I brewed this beer to resemble the traditional Latin American dessert drink that includes rice, milk, cinnamon, vanilla, and sugar. Unlike most dessert drinks, this one is actually thirst quenching, so it translates very well to a refreshing beer! My goal was to make this beer as light and drinkable as possible while still getting significant flavor from the milk sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla bean.
-10lbs German 2-Row Malt
-3lbs Flaked Rice
-Hallertau Hops
-California Ale Yeast
60 Minute Mash at 154 degrees.
-4oz Milk Sugar added @5mins before end of boil
-1.5 extremely fresh Madagascar vanilla beans, and 1.5 authentic and fresh Ceylon cinnamon sticks were soaked in 100ml high grade whisky for 1.5 weeks.
Appearance: Slightly hazy blonde at first, which turned crystal clear over a 3 week cold conditioning period (see pic below). The head and lacing on this beer was impeccable haha, it would maintain a head for until the last sip every time, which I've never experienced before in home-brewed or commercial examples. My best guess is to attribute it to the lactose and/or flaked rice.
Aroma: Sweet, spicy and refreshing with just a hint of the floral noble hops coming forward, mainly you can smell the cinnamon, vanilla, and the sweet/grainy German pale malt shining through.
Flavor: Awesome! I'm not normally a fan of sweet styles, and that's why I made sure to keep my proportions in check and focus on making this a clean, sessionable beer, not a sweet mess! The milk sugar, rice, cinnamon, and vanilla are all present but not overpronounced, but the beer is very clean and easy to drink. Its not even sweet really just damn tasty. Its a dangerous combo!
Mouthfeel: This is a step or two above the body/mouthfeel of a Kolsh or Pilsner. Its still very crisp, but a bit more rounded. Even though its well carbonated the carbonic bite isn't quite as sharp as it would be without the softness that the flaked rice and milk sugar bring.
Here is what the beer looked like after 3 weeks in the serving keg, once it was allowed to cold crash and clear up.
Feel free to resteem, upvote and comment if you have any questions about my beer, or would like to go more in depth on some of the processes involved. @buzzbeergeek @meesterboom if you guys ever want to review a beer of mine let me know and we'll make it happen!