Marly's Wimp Beer

Classification: American light lager, rice lager, Budweiser clone, all-grain

Source: Rick Hawkins (rhawkins@iastate.edu), r.c.b., 4/27/95

This recipe was originally derived from papazian's rice--beer recipe, but further lightened.

As a lager, it's actually a nice, crisp, beer. As an ale, it will impress your Coors-type friends, though you probably won't think highly of it yourself. As a lager, it is better than the corn ale, but the corn ale is better than this as an ale. I suppose you could lager the corn ale as well, though I've never done it.

Ingredients: (for 5 gallons)

4-7/16 pounds 2-row pale malt
1-9/16 pounds rice
7/16 pound light crystal malt
1 ounce Cascade hops (full boil)
1/2 ounce Cascade (after boil)
2 teaspoons Irish moss (30 minute boil)
Munich lager yeast (16 ounce starter)

Procedure:

2 tsp gypsum in boil, on top of very hard las vega water (about 3/4 tsp for a 5 gallon batch).

Boil the rice in 4 gallons of water for 30 minutes. 3 was not enough and some burned on. (1.5 gal. for 5 gallons).

Let it cool to 130 degrees, and add the rest of the grain. Leave at this temp for 45 minutes.

Add boiling water to raise the temp for 158, and mash for another 45 minutes.

Miscellaneous notes: 1) i've used ale yeast, probably german ale, but that probably won't impress you.
2) *if* you can keep tighht control over the temp during fermentation, you might want to switch to pilsner/st. louis lager yeast. The munich lager yeast, however, is tolerant of temperature fluctuations.
3) I would not substitute a different kind of hops unless you *really* know what you're doing. I ruined a batch of the corn ale (below) by using fuggles; on a beer this light, fuggles gave a taste i thought resembled infection.
4) my notes show initial gravity of 1.040, and final of 1.004. I assume the final meant 1.014, or maybe a broken hydrometer.
5) it's been a while, but it seems to me that i avoided the vitamin-enriched rice. Which is nice, since the base stuff costs about half as much.
6) the rice gives a certain "crispnesss" to the taste, which is identifiable as the flavor difference between Budweisser (which uses rice) and other basic american swill (which use corn).
7) i was actually taking mugs of this rather than the stout on the next tap during the vegas summers. Though the first few times i looked to make sure Marlys wouldn't catch me..
8) i don't knwo what athe lovibund (sp?) is on the light crystal; it came from The Home Brewery as "light crystal"