Tag Archives: rye

Rye Saison

Posted on by
Reply

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

Posted on by

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

Red Rye Lager 1.1

Posted on by

Back in late 2017, I came up with one of my best from-scratch recipes: Red Rye Lager. It’s been over two years since that batch, so I decided to give it another go. This fills a nice niche of a malty, moderate body, good-for-winter lager. It’s basically the same recipe, just with some modifications for malt brands and hop types. Following my 2020 goal of trying more American hop varieties, I went with Mt. Hood for the hops instead of Hallertauer and Magnum. Also, I used crystal 120 instead of The end result is pretty nice, as before!

Red Rye Lager 1.1

  • 6.75 lb. Superior Pilsen Malt (Great Western Malting)
  • 3 lb. BEST Munich malt (BESTMALZ)
  • 1 lb. Viking rye malt
  • 0.5 lb. Carared malt (Weyermann)
  • 6 oz. Caramel 120°L malt (Briess)
  • 2 oz. Carafa Special III malt (Weyermann)
  • 2 oz. rice hulls
  • 1 oz. Mt. Hood hop pellets (4.6% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 1 tsp. Fermax yeast nutrient, 10 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 5 minute boil
  • 2 oz. Mt. Hood hop pellets (4.6% alpha), 5 minute boil
  • 1 pkg. Cablecar yeast (Imperial yeast #L05)

Target Parameters

  • Infusion mash to hit target of 154°, 60 minutes, batch sparge
  • 1.053 o.g., 1.015 f.g., 5.0% abv, 21 IBU, 14 SRM
  • Water adjusted to hit target of 52 Ca, 10 Mg, 11 Na, 43 SO4, 53 Cl, 109 HCO3, RA 46 ppm.

Procedure

  • I mashed in with 4.5 gallons of RO water, with 2 g epsom salt and 3 g CaCl added and 5 mL of 88% lactic acid, in order to hit a 152° mash temperature for 60 minutes.
  • I used tap water for the sparge, starting with 1 gallon at 185°. I let it sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the first runnings. Then I added 3.75 gallons at 185°, let sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the second runnings.
  • In total, I collected 7.5 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.042, for 73% mash efficiency.
  • I brought the runnings to a boil, adding hops and other items per the recipe. After 60 minutes, I chilled to 75°, whirlpooled, and let the wort sit for around 40 minutes.
  • I transferred to the fermenter, added the yeast directly from the package, and let the beer ferment at ambient (56°).
  • I brewed the beer on 29 December 2019. Starting gravity was 1.055.
  • I kegged the beer on 31 January 2020. Final gravity was 1.010, for 5.9% abv.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • Reddish amber and clear, with a creamy, persistent ivory head. It’s a beautiful beer!
  • Aroma
    • Caramel and rye spice aroma; very clean yeast profile. Not much for hop aroma.
  • Flavor
    • Malt-forward, with a nice (but not overwhelming) rye character and a caramel note with that. The bitterness comes through on the back end; it’s firm, not over the top, and keeps the malt from being too cloying. It’s maybe a touch sweeter than I might like, but that’s only a very minor degree.
  • Body
    • Medium body, not as light as I would expect for the lowish finishing gravity. That said, the body is perfect for this beer. Moderate carbonation, with an off-dry finish.
  • Would I brew this again?
    • Yep! This is a winner of a recipe, even in the second iteration. It’s definitely among my favorite beers. Both this and the past iteration (version 1.0) are quite solid. I might ditch the crystal 120 to dial back the sweetness slightly, but that’s a fairly minor tweak.
  • Overall
    • 9.5/10

Aftershock Amber Ale

Posted on by

Craft beer is more common than ever, but it still seems like the style landscape has contracted. Hazy IPAs are everywhere, and of course you can get double IPAs and the barrel aged stouts. These are great from time to time, but every once in awhile I long for one of those “classic” styles that disappeared as breweries expanded their repertoire and chased the latest trends. I want a beer that tastes like it came from around 2002; something you might find at the local “microbrewery” alongside a plate of greasy boneless wings from the kitchen in back. What is more classic than an amber ale?

IMG_20190825_122630I love the American amber ale style. It can fit just about any time of year and any occasion, and the best ones bring a nice dose of maltiness and hoppiness into a cohesive package. I also like that they’ve been mostly immune from the double-triple-imperial crazes, and clock in between 4.5 and 5.7% (by the 2015 BJCP style guidelines). They’re fairly simple to brew, but also have a broad stylistic interpretation that rewards experimentation.

I put together a recipe that would have a nice dose of malt, drawing on Munich I (Weyermann) for nearly 50% of the grist, backed up by 2-row pale malt. To add a bit of zest, I put in a dose of rye malt, along with a generous helping of two kinds of crystal malt. The results came together in one of my favorite beers as of late!

I brewed this batch on 6 July 2019, just after two days of fairly large earthquakes in southern California. There was no choice for the name, then, other than “Aftershock Amber Ale.”

Aftershock Amber Ale

  • 5 lbs. Munich I (Weyermann)
  • 3 lbs. 2-row pale malt (Rahr)
  • 1 lb. 1823 Heritage crystal malt (Bairds), 75°
  • 1 lb. rye malt (Viking)
  • 4 oz. 2-row crystal 60° malt (Great Western)
  • 3 oz. rice hulls
  • 0.5 oz. Warrior hop pellets (15.8%), 60 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 10 minute boil
  • 2 oz. Cascade whole hops (~5.5% alpha), 5 minute boil
  • 1 pkg. Safale American ale yeast (US-05)
  • 1 oz. Amarillo hop pellets (9.2% alpha), dry hop in keg

Target Parameters

  • 60 minute infusion mash, 152°, batch sparge
  • 1.048 o.g., 1.010 f.g., 4.9% abv, 34 IBU, 13 SRM
  • Claremont tap water

Procedure

  • I mashed in with 3.5 gallons of water at 162.5°, to hit a target mash temperature of 152°.
  • After 60 minutes, I added 1.3 gallons of water, let sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the first runnings. Next, I added 3.6 gallons of water at 185°, and did the same procedure before collecting the rest of the runnings.
  • In total, I collected 6.6 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.042, for 73% efficiency.
  • I brought everything to a boil, adding hops and finings per the schedule. After 60 minutes, I turned off the heat, chilled the wort, transferred it, and pitched the yeast.
  • Starting gravity was 1.048. I brewed this on 6 July 2019, and fermented it at 68°.
  • I kegged the beer on 17 July 2019. It had a final gravity of 1.011, for 4.9% abv.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • Beautiful, fairly clear, reddish amber hue to the beer, with an ivory-colored head that is fine and quite persistent.
  • Aroma
    • Mild rye aroma, with a bit of caramel behind that. Not much for hops.
  • Flavor
    • Moderately bitter and highly malty, with a pleasant rye flavor at the forefront. The malt and bitterness are nicely balanced against each other; it’s not too sweet, but just about right. The hop character comes across as somewhat piney and woody…there’s less citrus than I would expect, probably because of the malt overriding the hops.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Moderate body, moderate carbonation, with a slightly dry finish.
  • Would I brew this again?
    • Absolutely! I love the mouthfeel and flavor on this; it really is exactly what I hoped for. I think I would probably ditch the dry hops on this; they aren’t really perceptible and might even clash with the malts a bit. Plus, they don’t really seem necessary.
  • Overall
    • 9/10