RYE IPA. What Hops to Use?

hey guys. gonna brew a rye IPA soon. first off, it's a 10g batch. so how much rye is too much rye? secondly, i was going to use amarillo hops but i'm wondering if they will play well with the rye. any thoughts on hops that will work well with the rye?

From a flavor point of view, I find rye to be fairly subtle, so even 50% rye wouldn't be excessive IMO. From a process point of view, rye is annoying to work with, but it can be beaten--a quick protein rest at 122-124F, some rice hulls, and a sparge temperature above 160F should solve it. So, I dunno, maybe 30% would be a good place to start (as long as it's malted, that is--unmalted rye is far more annoying to work with and contains no enzymes, whereas malted will convert itself; you could include a little unmalted flaked for character and head retention, though).

For hops, I would use whatever you like for an American IPA profile. I guess I personally would avoid the more "fruity" but non-citrus hops, such as Citra or Belma, and focus more on the pine/grapefruit/dank hops. But really, that describes most American hops, I think. Noble hops could work too and might be interesting.

From Northern Brewer's website:

I did this one and it was great!


DENNY’S WRY SMILE RYE IPA

MASH INGREDIENTS
-- 11.25 lbs. Rahr 2-row pale
-- 2.75 lbs. Weyermann Rye malt
-- 1.0 lbs. Briess Crystal 60
-- 0.5 lbs. Briess Carapils
-- 0.5 lbs. Rahr White Wheat malt
MASH SCHEDULE: SINGLE INFUSION
SACCH’ REST: 153° F FOR 60 MINUTES
MASHOUT: 170° F FOR 10 MINUTES
BOIL ADDITIONS & TIMES
1 oz. Mt. Hood (first wort)
1 oz. Columbus (60 min)
1 oz. Mt. Hood (30 min)
1 oz. Mt. Hood (0 min)
DRY HOPS
1 oz. Columbus – add to secondary fermenter 1 week
before packaging
YEAST
If you chose dry yeast:
SAFALE US-05. Optimum temperature: 59-75°F
If you chose liquid yeast:
WYEAST #1450 DENNY’S FAVORITE 50. Optimum temperature: 60-70°F
DENNY’S NOTES:
I started with a relatively straightforward American IPA recipe, and changed
one thing at a time through 12-15 test batches until my wife and I agreed that
the beer was perfect for our tastes. I’m happy that so many other people have
found it perfect for their taste, too! When you pour the beer, the citrusy/floral
aroma of the Columbus dry hops tickles your nose. When you take a sip, the
beer opens with a bit of spicy hop flavor from the Mt. Hood first wort hops. The
next thing that hits you is a slap in the face of bitterness from the Columbus. The
flavor finishes with a back of the throat spiciness from the rye. The combination of
rye and Wyeast 1450 gives the beer a nice full, silky smooth mouthfeel. I hope
Wry Smile will be the hit at your house like it has at mine!
DENNY’S WRY SMILE RYE IPA (All Grain)
BOIL ADDITIONS & TIMES

I find rye adds a lot more mouthfeel than flavor. I used 4lbs in my last imperial, or just under 25% of the grain bill, and it ended up with a lot of mouthfeel, although that helped balance out a 9.5% beer with 18oz of hops. I'd use whatever hops you like and think will go well with the thickness rye provides.

A few things about Brewing with Whole malted Rye, No husk, and lots of Beta-Glucans can make it a nightmare to lauter, especially if you start using 10-40% in your grist. If you can you can help to alleviate these problems by adding rice hulls to your grist, Do a Beta-Glucan rest at 98-110ºF for 20 min in the beginning of the mash, Crush the Malted rye separately and finer with a smaller gap setting. Ideally you would do all three, but at least add rice hulls.

nelson sauvin hops complement the spicy character of rye very well.

Here is a good write up on Rye and brewing
http://morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/library/backissues/issue1.3/hayden.html

I use Chinook, Columbus and Cascade in the "red" rye IPAs that I made. Simcoe works as well (Great Lakes Rye of the Tiger uses Columbus, Simcoe, and Warrior). You will also find a lot of rye ales that use amarillo, because, well, people love amarillo no matter how its used.

I use 30% rye and have found that citra woks with it very well and norton brewer at 60.

I recently went this route with a Rye-P-A, the Amarillo in your face grapefruit complemented the rye amazingly! My notes suggest increasing the late additions and dry hop in future batches. I used 15% rye and found it to be perfect for my tastes.

1.25 oz Perle [8.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min
0.75 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min
0.50 oz Perle [8.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min
0.75 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min
0.75 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min
0.75 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min
2.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Aroma Steep 0.0
2.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 10 Day

I second the comment about the mouthfeel of rye. I make a sahti inspired juniper IPA that has 30-35% rye, the rest is two row with a little bit of crystal 40 for color. After two batches, I've noticed it's hard to make the beer dry. Next time I'll mash lower, somewhere between 148-150. I use all chinook, and do prefer the more resiny and piney hops, but I have had a rye lager with all noble hops, and the rye character was definitely enhanced by the spicy qualities of the hops.

I've never had any lauter problems, but rye's stickiness is a common complaint. You can't go wrong with rice hulls.

Good luck!