Rye beers

Articles I read for inspiration!

https://byo.com/grains/item/326-brewing-with-rye-tips-from-the-pros

http://allaboutbeer.com/article/rye-homebrew-recipes/

http://morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/library/backissues/issue1.3/hayden.html

HisDudeness said:

Read up a bit on using rye in beers and came up with a few changes to recipe previously posted to hopefully improve it, basically added more rye but hopefully not enough to cause serious mashing problems and changed hopping to reflect what I am actually likely to have in stock and generally up the hoppyness a bit will hopefully try a small batch of this soon for a test run

Rye IPA

23l
ABV 5.8
IBU 51.7
SRM 13
OG 1.055
Fg 1.012

Grain
Mo 4kg
Rye malt 0.75kg
Crystal 60l 0.3kg
Crystal rye 0.3kg
Caramalt 0.2kg
Torrified wheat 0.2kg

Hops
Nugget 32g @ 60min
Nugget 10g @ 20min
Amarillo 10g @ 20min
Citra 10g @ 10min
Amarillo 10g @ 10min
Cascade 5g @ 10min
Amarillo 25g @ 0min
Citra 25g @ 0min
Cascade 10g @ 0min

Irish moss @ 15min

Yeast: Adnams or US 05

How does that look?

Click to expand...

That looks sound to me. A rich malty base and rich fruity hops.

Did a scaled down 5L test brew of this on Thursday and it is progressing nicely now, think I needed a bit more water in the mash and possibly a longer mash time as the grains were a bit stodgy and the OG was quite low compared to the target got about 60% efficiency in the end so the information about rye being tricky to mash seems to be confirmed in this case! Lost a lot of volume in the boil too so could have used more sparge water as well. Hopefully will turn out well and with no mould issues this time :pray:

Looked a bit quiet in the bucket so took a quick gravity reading and its down to 1.008 already the adnams yeast has worked very quickly again! No lingering krausen this time though so hopefully less chance of mould. Sample was pretty clear and tasted very good nice spicy rye notes coming through. Still pushing the bucket lid up though so will leave in FV for a little longer but dont want to hang around too long incase mould appears again. I think this could be a belter!

Looks excellent!

I've just bottled one which was made with roasted rye so it's very dark but has a slight red hue in the glass. Hopped with Citra, Amarillo and Magnum. Hoping it will be a winner.

Thanks, roasted rye sounds interesting, I bet thats going to be a pretty intense dark ale you will have there. What percentage rye did you use?

Oof, now you're asking...I used about 15% of the grain bill. It's almost like a black rye IPA

Wow not surprised it's turned out dark then! Should be a nice level of rye flavour imparted though, I used about 18% Rye split between normal and crystal rye and it's got that distinct spicy note from the samples so far can't wait to try finished product

Did a test run of a Rye Porter recipe that I have come up with today few last minute changes but here is the recipe at 10L batch size (I did another 5L test brew for this one)

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Rye Porter

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Robust Porter
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 10 liters (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 15.4 liters
Boil Gravity: 1.038
Efficiency: 72% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.058
Final Gravity: 1.013
ABV (standard): 5.94%
IBU (tinseth): 33.95
SRM (morey): 27.61

FERMENTABLES:
1.8 kg - United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale (68.7%)
0.18 kg - American - Rye (6.9%)
0.18 kg - United Kingdom - Crystal 70L (6.9%)
0.14 kg - United Kingdom - Crystal Rye (5.3%)
0.14 kg - United Kingdom - Brown (5.3%)
0.1 kg - United Kingdom - Chocolate (3.8%)
0.08 kg - Torrified Wheat (3.1%)

HOPS:
12 g - Challenger, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 9.3, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 28.74
6 g - Challenger, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 9.3, Use: Boil for 10 min, IBU: 5.21

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Temp: 67 C, Time: 90 min, Amount: 9 L
Starting Mash Thickness: 3.1 L/kg

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
2.5 g - Irish moss, Time: 15 min, Type: Fining, Use: Boil

YEAST:
Gervin Ale (by Muntons) GV-12
Starter: No
Form: Dry
Attenuation (avg): 77%
Flocculation: High
Optimum Temp: 13.89 - 21.11 C

Actually ended up mashing for a couple of hours as I got dragged out to the shops but this probably helped hit the target OG as the mash was quite sticky and porridge like again probably due to the rye. Looks very dark and treacly and smells rich and malty so hopefully will be a good one!

Mashed in the oven again

Hit the target 1.058

Safely in the FV!

Rye IPA update bottled today after 2 weeks in FV, the yeast perked up a bit in the second week and started bubbling again so ended up down at 1.005/6 the Adnams yeast seems to be giving me a consistently high attenuation which is nice :thumb: Used 330 bottles to stretch it out a bit or my little test batch could be gone in a flash! :drink:
Tasted very good already and pretty close to what I was aiming for hopefully, both AG batches so far have tasted pretty much like a finished (but flat) beer straight out of the FV which is making it very hard to allow proper conditioning time!

Bottled the Rye Porter today looking pretty good and smelt very nice, rich and malty. Lost a fair bit to trub so bottled just over 4 litres. I like the idea of doing small batches for test brews like this but its a bit of a pain in the a**e getting all the bottling gear out for such a small number of bottles! Hopefully it will turn out well and then I can do a bigger batch :grin:

Looks excellent! Do I spy a Beer 52 bottle opener in the background?

Cheers fella, it is indeed a beer52 opener couldn't resist that £14 intro offer

Sat here with a big fat grin on my face and a glass of the rye IPA in my hand it's been in the bottle for about 4 weeks now and I am well chuffed with it, it's pretty much what I had in my head and compares very well with the commercial beers I was using as inspiration, in fact I'm finding it a bit smoother and easier drinking than the Adnams Rye IPA which I still really like. It might be my rose tinted view of my own recipe but I think I would be very happy to have paid for this from a bar! Taste wise it has a big fruity hoppiness at first with a rich malt balance that keeps it quite mellow and a nice dry slightly spicy finish where the rye flavour really seems to kick in. Not sure I would change anything with this recipe to be honest as it seems to have come out exactly as I wanted it, but I might consider a little bit of dry hopping next time to up the aromatics a bit.
One major regret I only brewed 5 litres noooooooooo!

That looks and sounds wonderful. :thumb:

Luuuurvley. You can take the rose tinted goggles off. I don't doubt your beer is far superior to commercial stuff. I find it quite rare to like a stout that I find in a pub to be better than I can make at home.

Cheers chaps and thanks for the help and advice along the way, once again extra kudos to clibit as this was made using your simple AG method :hat: