RedHook Sun Rye Ale recipe?

I'm not sure why, perhaps it's the hot summer weather here with the need for a lighter quaffer during those hot humid months, but one of my fav. biers is RedHook's Sun Rye ale.

Does anyone have a recipe on this?

Here's what I was thinking might get me in the ballpark...

5-6 # 2-row
2-3# rye malt
1# flaked rye
.5-.75# Crystal 10 or Crystal 20

Fuggle or German Tradition hops @ 20-23 IBU's

US-05 yeast

Thoughts?

Schlante,
Phillip

Ps now I'm off to the redhook website to see if they offer any insight!

*bump*

Seriously.... I'm the only person in America that drinks this bier???

Anybody got ideas on the recipe?

Schlante,
Phillip

I don't have any insight, but I'm interested in how it turns out. Redhook Sun Rye is the first beer SWMBO specifically requested I brew.

I brewed a sunrye clone(at least my attempt at one) last summer. My recipe is on brewsmith, but thats at home. I know I split the rye and wheat in half, something like 2lbs rye, 2 lbs wheat, with the rest of the grist 2 row. Might have thrown in .5 lb of crystal 20, I'll check when I get home from work and let you know.

Mike

Thanks Mike, I look forward to seeing what your recipe looks like. My obvious question is, how close is/was your recipe in reproducing the flavor of the original? I'm not really aware that they're using wheat in this bier?

Fwiw the Redhook website says they use 6 grains, and they list the hops, which I don't recall right now, but want to say it was magnum and willamette. So a small willamette/fuggle flavor addition might be in order.

Schlante,
Phillip

Phillip,
My grain bill was
6# 2-row
2# wheat
2# rye
.75# munich
Sterling and summit hops(trying to add a citrus aroma/flavor)

I used hefe yeast though so it had the banana/esteryness to it. So don't use that. It was good but the hefe yeast drew away from the rye flavor. I think using US-05 would have made it close. I had no clue what Red Hook was using when I made up the recipe. 6 grains huh? I guess I need to refine my palate instead of sucking down 3-4 beers.

oh, another thing that made a difference was I got crazy sweet efficiency, 82%, so my session rye/wheat tuned into 6.1% ABV.

The beer was great, if I wasn't any help I apologize and wish you the best of luck on cloning the beer.

Schwind, you've been more help than anyone else. Seems there's only a couple of people on earth interested in this bier... oh well.

Thanks, and I'll post an update when I get around to making this in a month or so.

Schlante,
Phillip

Bump... Chock me up as one who is interested in this. I like Sun Rye. I have heard people bash it because it's light and not traditional, but I think it's a good lawnmower beer. I'm planning to brew up something this spring that will get close.

I like the idea of wheat, rye and 2-row. Maybe some light crystal like 10 or 20. A little Munich would be good for some backbone. If both flaked and malted rye were used, that would put the grain bill up to 6 different grains....

I have Magnum in the freezer and that is my go-to bittering hop. I also have some leaf Willamette so that will work for a late addition.

I think this brew is going on the list!

How did your beers turn out. The Sun Rye is far and away my favorite summer beer. I'm down in FL and this beer works wonders on a hot day. This is what I want to brew tomorrow night so any pointer will be helpful. I'm a n00b and just to make sure; are there extract recipes?

Wow talk about a coincidence! I tried this bier for the first time today. For the record it's VERY green, as in 2 weeks old (1 week in primary/bottled sample in bottle for 1 week) In other words it's not nearly as good as it's gonna be. Initial thoughts, pretty dang tasty.

Recipe I brewed and early results below.

6.75# 2-row-Rahr
3# Rye malt
1.5# Light Am. Munich
4 oz. Crystal 20
4 oz. Flaked Wheat

Mash in 17 qts water at 150 - 151.5 for 55 mins.
At 45 mins drained approx 1 gal. wort, raised temp to 195ish added back to MLT raising mash temp to 158.3 for 15 mins. Sparge with 4.25 gals water @ 180 degrees.

90 Min. boil (30 pre hop boil mostly to reduce volume)
.5 oz. Glacier 6.0 AAU @ 60 min
.5 oz. Summit 18.5 AAU @ 17 min
.5 oz. Summit 18.5 AAU @ 2 min

O.G. 1.059
F.G. 1.010 (taken @ 7 days, I think I've gotten another point or so drop as I moved it to secondary B4 I wanted to, but I needed the primary for an APA) Will update when I bottle in a couple weeks.

Yeast: 2 packs US-05

Notes: Obviously with the Summit I wasn't trying to clone the recipe exactly, but I did want something close, just wanted that citrus/tangerine Summit burst of flavor/ aroma at the end. Not looking for it to be overpoweringly hoppy. As the bier is green it was had to make too much of a judgement, but the malt certainly comes through, probably more so than Sun Rye. I tried to keep fermentation between 59-63 (mostly succesful as I use the rubbermaid tub, waterbath, & frozen 2-liter method). It's definatly smooth and malty with a good bit of the grainy 2 row/munich/rye... very bready I suppose. What really really stands out is it's VERY thick. Way thicker than a blonde should be, but I kind of like it. The head & retention were phenominal. Not sure what caused the viscosity/head but I suspect it's caused by the rye. Also it's VERY cloudy, I forgot to add Irish Moss.

I'll post a pic later, or tomorrow. I'll also post a follow-up when it's bottle conditioned and truely ready to be judged.

Schlante,
Phillip

As a side note I siphoned almost 1 gallon into a 1 gal. secondary and added 1 pt of finely chopped and hand crushed strawberries. I'm letting it sit for 2-3 weeks then I'll start the racking process till it clears. Ahh the mini experiments!

As for an extract version, it's kind of hard as Rye has to be mashed! But you should be able to use about 3# Light DME and simply steep the remaining ingredients along with a couple #'s of 2-row (you'll need the 2 row to give some diastatic/enzymatic power to work on the rye). I'd steep at 145-150 for 30-40 mins. After that you'd be in smooth sailing. As for the hop character if you want to come closer to cloning Sun Rye use the previous hops discussed. Use the Magnum hops to bitter then I'd split 1 oz. of Willamette hops up to a 20 & 2 min. addition. I think it'll be fairly close, and if anything more flavorful.

With it's young age it's hard to tell, but I think I captured the bier by about 80-85%. Which is good enough for me. Mine will probably turn out a bit more flavorful/bready but hey it's a refreshing summer blonde! You'll need to run the #'s or have someone else check this recipe as I don't have time too at the moment, good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Schlante,
Phillip

Rye Blonde @ 2 weeks

It's way cloudy, like hefe cloudy!

Schlante,
Phillip

I made a beer similar.

50% two row
25% rye
25% wheat

Hop to about 20 ibu's with Sterling or Mnt Hood. OG: 1.040 FG: 1.009.

Aub Stout are you a member of a homebrew club? I ask as my club, hbamm.org, is going to invite a couple of clubs to an "invitational brew competition". I know we plan to invite one from AL. You know the other suckie beer state other than my suckie beer state!

Do you do business with AlaBrew in Bham? Wondering about thier kits?

Schlante,
Phillip

Phillip,

Thanks for the updates. Really great info!

I haven't joined a club yet. There are a couple here in town and will probably get in one of those. Alabrew is a good local place to get stuff. They are pretty knowledgeable. I hear good things about their kits, but I haven't done a kit beer in quite some time now.

I'd be interested in the competition. I have yet to enter one and want to do some this coming year.

Thought I would give this a bump. As Red Hook ESB is my go to, I was stoked when I first saw Sun Rye come out. In fact, I'd put it right up at the top of my list of favorite brews. Was absolutely bummed when it was discontinued. Have any of you tried replicating any of these recipes listed? I'm just curious as I would love to try this out!