Bee Cave + Local Brewery Rye???

So I am currently working on a recipe based largely on Edwort's Bee Cave Brewery Rye IPA. What I really want to create is a beer similar to a Rye IPA being brewed at Alpine brewery near me here in San Diego. I figure that Edwort's Rye would be a good base, so I emailed the brewer asking what kind of yeast I should be using, they actually got back to me and gave me hop, rye proportion, and yeast suggestions, so here is the recipe:

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: White Labs #WLP001 California Ale
Yeast Starter: Starter
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5
Original Gravity: 1.069
Final Gravity: 1.015 (hoping to ferment a tad dryer, may use Wyeast 1056)
IBU: 67.7
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
Color: SRM 8.3
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 10 days at 62-65 degrees
Additional Fermentation:
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): Secondary, dry hop
Tasting Notes:

9.5# Pale Malt 2-Row
2.5# Rye Malt (17.2%)
1.5# Vienna Malt
0.5# Barley, Flaked
0.5# Crystal - 60L

1oz Tettnang (4.4%) - First Wort Hop (90min)
0.9oz Chinook (12%) @ 60min
0.5oz Chinook (12%) @ 30min
0.5oz Chinook (12%) @ 5min
2.5oz Nelson Sauvin (12.5%) Dry Hop
2.5oz Southern Cross (13%) Dry Hop

Mash at 154*F, batch sparge


What makes this one interesting is the cross between the spicy, piney chinook, southern cross, and (milder) tettnang with the unique fruitiness the Nelson is supposed to impart.

Thoughts?

I brewed a Rye IPA several months ago with 18% rye, I felt that it could stand a higher %. After a few months the rye faded too much.

I sure wish they distributed here to Az. I really like most of their stuff, especially Duet. I haven't tried theirs, but I like Rye IPA's and I'd bet they brew a tasty one. I agree with samc that 17% will keep the Rye pretty subtle, which may or may not be what you're after.

dragonlor20 said:

Final Gravity: 1.015 (hoping to ferment a tad dryer, may use Wyeast 1056)

Click to expand...

I've done a few split batches comparing all three commercially available versions of the chico strain (1056, WLP001, and S-05), and I wasn't able to determine any difference at all. The FG's were always identical and nobody could ever tell them appart from each other by taste. If you want drier, I'd lower the mash by a degree or two.

JuanMoore said:

I sure wish they distributed here to Az. I really like most of their stuff, especially Duet. I haven't tried theirs, but I like Rye IPA's and I'd bet they brew a tasty one. I agree with samc that 17% will keep the Rye pretty subtle, which may or may not be what you're after.



I've done a few split batches comparing all three commercially available versions of the chico strain (1056, WLP001, and S-05), and I wasn't able to determine any difference at all. The FG's were always identical and nobody could ever tell them appart from each other by taste. If you want drier, I'd lower the mash by a degree or two.

Click to expand...

Yeah, brewer says up the Rye to 18%, drop the crystal. You guys hit it dead on, nice work.

Well, I brewed this, fermented it out, kegged it, and now we are on to drinking. Here are the notes I sent back to the brewer:

Wow, what a pain in the ass this beer was to brew. The rye clogged my system during mashing, the grain collapsed my braid in my MLT. So the wort I drew off was pretty strong stuff, especially after the boil. The hop material clogged my keg and I had to disassemble the valve 5 times to get it running, but... this is really good stuff.

I tried the beer after primary fermentation and during kegging, and it just keeps getting tastier. I attached a picture, ignore how cloudy it is - I got too much hop material into the keg and I had to disassemble the valve 5 times just to get it flowing. But not wanting to waste a drop, I saved the run off from trying to clear the stem of the keg, and that's what I am drinking now.

That Nelson grape aroma comes through with a nice smooth Chinook bitterness, and the Rye keeps the mouth feel very big even though I was able to ferment down to 1.009 from 1.074 (ended up being a bigger beer than I planned, the WLP001 is a fighter!). I would up the dry hops a bit next time to get a real punch in the nose, but I don't think I would change the flavor much. Definitely a good thing to leave out the crystal as the sweetness wouldn't have made sense in this beer.

Click to expand...

And here is the final recipe I used to brew it:

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 7.46 gal
Estimated OG: 1.064 SG
Estimated Color: 5.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 49.1 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.75 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 63.6 %
3.00 lb Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 21.8 %
1.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 10.9 %
0.50 lb Acid Malt (3.0 SRM) Grain 3.6 %
0.60 oz Chinook [13.00%] (90 min) (First Wort HopHops 29.5 IBU
0.50 oz Southern Cross [13.00%] (30 min) Hops 16.1 IBU
1.00 oz Southern Cross [13.00%] (1 min) Hops 1.8 IBU
1.00 oz Nelson Sauvin [12.50%] (1 min) Hops 1.7 IBU
1.00 oz Southern Cross [13.00%] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops -
1.50 oz Nelson Sauvin [12.50%] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops -
1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [StartYeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 13.75 lb
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Mash In Add 17.19 qt of water at 167.7 F 152.0 F 75 min

And a picture of the finished beer:

BTW: This beer really turned out great. The aging is really doing it well - the flavors are starting to really come together and meld very well. The aroma stayed extremely floral and the flavor stayed very citrusy, but the balance of bitterness to aroma is about what I like (heavy on aroma). I would back off of the flavor additions a bit and let the Rye shine through a bit more.

I dropped a bottle off with the brewer the other day, so I will update with his thoughts.