Brewing a Rye Beer. Problems of Rye clumping?

[jsaxon90]

Hey guys,

I'm considering my next brew to be a Rye Brown spiced with Cinnamon and Brown Sugar. However, I've heard that Rye can be a pain due to the rye wanting to clump. If this is true, does anyone have an effective method to work through this? I'm planning to use partial mash, as I don't have the equipment to do all-grain at the time. Thanks!

 

[Talgrath]

I've generally not had issues with rye, but none of my beers use more than 20% rye malt or rye flakes. If it's like wheat, a small amount of rice hulls in the mash, stirring at least once every 10 minutes and not grinding your grain too fine should handle it.

 

[d3track]

Rice hills and you shouldn't have much of a problem.

 

[tsl346]

Definitely rice hulls. I have had rye be a lot stickier compared to wheat, but not necessarily clumpy.

 

[jsaxon90]

Thanks guys. I'll try the rice hulls. I would like all your comments, but I don't know how haha.

 

[Calder]

I've done 4 lbs of Rye in an 8 lbs mash for a partial mash brew. I grind my grain pretty fine. I didn't use any rice hulls and it went OK.

It just took a long time to drain the mash and then the sparge. I wasn't in a hurry, so just left the mash to drain for about 45 minutes (maybe more) while I had a Skype call, and with the sparge water, I just let it drain all the while I was heating and boiling, and added it a small amount at at time as it drained.

I got my usual 80%+ with the batch. Just need to be patience.

 

[katfude]

I did a Roggenbier with half of the grain bill was rye. Used a pound of rice hulls and had no issue whatsoever with stuck sparge.

 

[Denny]

I've done beers with up to 40% rye with no problem. I use rye in maybe 20% of my beers and never needed hulls. It depends on your lautering system, but I suspect you'll be fine without them.