Trying to clone a rye beer

[Nick Z]

I get my ingredients from Atlantic brew supply. Their description says, Adds a rich amber to brown color. Adds typical rye flavor with caramel background with a sweet and spicy flavor. Use in Rye Ale, Rye Lager, Specialty Beers, Dunkel Rye Wheat. Use up to 15%

Thank you. That sounds like just what I'm looking for. I'll probably use the recipe I created above. Maybe a little more rye malt and a little less base malt. I think I'll start with US-05 for that "clean" taste and if the beer isn't crap I'll try again with the German ale yeast.

 

[Coastalbrew]

Happy brewing! Cheers

 

[Nick Z]

Why crush up the caraway so fine? Why not just use them whole? Caraway seeds are not particularly large and they seem to have potency whole. And it would be easier to filter them out in a bag if whole. I couldn't find a small enough bag at the brew shop so I will just tie up a piece of paint strainer and toss it in at flameout or a couple of minutes before flameout.

 

[z-bob]

Why crush up the caraway so fine? Why not just use them whole? Caraway seeds are not particularly large and they seem to have potency whole. And it would be easier to filter them out in a bag if whole. I couldn't find a small enough bag at the brew shop so I will just tie up a piece of paint strainer and toss it in at flameout or a couple of minutes before flameout.

I'd crush them with a mortar and pestle just to break the seed coats to let the goodness out, but not grind them to a powder. I *will* try this at some point, and that's what I intend to do; dump them loose into the kettle then filter them out with a paint strainer going into the fermenter.

 

[Nick Z]

I'd crush them with a mortar and pestle just to break the seed coats to let the goodness out, but not grind them to a powder. I *will* try this at some point, and that's what I intend to do; dump them loose into the kettle then filter them out with a paint strainer going into the fermenter.

I have a spare coffee grinder. I think I'll try using that. I also think I will give them a light toast in a pan first. I don't know if toasting will help them or not. We shall see. It helps immensely with sesame seeds.

I'll probably boil the paint strainer in water to sanitize and test whether it can take high temps. If it can't I'll just toss in the seeds and hope the auto siphon filters them out or they drop to the bottom.

First I'm going to make a milk stout though. I think my mother will like that.

 

[Coastalbrew]

@Nick Z in my testing the flavor of the seeds didn't come out when I didn't crush the seeds. I put my seeds in a zip lock bag and ran a rolling pin over then a few times, just enough to open them up but not turn them into powder. I sanitized a paint strainer bag and hung it in the kettle for the 15 minutes steep. Worked great

 

[Nick Z]

So.... the first batch is in the fermenter. But things didn't quite go according to plan. I had a boil over and so I lost some wort and hops. That kind of threw off my whole timing and I ended up just tossing about seven caraway seeds in at about 10 minutes before the end of the boil. Not toasted or ground up.

I ran the wort through a fine mesh strainer and then again through an even finer one so I'm pretty confident I got out the caraway seeds.

I only ended up with a gallon of wort (I was aiming for 1.10-1.25 gallons so I could rack clear wort off of the trub). The yeast is gathering strength now and I expect to see serious fermentation within twelve hours. I ended up using SafAle US-05.

I'll try again next week probably. This time I think I will use regular crystal malt. Probably 15L as I recall the rye beer I am trying to clone as being fairly pale.

Once this batch is fermented out I'll give a report. But it will need to be bottle conditioned and chilled before I really know what it's like.