How Much Rye is Too Much Rye

I'm trying to make a control rye beer to get a big rye flavor that I'll then blend with a SMaSH (working on getting my flavor ratios).

I want to put as much rye as possible into the control so that I have an upper limit.

My plan was to use 2-row in the rye control and the SMaSH mix-in would be MO (both beers would use the same hop schedule).

While theoretically due to its diastatic power, I could do a mash of 100% rye, would this be in the slightest bit feasible? I do use rice hulls, but have typically kept them to 5% of the total grain bill. What's the highest percentage of rye I can work effectively work with (yes, I know that Palmer and BeerSmith say 10-15%, but I've seen recipes around with plenty more than that).

It all depends on your setup. I personally like 25-30% rye for Red Ales, Pale Ales or IPAs. Just going to try it in a stout for the first time and I have a 20% Rye Pilsner (the Ryesner) lagering in the fridge. Anyways, enough about me and on to your issue, you could easily do 100% is you grab yourself a bag and do it BIAB style. No need to worry about sparging there. If doing a BIAB you could even do a half batch. Then you could blend to your liking and not have a bunch left over because while I love rye beers I think 100% would be too much.

Or you could go the old guess and check route and just use MO plus random %rye, the T(two)MaSH.

inhousebrew said:

could easily do 100% is you grab yourself a bag and do it BIAB style. No need to worry about sparging there.

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Ah, indeed, I was thinking about doing a full, standard mash...that would in fact give me 100% absolute max.

I just did 45% in a roggenbier and it came out great. Still young, but I think its pretty tasty thus-far. Used rice hulls and no problems with the sparge at all.

I did a 100% rye kolsch before with BIAB. it was good, but i probably won't do it again.

I did a 75%. It looked like milk, either the regular kind or the of magnesia kind. It didn't taste good. I'll stick to 20-30%. Blending sounds like a clever idea; you can see what percentage works for you and see why 100% is not often done.

I frequently do a 40% RIPA that is well received. I probably push higher to the 50% range the next rotation. Crystal Rye on the other hand can get out of hand quickly.

Last time I made it I bumped the c-rye up from 1/2# to a full # 3% to 7% and it completely steamrolled the bright bite.

Thanks for the info. Seems like up to 100% is definitely a possibility (how did that 100% rye kolsch taste?).

I'm going to attempt a mini-mash with 100% and see how thick that gets...and what it tastes like. If I dig it, I'll do a 100% small batch BIAB (how much 100% rye beer am I going to need when blending anyway!) and do a full batch of the MO diluter.

If the mini-mash comes out like snot, I'll do a 50-50 rye-2row for the control as I don't see using more than 50% rye in the final recipe for this beer anyway.

I have never done 100% rye before but have done rye being 30ish% of the grain bill. I know someone who did 100% rye and it took forever to sparge since apparently it was the consistency of snot... just be wary of that aspect. BIAB may be the way to go.

PtreeCreekBrew said:

Thanks for the info. Seems like up to 100% is definitely a possibility (how did that 100% rye kolsch taste?).

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it was pretty good. the color was a lil odd, not quite the milk kingwood got, but more of a grayish yellow. it had head for days, but it was also pretty full bodied even at 1.010 FG. when i took my OG reading it was so viscous, the hydrometer would barely spin. all the rye did give it a nice dry, crisp finish and spiciness, but it wasn't a super intense rye flavor like you'd expect.

bear republic did one a few years back: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/bear-republic-ez-ryder/96999/
there's some articles more about it if you feel like searching

With respect to mash, in addition to rice hulls - I'd malt condition the non-rye portion of the grain bill. In tact husks help the sparge a lot. I also do a protein rest out of habit, not sure science supports the time involved.

This thread makes me feel great! I formulated a 30% rye recipe and bought the grain, then started to doubt myself. Now I'm much more secure in my decision.