Anyone ever make a Rye-pilsner?

I don't know where I got this idea, I guess probably because I love rye beers, but something about it makes it sound good in my mind. I don't really know what I'm thinking because honestly my pilsner experience is pretty limited.

I'm thinking about this on the fly but, maybe:
a Pilsner base, honestly don't know what brand
maybe 20% rye or so
a splash of some kind of crystal malt, perhaps carahell, at around 5%.

some spicy noble hop, saaz perhaps for bittering and a 15m charge.

Wyeast #2278 Czech Pils.

Any input, anyone try this before. I would be open to any advice.

I would go 20% rye and no crystal- the rye is going to add a little sweetness and a fair amount of body. Any crystal would just make it too heavy sweet, IMO. I like hoppier pilsners and think that would be appropriate here.

I agree with daksin.
This sounds fantastic to me! I may have to try one myself soon!
I would probably use half flaked and half malt for the rye portion. Let us know how it works!

Stout-n-Braggot said:

I agree with daksin.
This sounds fantastic to me! I may have to try one myself soon!
I would probably use half flaked and half malt for the rye portion. Let us know how it works!

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Any reason on why you would use a combo of flaked and malted rye? Just curious because I've never used the flaked stuff before.

I really enjoy the mouthfeel and body i get from using about a pound of flaked rye in most of my rye recipes, it also lends a slightly different flavor than the malted rye, so you will get a slightly more complex character if you use a mix. My beers with flaked rye also come out with fantastic foam texture in the head.

I'm assuming you would use 10 lbs of grain for this recipe, so one pound each of rye malt and flaked rye fits nicely.

Also, I've been thinking a bit more on the hops and I think Hallertauer Hersbrucker might do better than Saaz, since it has some nice earthy tones alongside its spice profile. My personal favorite hop with rye is Willamette, but for purposes of your pilsner sticking with the noble hops is probably best.

I'm not totally wedded to the idea of using Saaz, that was just the first thing I thought of, although I think it would work nicely. Maybe 30-35 IBUs?

Any Another question on the flaked rye: do you get any haze from using this? I know that happens from flaked oats and flaked wheat but know that I'm writing this I doubt it has anything to do with the flaked aspect of it so never mind I guess.

Rye in general makes my brews slightly more cloudy than normal, but I've never worried much about clarity.

I'd used a very small addition in a BoPils, it accented the Saaz spice character nicely. The winning recipe at one of the Pilsner Urquel comps used a bit if I remember.

Yea, again, I personally wouldn't use flaked rye because it's going to really detract even further from the body you expect from a pilsner like beer. It'll just be too heavy.

With the right protein rest the flaked rye should be fine. I think it would be à great beer either way.

Well, decided to stay away from the flaked rye and couldn't resist staying away from a bit of crystal. Even though it says so below I dropped it down to 4 oz. Also, I've been wanting to make a red beer for a while so just for fun I dropped some carafa III in there to get it up to about 14 or 15 SRM. Going to bitter with Perle for a bit higher AAUs and then dump in some Saaz at some other points. Hope all goes well, going to get a nice big starter going tonight.

7 lbs 4.0 oz Weyermann® Bohemian Pilsner (1.9 SRM) Grain 1 72.5 %
2 lbs Briess Rye Malt (3.7 SRM) Grain 2 20.0 %
8.0 oz Carahell (11.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.0 %
4.0 oz Carafa III (525.0 SRM) Grain 4 2.5 %
1.00 oz Perle [8.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 29.9 IBUs
1.00 oz Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 6 7.4 IBUs
1.00 oz Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 7 5.4 IBUs
2.1 pkg Czech Pilsner Lager (Wyeast Labs #2278) [124.21 ml] Yeast 8 -

Deep Ellum Brewing in Dallas makes a Rye Pils and I love it, it became one of my go to beers. Not sure what type or percentage of rye they use but they went with all german-derived American hop varieties.

There's a balanced hop character, slightly hoppy. A nice crackery malt character that ends with some rye pepperiness. A worthy endeavor for sure, definitely let us know how yours turns out.

Well, after nearly a month with the grains sitting in a bag in the basement I finally got around to doing this. Everything went alright. My efficiency was just a tad low even though I boiled off more than usual due to the cold. I think I ended with about 4.5 gallons of 1.053 wort. Cooled down to 62* before putting it in the chest freezer set to 52* for the night. I let it cool in there for maybe 12 hours before pitching the yeast and it is starting to bubble away. Crossing my fingers this turns out well. Will probably do a D-rest and then lager for two months.

Wow, well apparently it hasn't been that long since I've done this. Did a D-rest over Christmas for a handful of days and then racked to the secondary in the chest freezer where it has been lagering at 35* since then. I was rummaging around the brew area and realized I hadn't taken a gravity sample or at least didn't write one down and that it was probably ok to do so. Pulled it out and hit 1.013 landing me around 5.2% ABV. Clarity was getting there and I think I might get a decent red out of this. Because I had it open I also tossed in a bit of isinglass just to make sure it really shines when it's done.

It tasted pretty good. Spiceness from the hops and some from the rye I think but not too much. The rye definitely lends some body along with the carahell but still goes down easy. I'm actually writing this the day after so my memory is a bit foggy. I guess I'll give updates when this is done but so far so good. I think this might be a good one.

I guess I was planning on lagering for a couple months. So, maybe the beginning of March? Anyone have any advice for time frame here?

Oh yeah, and until I come up with something better this is called the Ryesner. I think it sounds kinda cool.

One month should be enough lagering time. I made a 45% rye lager last year as I wanted to see what rye was like when more prominent in a beer. It was interesting. LOTS of rye flavor - a bit too much in fact. It needed some sweetness to balance it out. If I were to do this again, I'd toss a bunch of Amarillo, or Citra, in. Some crystal malt might help as well.

I'm very curious to hear about your results

pjj2ba said:

One month should be enough lagering time. I made a 45% rye lager last year as I wanted to see what rye was like when more prominent in a beer. It was interesting. LOTS of rye flavor - a bit too much in fact. It needed some sweetness to balance it out. If I were to do this again, I'd toss a bunch of Amarillo, or Citra, in. Some crystal malt might help as well.

I'm very curious to hear about your results

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Interesting to hear your results/analysis. What was your basestyle lager? I was using the chezc pilsner lager yeast and though that might be weird with citrusy american hops but I did think about it.

I can't remember which yeast. I suspect Czech (800). If not that then a bock (833). Yeah I think rye plays well with citrusy hops. About halfway through the keg, I thought I would go ahead and throw some drop hops in the keg, but never got around to it.

What I really do remember from this beer was that it really needed something. It was a good base, but needed more. No off flavors, very spicy, but out of balance. The citrusy hops would have done it

inhousebrew said:

Well, decided to stay away from the flaked rye and couldn't resist staying away from a bit of crystal. Even though it says so below I dropped it down to 4 oz. Also, I've been wanting to make a red beer for a while so just for fun I dropped some carafa III in there to get it up to about 14 or 15 SRM. Going to bitter with Perle for a bit higher AAUs and then dump in some Saaz at some other points. Hope all goes well, going to get a nice big starter going tonight.

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I too am devising a rye pils recipe which I intend to dry hop. As a previous brewer commented, Deep Ellum's Rye Pils was fantastic IMO. I would love to mimic it. Your receipt sounds solid. How's it coming along?

:rockin: