PHILADELPHIA, PA – This week, USA Rice traveled to the City of Brotherly Love to participate in the 2026 Craft Brewers Conference, America's largest gathering for the alcoholic beverage industry, and promote U.S.-grown rice’s evolving role in brewing, highlight new research, and position USA Rice as a resource to the craft beer community.
As part of the conference’s educational offering, USA Rice hosted a sponsored sixty-minute seminar titled The Rice Renaissance: Flavor, Function, and Innovation for Modern Brewers. During the session, USA Rice’s Cameron Jacobs teamed up with University of Arkansas Professor of Food Chemistry, Dr. Scott LaFontaine, to discuss how craft brewing is barely exploring the potential of rice in beer from storytelling to the technical aspects of brewing and showcase how researchers at the University of Arkansas are redefining what U.S.-grown rice can do for brewers.
“Unfortunately, rice is often dismissed as a neutral, uninspiring adjunct, even though it actually anchors some of the world’s most technically refined beverages, so in our session we worked to change those outdated perceptions and position rice as a brewer’s most overlooked tool,” said Professor Lafontaine. “Our attendees were able to get a much better understanding of what locally sourced rice can actually do for them from enhancing drinkability, improving extract efficiency, creating lighter and brighter flavor profiles, and inspiring new styles. And they left this session knowing how to better connect and communicate their needs to U.S. rice farmers.”
The packed session had more than 75 attendees representing craft breweries from around the world and featured beer samplings of Anheuser-Busch’s Michelob Ultra, the top-selling and fastest growing beer in America, and Sool’s MAKKU, a Makgeolli or unfiltered traditional Korean rice beer, which helped to showcase the range of what rice can offer in craft brewing.
“Another focus of the presentation was on storytelling and responding to consumer values, which seems to be underutilized with rice-based beers,” said Jacobs. “When using U.S.-grown rice, brewers have the ability to create distinct and authentic stories around their products ranging from sourcing locally to supporting American farmers to sustainability, which all helps with having a product standout in the marketplace.”
The Craft Brewers Conference and Expo is hosted annually by the Brewers Association and draws 7,000 to 10,000 attendees each year representing all aspects of the brewing industry to connect, learn, collaborate, and grow.