Rye PA: Discuss

Suzie go getter!

Baron......with your affinity towards wheat beers, have you ever considered a roggenbier?

I've thought of doing a roggenbier, but I've heard horror stories of sparging rye and the high percentages you need scare me. That being said, I did 18% rye last night and I didn't even notice it. Time to start bumping that up to see where the problems start popping up.

Baron, what say you?

mjm76 said:

Baron......with your affinity towards wheat beers, have you ever considered a roggenbier?

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Whoops, missed this one. No, I haven't considered a roggenbier, but that's only because I haven't tried one yet which I'd like to do before making 5g. I avoided a big mistake by trying a Schlenkerla before doing a rauchbier (not at all like bacon). As soon as I can try one, and if I like it, it'll be on deck.

Anyways, this one is in the books. Only substitution was CaraMunich I for the crystal which is fine (and CC approved). Still got the 70% efficiency I've been stuck on lately so I need to look into that. Crushed with the Corona so I can't blame the LHBS's mill this time. I'll blame it on the 2# of rye LOL.

The wort tasted great so I'm looking forward to this one.

In my experience rye tends to hurt efficiency. I'm going to try one again when I finish my new brewing setup and see if it's any better.

My efficiency was basically unchanged with almost 20% flaked rye. I think I'm going to up that in the next one though, I can already tell I want it to be more spicy.

Yeah, mine at 17% malted rye didn't have quite the bite I was expecting when I sampled the wort yesterday, but I know a lot can change between now and carbonation so we'll see. I might wish I had done more like 20%.

Does rye absorb more water than regular malted barley? I feel like I had a little less in my kettle than I was expecting, but I wound up with 6g of wort which I think was due to less than expected evaporation yesterday.

Baron von BeeGee said:

Yeah, mine at 17% malted rye didn't have quite the bite I was expecting when I sampled the wort yesterday, but I know a lot can change between now and carbonation so we'll see. I might wish I had done more like 20%.

Does rye absorb more water than regular malted barley? I feel like I had a little less in my kettle than I was expecting, but I wound up with 6g of wort which I think was due to less than expected evaporation yesterday.

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I didn't notice the rye soaking up more water....but I usually mash thin anyway, so I prolly wouldn't have noticed.

I think the key with using rye (in a pale ale) is to use a high cohumolone hop for bittering so the spiciness comes through better. The perception of a spicy hop will accentuate the rye, IMHO. That is why I think HRR works so well. No?

I'd like to sample these guys....I love rye pale ales. I need to brew another Red Eye Rye soon. For me, this is the best time of the year to brew because of the cooler fermentation temps, seeing I can't control the temps yet.

Well, I've got 6g or wort so depending on how well racking goes I should be able to prime a few bottles after I fill up the keg, or maybe I'll get the beergun for Christmas...

Baron....

Have you pulled and tasted any samples of your rye yet? One of the local brew pubs here (Great Dane in Madison, WI) has a rye on tap now. I asked and was told the grist is 45% rye, it was a very good beer, but I was surprised with that much rye that there wasn't more of a robust rye flavor. If you've sampled, was that percentage of rye enough to get a nice rye flavor?

This is the first rye I've done and I believe I'm around 17%. I'm surprised at the 45% number, but it's be interesting to try. I believe CC wanted to put more than 20% is his next batch.

I tried a sample when racking to secondary and thought it was a good PA with a hint of rye but it was still obviously quite green. It's been in the secondary for a couple of weeks at 55F, so as soon as I kick my IPA I'm going to keg it and report back.

Wow, the IPA took a lot longer to kick than I thought. At least the rye will be well conditioned...it's hitting the keg tomorrow!

Man, my rye is a distant, delicious memory...

Chairman Cheyco said:

Man, my rye is a distant, delicious memory...

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Between going to bed by 9:30 and a couple of business trips my consumption is really down. I've doing a bit of research on commercial samples, as well.

Now, when I get my extra kegs...

This is good beer...I was worried about it being too dry, but I think it's fine. Full carbonation will take another day or two to kick in.

I think, like the Chairman, (see how important punctuation is?) that I'll up the rye in the next batch. Probably use flakes to get to ~20-22% rye. Perhaps due to my classic Chinook/Cascade hopping the hop profile grabs more of my attention than the rye character. I might not even note it if I didn't know better. I might drop the crystal malt altogether and mash ~152-153.

Time will tell.