Amazake whacky

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duncan incapable
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Amazake whacky

Post by duncan incapable » Tue Mar 18, 2008 8:39 pm

Amazake Whacky - a gluten free beer

While searching for a source of rice noodles, which I use instead of
spaghetti, I came across this stuff called amazake. Its rice which
has been partially fermented/degraded with fungus to produce sugars
from the starch. It is similar to yoghurt in appearance and
consistency. In Japan this is the first stage of making sake (rice
wine). However the Japanese also use this partially fermented rice as
a dessert since it is very sweet. The dessert version is available
on-line in the UK (goodnessdirect.co.uk). So I reckoned I could make
beer with it and ordered two jars of plain rice amazake and two jars
with added millet. I tasted both versions and found them sweet but
pretty tasteless. So I came up with the following recipe which
includes a few of my usual gluten free ingredients to add some taste
and colour.


Redbush tea bags 20 bags
liquorice tea bags 10 bags
Muscovado Sugar 200 g
Treacle (Lyles) 4 Dsp
Bovril 4 Tsp
Prune Juice 1 litre
Date Syrup (Meridian) 250 ml
Rice syrup (Biona) 660 ml
Amazake Brown rice 760 g
Amazake Millet 760 g
Tamari Soy Sauce 50 ml
Golden Sugar 400 g
Yeast Nutrient 0.5 Tsp
Irish Moss 0.5 Tsp
Hop Extract 5 Tsp
Goldings Hops 25 g

The ferment went smoothly, but there was an enormous amount of trub in the brewing bin. I only managed to salvage 17 litres from a 23 litre brew. I racked into a secondary FV and fined with gelatine. The beer cleared nicely with just the slightest haze remaining and I bottled into 1 litre PETs two days later. First tasting was after a week in the bottle - unremarkable - still a bit too yeasty to get the real character of the beer, but nothing unpleasant.

After a month in the bottle, much to my surprise, this tastes like
beer. Its a fairly characterless beer though. SWIMBO likes it, so its
probably a bit on the bland lagery side, but nothing you could object
to....no unpleasant or odd notes at all and it has quite a 'full' body.


I don't think I'll be bothering with amazake again as the only thing
it seems to contribute is mouthfeel (and a little sugar). I can get
the same effect with maltodextrin (body bru etc) for much less
money. It worked out at over 80p per pint which is double the cost of
my standard brew. However if there are gluten free brewers out there
who are not happy using maltodextrin - it doesn't seem possible to get
an assurance from suppliers that it is gluten free - then a couple of
jars (760ml) of amazake will improve the mouthfeel of 23 litres of
beer and leave you with only 21. :wink:
Last edited by duncan incapable on Tue Mar 18, 2008 10:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me than a full frontal lobotomy, but either will do

drinking: Four Star
conditioning: Four Star
fermenting: nowt

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spearmint-wino
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Post by spearmint-wino » Tue Mar 18, 2008 9:21 pm

I love reading your posts on brewing gluten-free, the inventiveness is remarkable 8)

Although I have to admit I was a little nervous what with all the teabags and that, until I saw the hop addition :)

drinking: ~ | conditioning: ~ | primary: ~ | Looks like I need to get brewing then...
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duncan incapable
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Location: Cambridge

Post by duncan incapable » Tue Mar 18, 2008 10:27 pm

spearmint-wino wrote: Although I have to admit I was a little nervous what with all the teabags and that, until I saw the hop addition :)
I completely understand. I'm still not sure what inspired me to try redbush tea, but at 20 tea bags in 23 litres the strength is about a seventh of a decent cup of tea, so its difficult to identify that it is there amongst all the other things. At the same time it does add something malty to the flavour profile, not to mention a bit of colour.
I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me than a full frontal lobotomy, but either will do

drinking: Four Star
conditioning: Four Star
fermenting: nowt

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duncan incapable
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Posts: 73
Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2007 2:30 pm
Location: Cambridge

Post by duncan incapable » Tue Mar 18, 2008 10:36 pm

DaaB wrote:I will try one of your gluten free brews out one day, I might even send it into a competition to see if they pick it out as not actually being beer (as they know it). :D

(I doubt they will :=P )
I'd recommend Four Star for that. Its flavour is very complex but also very beery. Lately I've used a different prune juice which has left the beer cloudy after its two days in the secondary with 12g of gelatine. The solution has been to add another 12g of gelatine. Great finings is gelatine and dirt cheap :)
I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me than a full frontal lobotomy, but either will do

drinking: Four Star
conditioning: Four Star
fermenting: nowt

Vossy1

Post by Vossy1 » Tue Mar 18, 2008 11:43 pm

:lol: :lol:

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