Rye Beer & Caraway Seeds

[rodwha]

I had a rye witbier at a brewpub years ago and it reminded me how I liked rye bread when I was a kid, and it’s what lead me to needing to make a rye beer for myself which called for moving on from extracts and was my first partial mash.

I moved away from using a pale ale as the backbone figuring a blonde would lend to making the rye stand out more, and I’ve used upwards of 33 1/3 rye but haven’t been able to get the rye to stand out as well as that first beer I had.

SWMBO bought some rye flour to make a rye bread and looked to see if she has caraway seeds, and wondered if it would do nicely in a beer (yes I am training her to wonder if things are fermentable and/or complimentary in beer) and called me over. I sniffed them and low and behold that’s what I love about rye bread!

So has anyone used caraway seeds in a beer? Curious how much I’d likely need in a 5.25 gal batch such as this:

5.75 lbs pale ale
3.25 lbs rye
0.25 lb crystal 20

 

[SEndorf]

Yes.
For 5.25 G I'd use 7-10 grams of toasted caraway. It's strong stuff.
Don't over hop. Maybe a bit of Fuggles or Magnum to 35-40 IBU.
Keep the late additions very light .

 

[mashpaddled]

There's a brewery in San Antonio (Freetail) that makes a rye witbier. It seems like it would pair well with caraway. I don't have any experience adding caraway and they don't add caraway to theirs but I would definitely start light.

If you're having a hard time getting rye flavor from rye try using rye malt instead of unmalted rye. Malted rye has a more intense rye flavor. Personally I like to mix malted and unmalted rye because the flavor is a little different but the malted rye is usually what people taste in rye beers.

 

[mongoose33]

I brew a Rye beer that uses Rye malt as well as flaked rye. Roughly similar proportions as the OP's recipe. IIRC, it has something like 9# of either 2-row or Maris Otter, 3# of Rye Malt, .5# of flaked rye...and I think I have some crystal in there too, a smallish amount.

Never thought about using caraway seeds in this. I like that idea. I have a new batch, and I have a 1.5-gallon small torpedo keg into which I could rack some of the beer on top of caraway seeds (crushed).

BTW, rye malt doesn't have husks; toss a scoop of rice hulls in there as well to make up for that fact.

 

[rodwha]

Yes.
For 5.25 G I'd use 7-10 grams of toasted caraway. It's strong stuff.
Don't over hop. Maybe a bit of Fuggles or Magnum to 35-40 IBU.
Keep the late additions very light .

I’ve been using 2 oz of Willamette 3/4 oz for bittering and flavoring and 1/2 oz for aroma. I wanted to keep the hop influence lighter, which is why I moved away from a pale ale backbone.

 

[rodwha]

There's a brewery in San Antonio (Freetail) that makes a rye witbier. It seems like it would pair well with caraway. I don't have any experience adding caraway and they don't add caraway to theirs but I would definitely start light.

If you're having a hard time getting rye flavor from rye try using rye malt instead of unmalted rye. Malted rye has a more intense rye flavor. Personally I like to mix malted and unmalted rye because the flavor is a little different but the malted rye is usually what people taste in rye beers.

Indeed that is the brew pub and beer I was speaking of. Excellent beer!

I have been using malted rye from MoreBeer.

 

[ba-brewer]

I have seen caraway seeds in a La Chouffe clone recipe, it was used at 2.5gm and also have cumin seeds. There is a brew dog recipe for a saison with one gram added to the boil.

If you're having a hard time getting rye flavor from rye try using rye malt instead of unmalted rye. Malted rye has a more intense rye flavor. Personally I like to mix malted and unmalted rye because the flavor is a little different but the malted rye is usually what people taste in rye beers.

I have only used rye malt a few time and did not get the spicy flavor you see in the product descriptions and was wondering if I need to use unmalted rye so thanks for your comment.

Does unmalted rye give a more spicy flavor or is it more of a earthy flavor?

The first time I made rye bread I realized it was the caraways seeds that give rye bread the classic rye bread flavor so I know not to look for that flavor. It should be a something closer to black pepper flavor right?

 

[Murphys_Law]

I made a pumpernickel stout and used rye malt, flaked rye and crystal rye + 3 tsp of toasted caraway seeds.

I also took about 10 slices of black pumpernickel bread, toasted, cut in cubes, and included in my mash.

8 # MO
3 # Rye
1 # Flaked rye
1 # crystal rye
10 oz black barley
8 oz flaked barley
10 oz chocolate malt
10 pieces of toast
1 oz Willamette FWH
1 oz Northern Brewer @ 60
1 oz Willamette @ 10
3 tsp caraway seeds @1 min
WLP007

My wife challenged me to make a beer that tasted like a pumpernickel bread we were having for dinner one night so this was really just playing around.