Why isn't rice the first choice for beer

Why isn't rice the first choice for beer? There are several reasons:

 Reason 1: Rice has simple sugar 

There are five main types of sugars commonly involved in beer brewing:

Monosaccharides: glucose, fructose

Disaccharides: maltose, sucrose; Maltose = two glucose, sucrose = glucose + fructose

Trisaccharide: malt trisaccharide

It also includes other kinds of polysaccharides, such as dextrin. Some beer will also add accessories, such as Belgian sugar, lactose and so on. But not every sugar can be metabolized by yeast. Neither lactose nor dextrin can be metabolized. The result is a milky taste (lactose), and a drink with a lot of burnt/crystal malt tends to be sweeter (dextrin).

For all life, there is a basic formula for the existence of sugar: the simplest simple sugars can be consumed directly.

For yeast, monosaccharides are naturally preferred in the order of consumption of these sugars, because yeast does not consume energy to metabolize them. Due to the presence of an extracellular enzyme outside the cell of yeast, the disaccharide sucrose is rapidly hydrolyzed into glucose and fructose, which can also be quickly consumed by yeast.

Rice starch is too simple, are very small particles, after hydrolysis is basically monosaccharide. So, if a large proportion of rice is used to brew beer, the fermentation is very high, and the sugar is turned into alcohol at its best. This is a good thing for the production of distilled spirits such as rice wine. By blending, the winemaker can also introduce the taste of rice into the light alcohol, which is an important reason why Japanese and Korean soju and Chinese rice wine are so popular.

 Reason 2: the structural characteristics of rice 

The rice we eat is just a part of the grain. After cleaning, hulling and milling, we only eat the endosperm and aleurone layer. In other words, it is only starch.
It does not contain enzymes that hydrolyze starch into simple monosaccharides, disaccharides, and trisaccharides. And apparently yeast can't eat starches directly, and its limit is trisaccharides.

Therefore, rice starch can not be directly used to make beer, it must rely on the assistance of other grain hydrolytic enzymes to achieve.

 Reason 3: Rice lacks chaff 

Rice lacks chaff, but chaff is an important ingredient in beer production, and it's where the beer gets its color. Because the malt changes in color, the combined formula can give the beer complex colors of red, black, yellow, brown, and gold.

 Reason 4: yeast nutrition 

Rice starch is deficient in protein.

Protein makes beer cloudy and reduces production, but a lack of it also means the yeast doesn't have enough nutrients to reproduce and metabolize. Rice's protein content is around 7%, much lower than barley's 11% +, which is slightly lower for keeping yeast healthy.
So barley has an advantage over rice, allowing yeast to live healthier.

So why is rice still widely used?
The main feature is its high sugar content! As a result, the unit cost of brews is lower, especially for large industrial scale brews, which can greatly reduce the cost of beer production.

American beer swept the world through commercialization, a very important reason lies in the use of rice and corn starch, which greatly reduced the cost, making beer thoroughly become a fast consumer goods, thus sweeping the world.
At the same time, after all, it brings some rice flavor, although dilute the beer flavor, but also more refreshing and crisp taste. Beer has become more acceptable to a wider range of consumers and has become a powerful tool to expand the consumer group.No beer can be brewed 100% from rice. Rice can only be used as an additive.

Brewery equipment fermenters in our plant

What is your brewing process? We can design configuration according to your requirements. Each set of beer equipment is unique and we offer custom service and perfect turnkey service including installation. If you are interested, please contact Alice for more information on beer equipment.

Alice and her email:dgequipment@degonget.com

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