Critique Rye Pale Ale Recipe

I'm going to be doing a rye pale ale coming up. I've seen, and tried some commercial examples that use 18% rye so I will start there, but may consider bumping it up to 20% of the bill.

Overall how does this look, grain and hop schedule?

7.5# 2 Row (68%)
2# Rye Malt (18%)
12oz Vienna (6.8%)
8 oz Honey Malt (4.5%)
2 oz Cyrstal 20 (1%)
2 oz Crystal 40 (1%)

.50 Centennial FWH
.25 Chinook 60 min
1 oz Cascade at 15
1 oz Cascade at 5

DH in Keg: .50 Centennial / .50 Chinook

Thanks for the replies.

Looks tasty to me! I made a rye pale several months ago (you can find the recipe on the left if you want) with 2 lbs of rye. It turned out awesome. Good call on the Chinook dry hop, too.

Personally, I would remove the crystal malt. Won't do much for flavor or color and makes the recipe unnecessarily complex.

Otherwise, looks good.

Eric

I agree on the crystal. Either add more or drop it. 2% won't do much. Otherwise it looks tasty....honey malt is absolutely *wonderful* in rye beers, IMO.

ive never thought about honey malt in a rye beer. i made a rye pale ale and the twang was a bit much for me. may have to give this one a try though

nootay said:

ive never thought about honey malt in a rye beer. i made a rye pale ale and the twang was a bit much for me. may have to give this one a try though

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How much rye did you use?

im thinking it was around 1lb in a 5 gallon batch. i can get an exact percentage as soon as im around my computer at home. it very well could have been a fermentation issue causing the twang, which is another reason i want to try it again

Around 20% rye is a good start.

I have gotten the rye kick lately. I really like the taste of a rye PA and if there is some in the fridge I seem to always grab that over most any other brew that is in there.

I do one that is pretty similar. I Use Munich instead of Vienna and hop with Amarillo and Cascade. YUM

beergolf said:

Around 20% rye is a good start.

I have gotten the rye kick lately. I really like the taste of a rye PA and if there is some in the fridge I seem to always grab that over most any other brew that is in there.

I do one that is pretty similar. I Use Munich instead of Vienna and hop with Amarillo and Cascade. YUM

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I was thinking about Amarillo but I wanted to go with hops that we're easier to source do I could duplicate this easier if it good.

daveooph131 said:

I was thinking about Amarillo but I wanted to go with hops that we're easier to source do I could duplicate this easier if it good.

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Yeah Amarillo can be hard to find at times. I just happen to have a pound of it in my freezer, so I am good for several batches.

Do I need to add rice hulls to help with the mash?

Definitely throw in some rice hulls, a few handfuls should do you. Good rule of thumb is to add them ANY time you use rye, it really tends to gunk up your mash tun and lead to stuck sparges.

bmick said:

Definitely throw in some rice hulls, a few handfuls should do you. Good rule of thumb is to add them ANY time you use rye, it really tends to gunk up your mash tun and lead to stuck sparges.

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So what do you think quarter or half pound? I think I used a full pubs on my wheat beer but that was like 7 pounds of wheat vs 2 in this case.

daveooph131 said:

So what do you think quarter or half pound? I think I used a full pubs on my wheat beer but that was like 7 pounds of wheat vs 2 in this case.

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I use one handful, even on 50% wheat or rye beers. I batch sparge using a steel braid to lauter. Never had a stuck mash.

Eric

What did you use for yeast? I have read a lot of rye recipes with American Ale yeast II. I was thinking about trying that? I also plan on dropping the crystal from this recipe and bumping up the rye .8oz

Also, i'm bottling this so as far as dry hopping goes, how many days sounds right? 7 days, 3 days?