Forbidden Rice Ale


Using an exotic ingredient in today's creation. I've had a couple pounds of an heirloom rice variety around and it's time to use them. The pedia of Wiki has this to say about the rice. "Black rice is one of several black-colored heirloom plants producing rice variants such as Indonesian Black Rice, forbidden rice, or wild rice. High in nutritional value, forbidden rice is rich in iron. Unlike other black rice from Asia, it is not glutinous or rough. This grain is high in fiber and has a deep, nutty taste. Black forbidden rice is a deep black color and turns deep purple when cooked. Its dark purple color is primarily due to its high anthocyanin content." Which is a water soluable pigment. I hope the beer will have a funky color to it. I'm just using a pale base malt and the purple rice. Should be interesting, a royal beer of imperial purple color. Wiki says this about imperial purple, "The Tyrian purple (in Greek, πορφύρα, porphyra, Latin: purpura), also known as royal purple, imperial purple or imperial dye, is a purple-red dye which was first produced by the ancient Phoenicians.
Tyrian purple was expensive: the 4th-century-BC historian Theopompus reported, "Purple for dyes fetched its weight in silver at Colophon" in Asia Minor. The expense rendered purple-dyed textiles status symbols, and early sumptuary laws dictated and forbade their use. The production of shellfish purple was tightly controlled in Byzantium and subsidized by the imperial court, which restricted its use for the coloring of silks for imperial use, so that a particularly elite member of the imperial family was porphyrogenitos, "born in the purple"."

Crazy humans.




Well, I gently crushed the rice in the mill and cooked it as per the directions on the bag. Then added cooked rice to mash during mash in. Rested at 150 for an hour. Crazy deep purple color. Staining the wooden spoon I'm stirring the rice with. Great runoff, low turbidity. A deep purple color to say the least. Going to be a funny beer to pour.


Racked tonight, nine day's in primary fv. Activity slowed down two days ago. Had a light rice starch flavor, very quaffable. Still very hazy in color. Time in secondary will solve that.

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