Tag Archives: rye ale

Rye Saison

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I’ve been enjoying Belgian beers with an increased frequency, and saison has been a fun style to try within that family. This recipe was crafted to bring the simplicity of pilsner malt alongside a bit of Munich for character and some flaked rye to add a rustic quality. Lallemand’s Belle Saison, with an open fermentation, helped bring the yeast character. As is typical for these kinds of brews, I’m doing a small batch of ~3 gallons.

Rye Saison

  • 5 lb. Synergy Select Pilsen malt (Briess)
  • 1 lb. Barke Munich malt (Weyermann)
  • 1 lb. flaked rye
  • 0.25 tsp. BrewTanB, added to mash
  • 0.6 oz. Perle hop pellets (6.3% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 0.25 tsp. BrewTanB, 10 minute boil
  • 1 pkg. LalBrew Belle Saison dry yeast

Target Parameters

  • 75 minute infusion mash, 148°, full volume mash
  • 1.053 o.g., 1.002 f.g., 6.8% abv, 23 IBU, 5 SRM
  • Water built from RO and Claremont tap water, with mineral additions to hit 67 ppm Ca, 15 ppm Mg, 40 ppm Na, 101 ppm SO4, 53 ppm Cl, 59 ppm bicarbonate.
  • 3 gallon batch

Procedure

  • I prepared my water with 2.5 gallons of RO and 2 gallons of tap water, along with a Campden tablet, 2 gram epsom salts, and 1 gram of gypsum. I heated this water to 154° before adding the BrewTanB, 5 mL of 88% lactic acid (probably too much – oops! I had it set for the MPH and not BW model in BeerSmith), adding the grains and holding at 148° with recirculation for 75 minutes. Then, I heated the mash to 168° and held for 10 minutes before removing the grains.
  • I collected 3.96 gallons of runnings with a gravity 1.046, for 70% mash efficiency. This is better than I expected!
  • I heated the runnings to a boil, boiling for 60 minutes before turning off the heat and chilling to 75°. I transferred the wort to a fermenter and pitched the yeast. Because I wanted an open fermentation, I put foil over the out port of the fermenter.
  • I brewed this beer on 29 March 2026; starting gravity was 1.057, a bit higher than calculated (but that’s OK!).
  • The fermentation proceeded at ambient; it was down to 72° by 30 March 2026, with abundant krausen. The fermenter was at 70° by 31 March 2026, so I put it next to a heating pad in order to warm the fermenter. This brought it up to 80° by the evening of 1 April 2026.
  • The fermenter was holding at 74° by 4 April 2026; krausen had largely subsided at that point. I took the foil off and replaced it with a blowoff tube.
  • I kegged the beer on 20 April 2026, transferring into a small keg and adding 3.25 oz. of corn sugar dissolved in ~1 cup of water.
  • Final gravity was 1.001, for 7.5% abv.
  • Tracking keg pressure, the beer was at 18 psi on 4 May 2026, well under the set point for saison-level carbonation. I moved the beer to the conditioning chamber and topped it off with CO2.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • Deep gold beer with an orange tinge; slight haze, pouring with a fluffy white and reasonably persistent head.
  • Aroma
    • Medium-high yeast aroma, with fresh pomme fruit quality, a bit of white pepper also. Baked bread malt character at a medium-low level. Not prominent on hops.
  • Flavor
    • A light malty-sweet perception, and a hint of tartness; a slight bit of rye “richness” and graininess. Medium level of clean bitterness, with a slightly herbal character. Red apple and pear at a moderate level in the yeast.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Dry finish, high carbonation that gives a “fluffy” feeling on the tongue. Medium-light body.
  • Would I Brew This Again?
    • This is a great saison! Interestingly, it doesn’t taste bone-dry; the rye must round it out, along with the fruity qualities of the yeast. I might try a lower mineral water to see if it dries out the perception in the next batch.
  • Overall
    • 9/10

Summer RyePA

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My latest session IPA was a bit of a kitchen sink beer, but also one where I wanted to create a slightly more “traditional” northwest IPA. That means citrus and pine for the hops, and no fear of the crystal malt. To ground my malt character, I used Vienna malt as the base, with a healthy dose of rye malt on top of that. I used about 7% crystal malt to add some body and depth. The overall results were pretty fantastic!

Summer RyePA

  • 8 lb. Vienna malt (Weyermann)
  • 1.5 lb. rye malt (Viking)
  • 0.5 lb. crystal 40 (Great Western)
  • 0.25 lb. crystal 60 (Great Western)
  • 2 oz. rice hulls
  • 0.5 oz. Warrior hop pellets (15.8% alph), 60 minute boil
  • 0.4 oz. Chinook hop pellets (13.0% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 1 oz. Cascade whole hops (5.5% alpha), 3 minute boil
  • 1 tsp. Fermax yeast nutrient, 10 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 5 minute boil
  • 1 pkg. American West Coast Ale yeast (BRY-97)
  • 1 oz. Amarillo hop pellets (9.2% alpha), dry hop in keg
  • 0.5 oz. Cryo-Cascade hop pellets (12.0% alpha), dry hop in keg
  • 0.4 oz. Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus (CTZ) hop pellets (15.5% alpha), dry hop in keg

Target Parameters

  • 1.047 s.g., 1.012 f.g., 4.5% abv, 7 SRM, 46 IBU
  • Infusion mash, 156°, batch sparge; 60 minute boil
  • Claremont water, with 3 g gypsum and 5 g epsom salts added to kettle during chilling, to hit approximate mixture of 51 ppm Ca, 32 ppm Mg, 71 ppm Na, 156 ppm SO4, 75 ppm Cl, ~100 ppm HCO3

Procedure

  • I mashed in with 3.75 gallons of water, heated to 167°. Once it had cooled down to 163°, I added the grains, and hit a mash temperature of 153°. I added ~2 mL of 88% lactic acid to bring the mash pH down a touch.
  • Around 30 minutes in, I added 2 gallons of water at 175°, to raise the mash temperature to 157°.
  • After 60 minutes of mashing, I collected the first runnings. Then, I added 3 gallons of water with 2.5 mL of 88% lactic acid, to neutralize carbonates. This should result in around ~100 ppm HCO3.
  • I brought the kettle to a boil, adding hops and such per the recipe.
  • After 60 minutes, I began the chilling process. At this point, I realized that I had forgotten to add the gypsum and epsom salts I had intended to add earlier, so boiled them in a cup of water and put this into the wort.
  • Once I had chilled a bit, I transferred to the fermenter and then chilled the rest of the way, down to 68°, in my fermentation chamber.
  • I brewed this beer on 8 August 2020, and fermented at 66°. Starting gravity was 1.048.
  • I brought the beer up to ambient garage temperature (78° to 80°) on 15 August 2020, to finish out fermentation.
  • I kegged the beer on 21 August 2020, adding 2.85 oz. of corn sugar for natural carbonation along with the dry hops in a bag. I let it sit at ambient for about a week, before chilling and finishing carbonation via forced CO2.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • Deep gold in color, with an orange tinge, and only a slight haze. This beer dropped surprisingly clear after ~2 weeks in the keezer! A persistent off-white head holds modest lacing along the side of the glass.
  • Aroma
    • Hop forward, with citrus/orange at the front, and a bit of earthiness behind that. Yeast character is clean, and not much in the way of malt is noticeable.
  • Flavor
    • Bitterness level is moderately high, with an orange/citrusy character. It’s distinctly tilted towards the hops, with the malt in the background in terms of balance. Malt character is grainy with only a hint of caramel notes, and avoiding any perception of sweetness. I get a touch of rye spice as the beer warms up, but I’m surprised the rye doesn’t come through more prominently. That’s probably an okay thing, though, in that it doesn’t overwhelm the beer. As I finish more of the glass, the pine character of the hops starts to shine through.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Medium-light bodied, with an extended dry finish and a lingering bitterness. Moderate carbonation.
  • Would I brew this again?
    • This is one of the better session IPAs I’ve done over the years. It’s got sufficient character to be interesting, and enough body to keep it from seeming thin. The citrus character is very nice, and I think the blend of hops is spot-on for this kind of beer. It’s squarely in the northwest IPA tradition, with plenty of citrus and not much of the tropical fruit character so common in IPAs nowadays. It’s interesting that the pine character manifests a bit late as I drink the beer, and same for the rye notes. That’s okay by me, though. I could certainly play with the hops more, but the grain bill is pretty close to perfect.
  • Overall
    • 9/10

OverDRyeV Ale

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I’ve done very little brewing with rye; this is a fairly common ingredient in commercial (and home) brews, but I rarely use it in my own recipes. A search of my blog found only two instances, in fact (a pilsner and an oaked ale)! Why not explore the ingredient a bit, then?

The December 2017 issue of BYO magazine had a clone recipe for Shoreline Brewery’s Red Rye Ale that looked pretty tasty. I liked that it incorporated several varieties of rye malt, and I also liked that it wasn’t just another rye IPA (although that style also is in my future). I made some minor modifications for my on-hand hops, and also substituted in Weyermann CaraRye for non-Weyermann crystal rye, which I couldn’t find readily (it was supposed to be equal amounts of CaraRye and crystal rye).

In the past, I’ve noticed that my higher gravity mashes, as well as mashes with a percentage of flaked grains, tend to come in a bit lower on mash efficiency. So, I assumed 70% for efficiency (instead of my usual 75% or so), and managed to come pretty close.

My goal with this brew is to have a medium body, malty brew that will serve well during the winter months. The brew session was fairly uneventful, helped along by a generous portion of rice hulls to prevent a stuck sparge. My only minor disappointment was that I ended up a shade below my target gravity (1.068 vs. 1.072). Because I am hitting my preboil volumes and gravities fairly well, I think I just need to improve the vigor of my boil.

I also tested out my oxygen wand setup; I had a bit of a disappointment recently with a stuck fermentation on a high gravity brew, so wanted to avoid that in this batch, which was supposed to clock in slightly above 1.070 for starting gravity.

The name, if you couldn’t guess, is a pun on “overdrive”, so named because of the hefty dose of rye malts. The “V” at the end is because I used California Ale V yeast.

rye

OverDRyeV Ale

  • 7.5 lbs. 2-row California Select brewer’s malt (Great Western)
  • 4 lbs. Golden Promise malt (Simpsons)
  • 2 lbs. rye malt (Briess)
  • 1 lb. CaraRye malt (Weyermann)
  • 0.75 lb. flaked rye (Briess)
  • 2 oz. Carafa Special II malt (Weyermann)
  • 2 oz. chocolate rye malt (Weyermann)
  • 4 oz. rice hulls
  • 4 oz. Cascade whole hops (5.5% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 1.25 oz. Perle hop pellets (4.5% alpha), 30 minute boil
  • 0.75 oz. Perle hop pellets (4.5% alpha), 2 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 10 minute boil
  • 0.5 tsp. Fermax yeast nutrient, 10 minute boil
  • 1 pkg. California Ale V yeast (WLP051, White Labs), prepared in starter

Target Parameters

  • Infusion mash to hit target of 152°. Batch sparge.
  • Claremont tap water, with addition of 2 g CaCal and 10 mL phosphoric acid (75%) to strike water.
  • 1.072 s.g., 1.018 f.g., 78 IBU, 16 SRM, 7.1% abv

Procedure

  • The night before brewing, I made a 1.5L starter for the yeast.
  • I mashed in with 5.5 gallons of water at 164°, to hit a mash temperature of 153°. After 60 minutes, I vorlaufed, drained the mash tun and added 3.5 gallons of water at 185°. After resting for 10 minutes, I vorlaufed the drained the mash tun again.
  • In total, I collected 6.8 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.057, for 69% efficiency.
  • I brought the mixture to a boil, and boiled for 60 minutes while adding hops and other additions at the appropriate times.
  • After 60 minutes, I chilled to 75° or so, transferred to the fermenter, and oxygenated for 1 minute.
  • I brewed this on 4 December 2017. The wort had a starting gravity of 1.066; this was a bit below my target, so I should probably boil a bit more vigorously on the next batch to drop gravity appropriately.
  • I started fermentation at 68°, and let it drop to ambient in the cooler (66°) after six days. Then, I raised the temperature to 70°, where it rested for a week before kegging.
  • I kegged the beer on 17 December 2017. It had a final gravity of 1.015. Thus, I have an estimated abv of 6.7%. The beer has a really nice and rich rye taste; it’s going to be an awesome winter beer once is carbonated and on tap!