Brew day! Yay!!!!

Today is brew day. Making a Rye Ale that I just threw together. Hope it turns out. Any thoughts on my recipe? Ingredient list:

7# 2-row
1 1/2# Rye Malt
1/2# White Wheat Malt
1# Victory
1/4# Carapils
1 oz Willamette @60
1/2 oz Willamette @5
1/2 oz Willamette @0
Mash @ 152 for 60

Just threw this together. Based it on recipes I have seen. I added the Victory to it because I have never used it before and I wanna see what it will do. Probably didnt need the Carapils but its already all mixed together. Hind sight. What are you brewing today?

Forgot to tell you what I'm naming it. This morning I was up at sunrise volunteering for the annual eagle count survey for the BLM. Since today was raptor counting day, this is now RAPTOR RYE! Sweet name, right?

Raptor rye is a cool name. This recipe looks good. I like the hop rod rye and sierra nevada rye beers. I might try this if you like it.

Brew day went off with out much of a hitch. Missed my OG by a few points but I dont get overly worried about effeciency and alcohol content. Im more concerned with making good beer than hitting all the calc'd numbers. I ended up at 1.45 and calc'd was 1.052 I believe. Pitched a 1L starter and she was happily bubbling within 4 hours. 3 weeks in the primary and then keg. Im excited to try this one, my first all grain rye and first time I used Victory.

Im becoming less concerned about my efficiency too. I always hit 70%. It used to bug me that It wasnt higher but I really like the finished beer.

Stocktonbrew said:

Im becoming less concerned about my efficiency too. I always hit 70%. It used to bug me that It wasnt higher but I really like the finished beer.

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^What he said! !!!

Wow what a fermentor! Fought the air lock clogging for a couple of days but she calmed down now. I have had this happen once or twice before I started using starters. Does making a starter contribute to it by pitching more active healthy yeast? Seems logical to me but.....I may be crazy.....

WyomingBrewer said:

Wow what a fermentor! Fought the air lock clogging for a couple of days but she calmed down now. I have had this happen once or twice before I started using starters. Does making a starter contribute to it by pitching more active healthy yeast? Seems logical to me but.....I may be crazy.....

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Making a proper sized starter makes a HUGE difference in my experience.

When I pitch dry yeast it takes 2 days to really get going. When I make the proper sized starter using yeastcalc with liquid or washed yeast I have krausen withing 8 hours and a lot more activity in the first 2 days requiring a blow off tube.

Raptor Rye is an amazing beer. Very good, light hop profile and crisp rye flavor. I took a gallon of it to our brew club meeting last night and everyone praised it and said if it was for sale they would buy it. I cant think of a better compliment than that. I would love for others to try the recipe and give me their feed back. I should say that I misprinted the recipe above and only used 1/2 # of White Wheat Malt. I will edit the above post to reflect that.

WyomingBrewer said:

Raptor Rye is an amazing beer. Very good, light hop profile and crisp rye flavor. I took a gallon of it to our brew club meeting last night and everyone praised it and said if it was for sale they would buy it. I cant think of a better compliment than that. I would love for others to try the recipe and give me their feed back. I should say that I misprinted the recipe above and only used 1/2 # of White Wheat Malt. I will edit the above post to reflect that.

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Ive been thinking I wanted to make a more rye forward beer and not have the hops be the star of the show as much, is that the feeling im getting from this beer?

Absolutely. Very crisp Rye flavor and light hop profile. Very good indeed.

Just wanted to post a picture of this delicious brew. Bottling a Blood Orange Hefeweizen tonight and enjoying a few more of these!