FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — University of Arkansas assistant professor of flavor chemistry Scott Lafontaine of the UA System Division of Agriculture is looking into ways rice grown in Arkansas could be used in the brewing process of non-alcoholic beer.
Lafontaine will be presenting his studies in a seminar at the Craft Brewers Conference & BrewExpo America on May 10.
According to the conference's website, demand for non-alcoholic beer is at an all-time high despite the amount of production being small relative to regular, alcoholic beer. "consumer demand for non-alcohol and low-alcohol beers is at an all-time high. "This category is expected to grow rapidly in the next couple of years and serves as a potentially untapped space and area of growth for brewers of all sizes," the website says.
Trey Malone, an assistant professor of agricultural economics and agribusiness, said that surveys show that half of Americans over 21 don't drink an alcoholic beverage monthly.
With the help of Ph.D. student Bernardo Guimares, Lafontaine has been looking into what aromatic varieties of rice, like ARoma 22, a jasmine-type rice, would do to the flavor of low-alcohol or non-alcoholic beers.
According to Lafontaine, the type of method to make a non-alcoholic beer will impact the flavor outcome of the product. He also noted that the use of pigmented rice has the ability to change the final product's coloring.
Lafontaine is trying to find malted rice varieties with similar characteristics to barley malt since currently, brewers need an extra vessel to be able to use rice in the brewing of beer. If they're able to do this, Lafontaine believes brewers will not need to make a capital investment in order to brew beer with rice.