"Whisper of the Tengu" Japanese Rice Lager
For whatever reason, Japanese Rice Lagers seem to have become fairly popular lately in craft beer circles. At least I see a bunch more of them recently than in the past.
It is sort of funny that when I first started getting into craft beer, one of the criticisms of "Big Beer" was that "they" used cheap ingredients like rice and corn. "Real" craft beer used all quality ingredients, which generally meant all-malt beers.
While the sentiment is still sort of there, it was relaxed quite a bit, which I think is a good thing.
Anyway, I've been seeing more Rice Lagers at breweries and have wanted to brew one for quite some time.
The malt-bill of the recipe pretty much writes itself. Pilsner malt. Rice.
Generally, most Rice Lagers seem to include either Sorachi Ace or nobel hops like Saaz / Hallertau. They also don't tend to feature much hop flavor. But, I thought it would be fun to mix it up just a little, going with Mistral and Motueka, which should give it a little lemon / lime / herbal finish.
Apparently, Tengu is sort of a Japanese gnome-like creature living in mountain forests. It is humanoid with bird-like features. Long nose with a red face and often has wings. They are tricksters evolved from chaotic spirits to wise guardians of nature and martial arts.
I thought a Japanese gnome-like creature would be a great name for a SheppyBrew Japanese Rice Lager.
I don't know when I'll get around to brewing this, but I'm sure I will sometime.
If you'd like to read more about this beer, see Sheppy's Blog: Tengu.
| Whisper of the Tengu Japanese Rice Lager --- Batch 1 (388) |
| Style | International Pale Lager | Batch Size | 5.50 gal | |||
| Type | All Grain | Boil Size | 6.60 gal | |||
| Brewhouse Efficiency | 68.00 | Boil Time | 60 minutes |
Recipe Characteristics
| Recipe Gravity | 1.049 SG | Estimated FG | 1.011 SG | ||||
| Recipe Bitterness | 21.8 IBUs (Rager) | Alcohol by Volume | 5.0 % | ||||
| BU : GU | 0.447 | ||||||
| Recipe Color | 3.3 SRM |
|
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| Measured OG: | 1.050 | Measured FG: | |||||
| ADF: | Measured ABV: |
Ingredients
| Amt | Name | Type | # | %/IBU | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.91 gal | Denver, Colorado | Water | 1 | - | - |
| 6.00 g | Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash) | Water Agent | 2 | - | - |
| 2.00 g | Calcium Chloride (Mash) | Water Agent | 3 | - | - |
| 2.00 tsp | Lactic Acid (Mash) | Water Agent | 4 | - | - |
| 8 lbs | Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) | Grain | 5 | 72.7 % | 0.63 gal |
| 3 lbs | Jasmine Rice (1.0 SRM) | Grain | 6 | 27.3 % | 0.23 gal |
| 0.500 oz | Cascade [7.00 %] - Boil 40.0 min | Hop | 7 | 10.9 IBUs | - |
| 1.00 Items | Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) | Fining | 8 | - | - |
| 2.000 oz | Mistral [4.20 %] - Boil 5.0 min | Hop | 9 | 5.7 IBUs | - |
| 1.000 oz | Motueka [7.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min | Hop | 10 | 5.1 IBUs | - |
| 1.0 pkg | SafLager West European Lager (DCL/Fermentis #S-23) [23.66 ml] | Yeast | 11 | - | - |
| 0.50 tsp | Gelatin (Bottling 2.0 days) | Fining | 12 | - | - |
Mash Profile
| Name | Description | Step Temperature | Step Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saccharification | Add 31.62 qt of water at 156.2 F | 150.0 F | 45 min |
| Heat | Heat to 156.0 F over 10 min | 156.0 F | 20 min |
If steeping, remove grains, and prepare to boil wort
Recipe Notes
Water salts bring Denver water profile (as defined by BeerSmith) to
Ca=97,Mg=8,Na=21,SO4=163,Cl=56,HCO3=104
Acid to bring water pH to around 5.3
Cook the rice in the full volume of water in the Foundry at 180 degrees for 30 minutes.
Let the water / rice cool to mash temperature. Then mix grains and .5 lbs rice hulls into mash.
Mash as directed. Boil as directed.
Cool wort to as close to 50F as possible.
Ferment at 55 3 days and then let fermentation rise to ambient temp.
Keg after two weeks in fermenter.
Force carbonate to taste.
Enjoy!
Brewing Record
| Brew Date: | Strike Temp: | |||||
| Mash Temps: | ||||||
| Pre-boil OG | (1.044 SG) | Pre-boil Vol | (6.60 gal) | |||
| Actual Mash Efficiency | Pitch Temp | |||||
| Fermentation | ||||||
| Day 1: | ||||||
| Day ... | ||||||
| Day ... | ||||||
1/20/2026 Ordered malt and yeast from Tom's Brew Shop. My wife got Jasmin Rice a few days ago. Not sure when I'll brew this, but hopefully sometime soon.
2/14/2026 Brew day today. Getting a late start. Looks like I'll get the rice starting cooking around noon, which means the mash probably won't start to 12:45-ish. Oh well. Decided to modify the hops a little on brew day. Cascade was a little lower in AA than I had in the recipe and I decided to use 2oz of the Mistral.
2/15/2026 Finished the brew day as I was making dinner. Next time I do a rice lager (if I do), I'm going to cook the rice in a separate pot, probably on the stove. It was just too long of a brew day with the rice cooking and then cooling. But, everything went great and I ended up with a 1.050 OG. This morning there are no real signs of fermentation, but I'm sure they will be there later today. Tilt says 1.049 at 51 degrees. Mostly around 55 degrees until I stirred up the wort this morning. Anyway, I'll ferment cold a couple days and then let it rise to ambient for the rest of the fermentation.
2/16/2026 Bubbling. Slowly. So, it has started. Tilt says 1.045 at 53.
2/17/2026 Slow steady bubbling since it started. As a low and slow fermentation should be. Tilt say 1.037 at 54 degrees. Bumping up the temp controller another degree to 55.
2/18/2026 Still going about the same. Tilt says 1.024 at 55 degrees.
2/19/2026 Yeah ... still going ... maybe slowing down a little, but not much. Tilt says 1.022 at 56 degrees. I bumped up the temp controller to 57. Calendar says to go with ambient temperature starting tomorrow.
2/20/2026 Tilt says 1.020 at 59 degrees and bubbling has really slowed down. I'll probably unplug the temperature control later today. I will probably let it go another week or so and keg. Really looking forward to trying this beer.