RedHook Sun Rye Ale recipe?

MVKTR2 · 02-18-2009, 09:55 PM

I'm not sure why, perhaps it's the hot summer weather here with the need for a lighter quaffer during those hot humid months, but one of my fav. biers is RedHook's Sun Rye ale.

Does anyone have a recipe on this?

Here's what I was thinking might get me in the ballpark...

5-6 # 2-row
2-3# rye malt
1# flaked rye
.5-.75# Crystal 10 or Crystal 20

Fuggle or German Tradition hops @ 20-23 IBU's

US-05 yeast

Thoughts?

Schlante,
Phillip

Ps now I'm off to the redhook website to see if they offer any insight!

MVKTR2 · 02-19-2009, 04:42 PM

*bump*

Seriously.... I'm the only person in America that drinks this bier???

Anybody got ideas on the recipe?

Schlante,
Phillip

blue800 · 02-19-2009, 05:58 PM

I don't have any insight, but I'm interested in how it turns out. Redhook Sun Rye is the first beer SWMBO specifically requested I brew.

Schwind · 02-19-2009, 06:06 PM

I brewed a sunrye clone(at least my attempt at one) last summer. My recipe is on brewsmith, but thats at home. I know I split the rye and wheat in half, something like 2lbs rye, 2 lbs wheat, with the rest of the grist 2 row. Might have thrown in .5 lb of crystal 20, I'll check when I get home from work and let you know.

Mike

MVKTR2 · 02-19-2009, 08:11 PM

Thanks Mike, I look forward to seeing what your recipe looks like. My obvious question is, how close is/was your recipe in reproducing the flavor of the original? I'm not really aware that they're using wheat in this bier?

Fwiw the Redhook website says they use 6 grains, and they list the hops, which I don't recall right now, but want to say it was magnum and willamette. So a small willamette/fuggle flavor addition might be in order.

Schlante,
Phillip

Schwind · 02-19-2009, 11:06 PM

Phillip,
My grain bill was
6# 2-row
2# wheat
2# rye
.75# munich
Sterling and summit hops(trying to add a citrus aroma/flavor)

I used hefe yeast though so it had the banana/esteryness to it. So don't use that. It was good but the hefe yeast drew away from the rye flavor. I think using US-05 would have made it close. I had no clue what Red Hook was using when I made up the recipe. 6 grains huh? I guess I need to refine my palate instead of sucking down 3-4 beers.

oh, another thing that made a difference was I got crazy sweet efficiency, 82%, so my session rye/wheat tuned into 6.1% ABV.

The beer was great, if I wasn't any help I apologize and wish you the best of luck on cloning the beer.

MVKTR2 · 02-20-2009, 06:52 PM

Schwind, you've been more help than anyone else. Seems there's only a couple of people on earth interested in this bier... oh well.

Thanks, and I'll post an update when I get around to making this in a month or so.

Schlante,
Phillip

**Doog_Si_Reeb** · 03-04-2009, 05:35 PM

Bump... Chock me up as one who is interested in this. I like Sun Rye. I have heard people bash it because it's light and not traditional, but I think it's a good lawnmower beer. I'm planning to brew up something this spring that will get close.

I like the idea of wheat, rye and 2-row. Maybe some light crystal like 10 or 20. A little Munich would be good for some backbone. If both flaked and malted rye were used, that would put the grain bill up to 6 different grains....

I have Magnum in the freezer and that is my go-to bittering hop. I also have some leaf Willamette so that will work for a late addition.

I think this brew is going on the list!

lroog · 05-18-2009, 04:48 PM

How did your beers turn out. The Sun Rye is far and away my favorite summer beer. I'm down in FL and this beer works wonders on a hot day. This is what I want to brew tomorrow night so any pointer will be helpful. I'm a n00b and just to make sure; are there extract recipes?

MVKTR2 · 05-18-2009, 08:31 PM

Wow talk about a coincidence! I tried this bier for the first time today. For the record it's VERY green, as in 2 weeks old (1 week in primary/bottled sample in bottle for 1 week) In other words it's not nearly as good as it's gonna be. Initial thoughts, pretty dang tasty.

Recipe I brewed and early results below.

6.75# 2-row-Rahr
3# Rye malt
1.5# Light Am. Munich
4 oz. Crystal 20
4 oz. Flaked Wheat

Mash in 17 qts water at 150 - 151.5 for 55 mins.
At 45 mins drained approx 1 gal. wort, raised temp to 195ish added back to MLT raising mash temp to 158.3 for 15 mins. Sparge with 4.25 gals water @ 180 degrees.

90 Min. boil (30 pre hop boil mostly to reduce volume)
.5 oz. Glacier 6.0 AAU @ 60 min
.5 oz. Summit 18.5 AAU @ 17 min
.5 oz. Summit 18.5 AAU @ 2 min

O.G. 1.059
F.G. 1.010 (taken @ 7 days, I think I've gotten another point or so drop as I moved it to secondary B4 I wanted to, but I needed the primary for an APA) Will update when I bottle in a couple weeks.

Yeast: 2 packs US-05

Notes: Obviously with the Summit I wasn't trying to clone the recipe exactly, but I did want something close, just wanted that citrus/tangerine Summit burst of flavor/ aroma at the end. Not looking for it to be overpoweringly hoppy. As the bier is green it was had to make too much of a judgement, but the malt certainly comes through, probably more so than Sun Rye. I tried to keep fermentation between 59-63 (mostly succesful as I use the rubbermaid tub, waterbath, & frozen 2-liter method). It's definatly smooth and malty with a good bit of the grainy 2 row/munich/rye... very bready I suppose. What really really stands out is it's VERY thick. Way thicker than a blonde should be, but I kind of like it. The head & retention were phenominal. Not sure what caused the viscosity/head but I suspect it's caused by the rye. Also it's VERY cloudy, I forgot to add Irish Moss.

I'll post a pic later, or tomorrow. I'll also post a follow-up when it's bottle conditioned and truely ready to be judged.

Schlante,
Phillip

As a side note I siphoned almost 1 gallon into a 1 gal. secondary and added 1 pt of finely chopped and hand crushed strawberries. I'm letting it sit for 2-3 weeks then I'll start the racking process till it clears. Ahh the mini experiments!