Steve973
Well-Known Member
Hey Everybody,
Well, today I made a roggenbier. I had it all planned out:
6 lbs maris otter
2 lbs brown malt
2 lbs flaked rye
1 lb raw rye
1/2 lb rice hulls
1 oz hallertau @ 45
Mash at 150 for 90 minutes, 1.5 gallon thick decoction at the end to get more color and flavor, and to get it all up to 170 for mashout.
When I vorlaufed and got the runnings reasonably clear, I began to collect wort in my brew pot. About a minute into my collection, the mash stuck and wouldn't flow even if I blew into the tube. (Isn't that a nice image.) I added more water and stirred, trying to thin the mash, but that didn't work either. So, as a last ditch effort before scrapping the entire batch, I ran to the homebrew store and picked up another whole pound of rice hulls (2 half pound bags). When I returned home, I soon found out that one bag wouldn't do the trick, so I added the second bag (now up to 1.5 pounds of rice hulls in a 5 gallon batch of beer!) and added the entire portion of the grist to my boil pot to get everything up to 170. Finally, I had success! It took a long, long time to get the runnings to clear up, but it finally did, and now I have my first rye beer in a carboy downstairs beginning to ferment. Man, I wish I would have known that I needed so many rice hulls!
Well, today I made a roggenbier. I had it all planned out:
6 lbs maris otter
2 lbs brown malt
2 lbs flaked rye
1 lb raw rye
1/2 lb rice hulls
1 oz hallertau @ 45
Mash at 150 for 90 minutes, 1.5 gallon thick decoction at the end to get more color and flavor, and to get it all up to 170 for mashout.
When I vorlaufed and got the runnings reasonably clear, I began to collect wort in my brew pot. About a minute into my collection, the mash stuck and wouldn't flow even if I blew into the tube. (Isn't that a nice image.) I added more water and stirred, trying to thin the mash, but that didn't work either. So, as a last ditch effort before scrapping the entire batch, I ran to the homebrew store and picked up another whole pound of rice hulls (2 half pound bags). When I returned home, I soon found out that one bag wouldn't do the trick, so I added the second bag (now up to 1.5 pounds of rice hulls in a 5 gallon batch of beer!) and added the entire portion of the grist to my boil pot to get everything up to 170. Finally, I had success! It took a long, long time to get the runnings to clear up, but it finally did, and now I have my first rye beer in a carboy downstairs beginning to ferment. Man, I wish I would have known that I needed so many rice hulls!