Rye Malts - Who's Playing With Them Lately?

[Gigantorus]

Hi All,

Have been really getting into a couple of different rye malts in he past few months. Mainly in concentrate and extract recipes.

I have used both Caramel Rye and Chocolate Rye. Have used a bit of Caramel Rye in pale ales and Imperial IPAs. But have particularly enjoyed using choc rye in an American Brown Ale (recipe attached). It adds such a nice dry bite to the malty dark flavours. Yes, it's not a typical style or a style in BJCP - but rye in an American Brown Ale is an amazing treat.

Anyone else been using rye malts in other types of recipes? If so, tell me how you have been using them? I'm always looking for something new to try them in.

Cheers,

Pete

View attachment Spicy-Grizz-V4.pdf

 

[Droopy Brew]

Love Rye and often put it in Hoppy Ales- usually 10-20%. Keen to do a Rogginbier soon to with a heap of rye.

I havent however used any of the spec versions such as choc or caramel. Reading back on some posts from around 2010 there were quite a few unfavourable reports. be keen to hear more recent opinions though.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Rye is the devils spawn when sparging...

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

Like you, I like the dry bite on the finish that rye seems to give. IMO this works well with spicy fruity hops (Ella, Vic Secret) which can tend to tip the beer towards sweetness otherwise.

As per DBS' comments, good control of lauter tun DP is important with rye: it lacks a husk and has lots of beta glucans.

I have a grand plan for a mash with one third sourdough rye bread and one third rye malt, to be called "Babette's Feast" (if you've seen the movie you'll understand why). I can't find any commercial sourdough that isn't too salty so I'm going to have to make my own. On the back burner for now, though anyone who has a good sourdough culture they are willing to share please PM me.

 

[pajs]

Fermenting out an ale now to highlight Northern Brewer, with rye & some amber in the mix. Smells very good indeed. I use rye a lot - sometimes for spice, sometimes for pushing up mouthfeel. Useful thing. A little bit in an Alt or Golden Ale goes all right.

 

[yankinoz]

Roasted rye develops a distinctive bite, apart from the rye spice. I've loved caramel rye in an APA and especially an oaked AIPA. The one time I tried chocolate rye I thought something had gone out of control: meh.

 

[Camo6]

Giving it a wide berth for a bit. Got a bit adventurous the last time I brewed and used 20% finely ground rye malt. I might as well have thrown a bag of Plaster of Paris in.
Worst bit is it's not the first time I've done it. Stupid is as stupid does.
Do love it in an apa or aipa.

 

[jibba02]

My rye ipa uses 20% rye run through the mill twice. Brewed it 4 times and almost 1 stuck sparge.
Next brew I will use a couple of cups of rice hulls.

 

[earle]

I often use 35% with good effect. BIAB so goes ok without rice hulls but would be better with. Roggenbier and smoked rye farmhouse ale.

 

[Gigantorus]

I ended up dropping the amounts down a touch in the Rye American Brown Ale on the weekend. Was drinking the previous batch that I used 200g Choc Rye and 100g car rye and the rye spiciness was fairly solid. So dropped car re back to 300g and choc rye to 500g. Also tossed in 100g of CaraMunich3 and Belgium Special B to compensate. The wort tasted great. The FV is starting to bubble away this morning nicely.

I am also planning to do a Roggenbier as well soon. Like the idea of a nice rye'd up pale ale.

I only do extract brews so no real sparging problems for me. Yes, had seen a reference to adding rice hulls to loosen up the mix.

Cheers,

Pete

 

[kaiserben]

I made a Roggenbier just over a year ago. It had 51% rye malt.

I scorched the crap out of the bottom of my Grainfather. So much so that the element safety kept cutting out. (But that might've been partially due to user error, because I stuffed up by not recirculating during the ramping up of temp between the protein rest and the main rest).

I had to finish this batch via BIAB. That got very messy. I scorched that pot as well. The wort didn't flow very well through the bag. Spillage everywhere ...

Anyway - it ended up getting a "Highly Commended" at the 2015 NSW Comp. IMO it was a very challenging beer, not only to make but also to drink. I won't be rushing to make it again.

I've been very wary of using rye since then, and have only done 4% in an IPA, and 3.7% caramel rye in a strong red ale that I've made a few times. Not had any issues whatsoever at those miniscule levels. It's probably time I got serious and made a RIPA.

 

[Gigantorus]

Re the Roggenbier style. This is BJCP's classification:


15D. Roggenbier (German Rye Beer)
Aroma: Light to moderate spicy rye aroma intermingled with light to moderate weizen yeast aromatics (spicy clove and fruity esters, either banana or citrus). Light noble hops are acceptable. Can have a somewhat acidic aroma from rye and yeast. No diacetyl.
Appearance: Light coppery-orange to very dark reddish or coppery-brown color. Large creamy off-white to tan head, quite dense and persistent (often thick and rocky). Cloudy, hazy appearance.
Flavor: Grainy, moderately-low to moderately-strong spicy rye flavor, often having a hearty flavor reminiscent of rye or pumpernickel bread. Medium to medium-low bitterness allows an initial malt sweetness (sometimes with a bit of caramel) to be tasted before yeast and rye character takes over. Low to moderate weizen yeast character (banana, clove, and sometimes citrus), although the balance can vary. Medium-dry, grainy finish with a tangy, lightly bitter (from rye) aftertaste. Low to moderate noble hop flavor acceptable, and can persist into aftertaste. No diacetyl.
Mouthfeel: Medium to medium-full body. High carbonation. Light tartness optional.
Overall Impression: A dunkelweizen made with rye rather than wheat, but with a greater body and light finishing hops.
Comments: American-style rye beers should be entered in the American Rye category (6D). Other traditional beer styles with enough rye added to give a noticeable rye character should be entered in the Specialty Beer category (23). Rye is a huskless grain and is difficult to mash, often resulting in a gummy mash texture that is prone to sticking. Rye has been characterized as having the most assertive flavor of all cereal grains. It is inappropriate to add caraway seeds to a roggenbier (as some American brewers do); the rye character is traditionally from the rye grain only.
History: A specialty beer originally brewed in Regensburg, Bavaria as a more distinctive variant of a dunkelweizen using malted rye instead of malted wheat.
Ingredients: Malted rye typically constitutes 50% or greater of the grist (some versions have 60-65% rye). Remainder of grist can include pale malt, Munich malt, wheat malt, crystal malt and/or small amounts of debittered dark malts for color adjustment. Weizen yeast provides distinctive banana esters and clove phenols. Light usage of noble hops in bitterness, flavor and aroma. Lower fermentation temperatures accentuate the clove character by suppressing ester formation. Decoction mash commonly used (as with weizenbiers).


Vital Statistics:

OG: 1.046 – 1.056

IBUs: 10 – 20

FG: 1.010 – 1.014

SRM: 14 – 19

ABV: 4.5 – 6%

Commercial Examples: Paulaner Roggen (formerly Thurn und Taxis, no longer imported into the US), Bürgerbräu Wolznacher Roggenbier

 

[shacked]

I love the stuff and brew with it all the time:

25% in an export stout.
20% in an IPA (pale plus a 3% to 5% light crystal).
20% in a saison (10% wheat, 70% pils).
Did a low gravity hoppy ale last week: 10% rye, 35% wheat, 55% MO.
10% in an APA (just switch out some base malt for rye).

With the hoppier beers, spicy hops seem to compliment the rye nicely. I've found columbus to be a good one for that.

Reman did a great Rye Bock in the recent NSW case swap.

It was a massive PITA when I used to do boils in my electric crown urn. No issues with my gas set up.

 

[fungrel]

I love the stuff and brew with it all the time:

25% in an export stout.
20% in an IPA (pale plus a 3% to 5% light crystal).
20% in a saison (10% wheat, 70% pils).
Did a low gravity hoppy ale last week: 10% rye, 35% wheat, 55% MO.
10% in an APA (just switch out some base malt for rye).

With the hoppier beers, spicy hops seem to compliment the rye nicely. I've found columbus to be a good one for that.

Reman did a great Rye Bock in the recent NSW case swap.

It was a massive PITA when I used to do boils in my electric crown urn. No issues with my gas set up.

Yep, my Grainfather absolutely HATES rye. 10%+ and it scorches, gums up the sparge, etc etc.

 

[Coalminer]

Use 20% regularly in dr Smurtos golden golden ale, never a problem

 

[Gigantorus]

Gonna brew up a Roggenbier next. My draft recipe attached.

Any thoughts, suggestion, comments, additions, etc?

Cheers,

Pete

View attachment German-Roggenbier-2016.pdf

 

[Brownsworthy]

I've only ever used 6.75% in a red rye ipa with good results supposedly 4 Pines west coast red rye ipa uses 50% rye and takes around 6hrs to drain from the mash.

 

[Gigantorus]

A red rye IPA might be one of my next rye inventions in the next few months.

 

[Droopy Brew]

Gonna brew up a Roggenbier next. My draft recipe attached.

Any thoughts, suggestion, comments, additions, etc?

Cheers,

Pete

Up the rye! Up him strong!
You are doing a partial mash so I would do 2kg of Rye, drop the carapils and probably the shep as well.
Hops should be a bittering addition at 60 min and maybe a small amount at 10 or 15 min. Something like 20 IBU at 60 and 2 IBU at 15.
This style requires a weizen yeast for the ester and phenol characteristics. Wyeast 3068, White labs WLP300 would be the best. At a pinch you could use WB06 (Dry yeast) but Im really not a fan as it is phenol heavy. If using one of the 2 liquids ferment at 17C and you will get a good mix of clove and banana.

 

[kaiserben]

Gonna brew up a Roggenbier next. My draft recipe attached.

Any thoughts, suggestion, comments, additions, etc?

My 2 cents:

23.5% rye malt means you're not really making a proper roggen IMO. Is it possible to get above 50% via extract brewing?

I reckon you need a proper weizen yeast. K-97 just won't cut it ester-wise.

And don't bother cold-crashing. Enjoy this one cloudy like you would a weizen.