Historical Beer: Kentucky Common "Kiss Yer Cousin" Rye Kentucky Common Ale

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Yes, BIAB.

It's a 20+ mile round trip to the store and I want to brew before I next go in. This gives me four options: nothing, corn sugar, cornmeal and/or rolled oats. (I checked the one breakfast cereal I have in the house and it's oat-based.) If I get a beer that tastes good but is cloudy I'll be pretty happy, so I'm inclined to just go for it as-is.

Update: I brewed without any further additions. OG came in at 1.058, compared to BeerSmith's 1.057. I'm very happy with that.
 
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Transferred to secondary at 1.016. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the rye is very in-your-face. I think I'm going to like it.
 
Given this version a first try and I'm very happy. I'm not sure I've ever had a rye beer before, certainly not one where the rye is so powerful. I assume there must be commercial rye beers out there that are heavy on the rye?

My plan was to get the ingredients for the original recipe on my next LHBS trip and do it properly, but now I'm considering scaling what I did this time up to 5 gallons instead. I don't think the three I made are going to last very long.
 
It is definitely kind of in your face rye, in a good way. I don't think I've had a commercial beer with as much rye flavor. This beer is very unique but so awesome! I think the corn gives it a bit of sweetness and might make it a little dialed down on the rye compared to your first version but i've never had it without the corn so I'm just guessing. Good luck!
 
I brewed this baby today but could only find dark Rye Flour stone ground so I added rice hulls with the flaked corn and this flour.. Almost a stuck sparge. Slow to flow... I ended up with 5.5 gallons so I could have boiled it down some more to hit numbers better.. Can't wait to get a taste of this after my other 10 kegs are dry!
 
I brewed this last weekend. After looking at the original recipe on the forum and comparing my grist I'm not sure why I added an extra pound of base malt while everything else is about the same. But I did. And I video'd the brew day as I sometimes do. More as a record for myself and the entertainment of a few of my friends.

 
I brewed this last weekend. After looking at the original recipe on the forum and comparing my grist I'm not sure why I added an extra pound of base malt while everything else is about the same. But I did. And I video'd the brew day as I sometimes do. More as a record for myself and the entertainment of a few of my friends.

I was startled just now to see it popup in my youtube queue. I just commented, and was going to post the video here.
 
I was startled just now to see it popup in my youtube queue. I just commented, and was going to post the video here.

This has been on my to-do list for a long time. I did a clone of Kentucky Common from 10 Mile Brewing in Long Beach Ca. which was very good but I am eager to see what the rye brings to the party.
 
Hmm. I made this before on my old 3 vessel system and the beer came out dark like the pics on here.
I made it again and adjusted the recipe for my ebiab and the beer is significantly lighter. The srm on brewers friend shows 14.62 but I think its lighter than that. The black patent I used was United kingdom, could that make a difference? My adjusted recipe is below.
5.24 lb pale 2 row
2.42 lb flaked corn
1.2 lb flaked rye
3.2 oz United kingdom black patent
2.7 oz crystal 120
 
I have 10 gallons of this fermenting right now. Been reading the reviews for years and moved it up on the brew list. My batch will be a little different tho, I had an attack of the '*******' and burned up all of my new yeast while cleaning up on brew day, Had to resurrect some 3711. Sort of a redneck saison I guess.
 
Have anyone any thoughts about waterprofile?

The beer have similarities with both Cream Ale and California Common. And could be seen as a mix of those.

But the waterprofile of those beers are quite different. Cream is normally quite balanced or slightly chloride based. While Cali Common is more towards sulphate.
 
I have 10 gallons of this fermenting right now. Been reading the reviews for years and moved it up on the brew list. My batch will be a little different tho, I had an attack of the '*******' and burned up all of my new yeast while cleaning up on brew day, Had to resurrect some 3711. Sort of a redneck saison I guess.

I missed this post I wonder how it turned out with saison yeast?
 
Just to follow uip----I used 3711 and added a jar of blackstrap molasses at flameout. Seemed like a good idea at the time. It tasted at lot like sweat when first carbed. Not pleasant. I let it sit while i drank better beers on tap and it came around at about 2 months. The 3711 worked fine but, the molasses took to long to mellow and was the wrong flavor for this. This will get another try with the 3711.
 
Just to follow uip----I used 3711 and added a jar of blackstrap molasses at flameout. Seemed like a good idea at the time. It tasted at lot like sweat when first carbed. Not pleasant. I let it sit while i drank better beers on tap and it came around at about 2 months. The 3711 worked fine but, the molasses took to long to mellow and was the wrong flavor for this. This will get another try with the 3711.

A whole jar (what, a pound?) of backstrap! :oops: It has so much iron in it, I'd expect it to taste like blood when fermented. I can see adding a ounce of it with a pound of sugar, maybe. Glad the beer eventually came around.
 
Here was my take on this. Might be a hybrid between the two KC recipe threads since I use rye like this one but use 6 row and have extra hop additions like the other.

5 gallon batch:

7# (54.9%) 6-row
3# (23.5%) Flaked corn
2# (15.7%) Flaked Rye
6oz (2.9%) Crystal 40
6oz (2.9%) American Black Malt

0.75oz Cluster 60min
0.5oz Cluster 15min
0.5oz Cluster 5min

My og hit a bit low at 1.052. Finished close to 1.010.

This beer is interesting. Mine came out a bit darker than I expected (See pic). It tastes light, and for awhile had a really tart taste before finishing a bit sweet which comes from the flaked rye - I wonder if malted rye would have made it more spicy than tart. The tartness has mellowed out a bit but is still present in a good way.

Sorry don't have a better pic

20211015_202103.jpg
 
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