Brewing with Wild Rice

Much of my excitement for homebrew derives from drawing inspiration from my surroundings. Fall in Minnesota is one of my favorite experiences, and sadly, Fall will be coming to a close in the coming weeks. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate its passing with a beer.

Wild Rice in Minnesota is a grain typically harvested in September. Truth be told, Wild Rice is not actually rice but a water-grass seed.¹ The techniques for harvesting wild rice have remained unchanged for centuries. Two people will occupy a canoe in which one, the “poler”, pushes the canoe through the wild rice bed of a lake, and the other, the “knocker”, uses cedar sticks to bend the wild rice stalks over the side of the canoe and taps the kernels off the stalk.² In Minnesota, the celebrated grain finds its way into many food dishes like salads, soups, and Thanksgiving stuffing. Even Fitger’s Brewhouse in Duluth made a vegetarian wild rice burger. So, when looking for a Minnesota native ingredient to infuse in a Fall-seasonal beer, it is only sensible to make one with wild rice.

How Will This Be Used

Wild rice has to be considered in your homebrew recipe much differently than American white rice. Though there are exceptions, white rice will contribute little pronounced flavor to your recipe and can be used to give your beer a lighter mouthfeel. Wild rice, on the other hand, can contribute a nutty flavor as well as color. In the summer of 2010, August Schell Brewing Co. of New Ulm, Minnesota released their Wild Rice Farmhouse Ale. The Schell’s ale married the nutty characteristics of the wild rice with the yeast to create a self-described “dry and quenching”³ beer.

My intent in using wild rice was to experiment with the Minnesota-native grain and find a late-fall seasonal beer recipe that I could continue to share and revisit each year. From what I had read I would want to focus on allowing the nutty, earthy flavors and aromas from the wild rice to shine through. I had a basic idea of what I wanted and knew that I would use wild rice. But there is so much more to a beer recipe that needs to properly come together before you have a worthwhile product.

Let’s Get Into It

I am a fan of using Kölsch yeast in my homebrew. I thought that perhaps a lower temperature fermentation with time could lead to a clean finishing beer. However, I feared that whatever unique flavors Kölsch yeast brings along may distract from the raw flavors in the wild rice. I opted, instead, to play it safe by utilizing Wyeast 1056, American Ale yeast — a relatively neutral choice. The direction I took with my beer was instead in the form of an amber or brown ale. When the snow hits the ground, I want my beers to be a little darker. An ale with the malty backbone of something like a nut brown resonated well.

As I said I wanted the wild rice to shine, but I would need some malt character. Nuttiness and chocolate would be the aim. It wasn’t hard for me to imagine a beer like New Belgium’s Fat Tire to slip into place nicely as a base beer.

The Recipe

Fermentables

• 5.0 lbs Extra Light Dry Malt Extract (DME)
• 0.25 lbs Crystal 20? L
• 0.25 lbs Crystal 60? L
• 0.5 lbs Carared Malt
• 0.5 lbs Biscuit Malt
• 0.5 lbs Chocolate Malt
• 1.0 lbs Minnesota Wild Rice (more about preparation later)

Hops Schedule — (90 minute boil)

• 1.0 oz. Willammette (4.5%) @ 90 minutes
• 1.0 oz. Fuggle (4.0%) @ 60 minutes

Yeast

• 1 packet Wyeast 1056 – American Ale, pitched from a starter

Specifications

• Batch Size: 5 gal
• Original Gravity: 1.066
• Final Gravity: 1.029
• ABV: 4.9%
• Bitterness: 26.9 IBU
• Color: 17 SRM

Preparing Your Wild Rice

I think there are a few ways wild rice can be prepared for your homebrew successfully, but I followed the direct advice of Schell’s David Berg. He recommended that I boil the wild rice and add it directly in to my mash. For now I am an extract brewer, and I treated the wild rice much as I would specialty grains.

For my 5 gallon recipe, I started with one pound of hand harvested wild rice. Most recommendations have you consider using wild rice for about 5-10% of your grain bill to bring through the desired nutty characteristics. I rinsed it first in the sink and then soaked the wild rice overnight for about 8 hours in cold water. I wanted the wild rice to absorb the water in an attempt to soften the husks. Once I had strike water, I placed the wild rice in a strainer inside of the boil kettle. With that, I slowly raised the temperature of the water to boiling. I boiled the rice for about an hour before rinsing and removing the husks. I re-used the water I had been boiling the wild rice in and pitched it into my wort and began my regular extract brewing process. At this point I had both the wild rice and specialty grains in their own straining bags in my brew kettle.

The Results

When I was transferring the beer from carboy to keg, I was amazed by the intense nutty-aroma coming from the wild rice. However, somewhere between that transfer and the serving glass, most of the aroma was lost. When I was pouring the beer for Jimmy Carter Happy Hour in Des Moines, the reaction towards the wild rice was mostly because of its curiosity. It allowed me to start many conversations with other homebrewers and beer drinks that were not familiar with the ingredient. It definitely struck a chord with a number of the attendees. I think the resulting beer allowed the wild rice adjunct to stand alone, but I didn’t support it enough with the rest of the beer. I know that during my brew day that I had a bit of panic during the morning hours and felt more hops were needed. Again I was seeking a balance between making the beer right and not distracting from the characteristics of the wild rice. You will notice that I did a 90 minute boil, and that was a last minute decision to raise the bitterness of the beer by using the hops I had already added. As a result, whatever aroma the hops were meant to add was quickly boiled away. I will also add that the finishing gravity wasn’t as low as I had expected, but I was initially successful in hitting my target original gravity. To sum it up, there were definitely fans of the beer, but I felt that the flavors were a bit muddled and not as complementary as hoped.

I will be trying this beer again because I know that it could be awesome. I didn’t dislike my first trial, but I know it can be stronger and it will have its fans. I encourage anyone who has read this far to research using wild rice as an ingredient in recipes of their own. With some more trials we can create a unique and flavorful beer.

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