an original gravity reading of your wort

Step 6 – Yeast Pitching

• It is best to make a yeast starter before beginning your brew day (ideally 1 day before) to ensure your yeast are as active and healthy as possible before pitching, but not completely necessary – you could also just rehydrate yeast 30 minutes before pitching.
• Pitch yeast in wort a degree or two higher than the target fermentation temperature to help yeast take off more aggressively 

• To make a yeast starter you can use either:

• DME (dry malt extract) at a ratio of approx. 100g per 1L water (3.5 oz per 33 fluid ounces) for gravity of approx. 1.040 
• some unfermented wort kept cold and sanitary from a previous brew day
• 70g of table sugar per 1L water (2.5 oz per 33 fluid ounces) – however, it is best to use malt sugar (wort / DME) whenever possible to reduce the chance of shocking the yeast with a different food source from starter to wort pitching

• To rehydrate yeast

• Add yeast to approx. 10 times as much room temperature water as the weight of the yeast e.g. 10g yeast in 100 ml water (0.35 oz yeast in 3.5 fluid ounces water)

Step 7 – Fermentation

• Allow yeast to ferment over the next week to two weeks
• If you have a temperature controlled system keep the fermenter temperature to the recommended fermentation temperature for each yeast strain (stated in the yeast ingredients section above)
• Monitor the fermentation activity over the first 7 days by the bubbling of the blow off tube / airlock of your fermenter, as the bubbling slows down (roughly around day 7) take a gravity reading. When the gravity reaches around 1.01 raise the temperature of your fermenter by 1-2 degrees for 2-4 days for a diacetyl rest (if you don’t have temperature control don’t worry about this step, its not the end of the world!)
• Its important to note that fermentation times will vary based on your circumstances like, temperature, amount of yeast pitched, healthiness of yeast, gravity of wort, pH etc. so don’t stress be patient and know that these times are just a rough guide
• Once the gravity is the same 2 days in a row move onto cold crashing! (If you can’t / don’t want to cold crash go straight to kegging/bottling your beer!)

Step 8 (optional) – Cold crashing 

• begin cold crashing your fermenter (bring the temperature of your fermenter down to as close to 0°C (32°F) as possible, for 2 days to a week depending on how patient you are
• If you don’t have a temp-controlled fermenter, you can cold crash by putting your fermenter in a fridge or temp-controlled chest freezer
• After you have finished cold crashing it's time to keg/bottle your beer! If you are bottling your beer from the fermenter uncarbonated remember to add about 5-7 grams (0.17 - 0.24 oz) of priming sugar to your bottles to carbonate your beer.

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