BA Rye IPA

[Hayden123982]

Any tips for recipe formulation for a rye IPA to be aged in a whiskey barrel?

This will be the second beer headed into the barrel. I plan on a boiled water rinse prior to transfer after primary fermentation. Was considering potentially making a hot hop tea to use for my barrel rinse, but not sure if this is worth the hops used.

Will likely go with a 1.068-1.075 wort. Right now for recipe I'm thinking a pretty standard rye recipe with a touch of dextrine malt. I have some crystal rye on hand so I plan to use that as well around 7-10%

Barrel is about 5 gallons so contact time will be pretty short

 

[JohnSand]

I haven't used barrels (for brewing)
I like rye beers, I make a rye pale with American hops, a rye ESB using rye crystal and fuggles.
Your idea is interesting, keep us posted.

 

[V-Fib]

I don't know about the whisky barrel part since I've never used one but my rye IPA that I've done twice is 16% rye with 4oz equinox hops in the boil and 2 oz dry hopped in the keg.

With the barrel aging would you add some hops in with it or after?

 

[Dland]

Not sure if this applies in your case, but when I was making hard cider in 50 gallon whisky barrels, the best cider was from first barrel use after whisky, and after a few uses they were difficult to sanitize enough, leading to a spoiled batch.

With a 5 gallon barrel, I'd be tempted to soak a bottle of whisky around in it to recondition and sanitize. You could drink it or use in eggnog afterwords.

I use rye malt at 10-20% in some ales and lagers, adds a interesting flavor, flaked corn at half the rate of rye makes for a nice pre depression style. The rest pilsner or 2 row, perhaps 5% Munich or similar.

Note; rye tends to be kind of sticky in mash, so at higher percentages, rice hulls help.

 

[Hayden123982]

From what I've read, the 5 gallon barrels last a few more rounds carrying the bourbon/barrel aspect into the beer due to service area and the short contact time needed. I also read that 1st beer will get lots of bourbon, with some oak and second will get a better mix of both then further and further on the oak takes over or the barrel sours. I think I will recondition with some bourbon after this batch, but I'm okay with a lower bourbon character on this batch since my first beer only needed about 10 days to be heavy bourbon

With all that said, I did want to try something different. I boiled some hops yesterday for about 10 mins and then added that plus more hot water into the barrel. That's going to sit in there for maybe 3-7 days. Just depends on when I get to it. I'll dump that out and give the barrel a light rinse to try and get any hop particles out (wish I had used some whole leaf vs pellets here) then transfer the rye IPA over at that time too to leave some residual fermentation going on to help with not oxidizing all the hops I added (I'll post the recipe below). I may use some cryo's to dry hop depending on how the beer is tasting (maybe simcoe)

 

[Hayden123982]

Rye IPA (7 gallons into fermenter)

Grains:
Pilsner - 13# (63%)
Rye malt - 4.5# (22%)
Crystal 40 - 1.5# (7%)
CaraPils - 0.5# (2%)

Hops:
Columbus - 1.5 oz - 60 min
Mt Hood - 1 oz - 60 mins
Mt Hood - 1 oz - 15 mins
Simcoe - 0.8 oz - hopstand (190F - 170F, 20 mins)
Columbus - 1 oz - hopstand (190F - 170F, 20 mins)
Mt Hood - 1.8 oz - hopstand (190F - 170F, 20 mins)

Yeast:
Imperial Independence @62F x 3 days then 66F

Salts:
1tsp gypsum (low SO4 water, but higher bicarb ~150)

OG: 1.066

 

[kevin58]

Go with Denny Conn's Rye IPA.


Recipe by Denny Conn
O.G.: 1.073
F.G.: 1.013
IBU: 68
11 lbs. Pale Malt (2
-
row)
3 lbs. Rye Malt
1.25 lbs. Crystal 60L
0.5 lbs. Cara
-
Pils Dextrine Malt
0.5 lbs. Wheat Malt
1.0 oz. Mt. Hood, 4.9% Alpha Acid,
First Wort Hop
1.0 oz. Columbus, 17.8% Alpha Acid, 60 min.
0.5 oz. Mt. Hood, 4.9% Alpha Acid, 30 min.
1.5 oz. Mt. Hood, 4.9% Alpha Acid, 0 min.
1.0 oz. Columbus, 17.8% Alpha Acid, Dry Hop
1.0 oz. Columbus, 17.8% Alpha Acid, Dry Hop in keg (optional
/not
included
)
Wyeast
1450
Denny's Favorite 50, Wyeast 1272 American Ale Yeast II, or Wyeast 1056 American Ale
(in order of preference)
1 tsp. Gypsum (add to the boil, not the mash)
1 tsp. Irish Moss
Mash grains at 153o F for 60 minutes. Mash out at 170o F and sparge with wate
r hot enough to get
your grain bed to170o F . Collect enough run off to end up with 5 gallons after a 70
-
minute boil. Add
first wort hops and gypsum and bring to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes then add second hop addition. Boil
30 minutes more and add next ho
p addition. Boil 20 minutes more then add Irish moss. After a 70
-
minute boil, turn off burner and add 1.5 oz. of Mt. Hood hops. Chill to below 65o F, transfer to
fermenter, pitch yeast and aerate well. Ferment at 62
-
65o F until fermentation is complete. Ra
ck to
secondary fermenter with dry hops and age for 1
-
2 weeks. Bottle with 5 oz. of corn or table sugar for
approximately 2.75 volumes of CO2. If you are kegging, force carbonate.
Optionally, another ounce
of Columbus dry hops may be added to the keg.

 

[Hayden123982]

Forgot to mention that the recipe I posted is what I already brewed yesterday.

Have you done Denny's before? I used a similar hop schedule. I think Mt Hood will work well with the barrel flavors. For my grist I was going for something that I think could hold itself well with the bourbon that will come through. Denny's looks like it would be a great recipe too for this experiment... maybe next time

 

[Hayden123982]

Transferred into the barrel on Sunday (12/16) with a gallon set aside for a comparison or maybe just to top the barrel up with after any evaporation.

This was 7 days into ferment. Krausen was still there and barrel and jug were flushed with CO2 so I'm hoping that helps with oxidation which was my biggest concern with barrel aging an IPA. I'll probably give it a taste in 2 weeks to see where it's at. I want to try and time it so I can still get 5 days of dry hop in the barrel without it getting too much bourbon/barrel flavor

One nice thing about keeping the barrel in my ferm chamber is it is sorrounded with CO2 in there.

 

[FatDragon]

Why wait two weeks to taste? You said your first beer in this barrel had heavy bourbon after 10 days, and according to your signature it's a Rye Wine, which can handle more bourbon/oak character than the IPA you're doing now. The character will lighten with each batch, but by waiting 14 days to taste and then adding a five day dry hop, you're doubling the contact time from your first batch.

In short, I'd not wait longer than a week for the first taste test.

 

[Hayden123982]

Yeah I was thinking shorter time too. My thought was with the first batch plus a full 5 gallon hop tea soak, the bourbon in the barrel probably won’t come through as much and I want to be cautious with too much going in and out of the barrel

But I think you’re right, I’ll just check this weekend. I’m really curious anyways on how this beer is doing

 

[Hayden123982]

Two weeks in the barrel as of yesterday. I added about an oz of columbus to the barrel yesterday and will rack into a keg sometime this week. Right now the beer is tasting great but I'll give a full update once it's all complete.

 

[JohnSand]

I'm glad it's working out.