I’m planning to brew an amber rye ale in a week or two. It’s intended as a bit of a kitchen sink beer to use up ingredients, and also intended to be something that I can brew and ferment with minimum hassle. We’re moving houses in about a month (just up the hill, so not too awful), so I’m aiming for a recipe to minimize time commitment. I’d like to keep it <5% abv, also.
I really like the classic American amber ale style (it’s woefully underappreciated these days, in my opinion!), but want to do a rye twist for something a little different.
My current draft recipe:
71% 2-row malt
18% rye malt
6% crystal 60
4% crystal 135/165 (Bairds) malt
1% chocolate wheat malt
and of course a generous helping of rice hulls…
2 oz. Cascade at 60 minutes to hit ~35 IBU, with 1 oz. dry hop in the keg.
Target of 1.048 s.g., 1.012 f.g., Full volume mash at 156 degrees, no sparge (in Anvil Foundry)
The only thing I’ll need to pick up from my LHBS is the rye malt, but the rest of it is on-hand. The crystal 60 and chocolate wheat will finish up some “spare” grains I have sitting around. The Cascade hops are some whole hops that my dad grew, and will finish up that stash in my freezer.
I currently plan to use Lutra kveik yeast given its clean fermentation profile, but am open to other thoughts in the kveik realm.
Feedback? My main area of feedback concerns the proportion of rye malt – too much? Should I consider flaked rye instead?
Thank you for those thoughts! Good point on the hops…I’ll probably fiddle with the hopping schedule a little, as I agree it stuff could get a little swamped out if all of the boil hops are added at the beginning.
I’ve had Lutra-fermented beers that are fairly clean…definitely not perfectly so, but close enough. I’m okay with a little yeast character in this one, and I’ll be fermenting in the ambient 70s rather than the 90s!
Your experience with Lutra seems to mirror mine. Kinda clean, but not really. Just out of curiosity, why not pick a really clean yeast? Or does the Lutra have “something” that will add to this beer?
The main consideration on yeast selection is that I won’t have access to my usual temperature control (packing stuff up in prep for the move, and have some kegs occupying the fermentation chamber), but will have ~75 degree ambient in the garage where I brew. I figured Lutra would probably be “safe”…but am happy for other suggestions!
And thank you for that link – I’m adding it to my queue for a future brew (maybe this winter?).
I like it as well. If I had to nit pick, I would bitter with something else and use Cascade as a late boil addition for a kick to the aroma and flavor. And I agree, I’m a recent convert back to the AAA style.
Thank you, everyone! Your feedback was helpful and reassuring. The beer is now on the boil…I found another ounce of Cascade in my freezer, so it will be an all-Dad-grown hopping.
The final version is:
8 lb. 2-row pale malt (Rahr)
2 lb. rye malt (Weyermann)
10 oz. crystal 60 malt (Great Western)
8 oz. crystal 135/165L malt (Bairds)
2 oz. chocolate wheat malt (Weyermann)
1 oz. Cascade (5.5% alpha), 60 minute boil
1 oz. Cascade (5.5% alpha), 15 minute boil
1 oz. Cascade (5.5% alpha), 5 minute boil
1 Whirlfloc tablet
1 pkg. Lutra kveik (OYL-071, dry form)
1 oz. Cascade (5.5% alpha), dry hop in keg
Full-volume mash at 156 degrees for 60 minutes
Ferment at ambient
Target parameters: 1.048 s.g., 1.012 s.g., 4.8% abv, 17 SRM, 30 IBU
I’ll likely post an update once everything is done…
Interesting. I’ve never gone anywhere near that, outside of initial pitch temps. For me, I get plenty clean beer fermenting Lutra in the low 70s, it just takes time.
Update…I kegged the amber rye ale tonight. Final gravity was 1.017 – a bit higher than expected, but also not terribly surprising given the high mash temperature and the ~10% contribution of crystal malts. This beer tastes really nice at the moment, and I would bet it’s only going to improve with some cold conditioning and dry hopping. The yeast character is quite clean, at least against the flavorful grain bill. All around, the beer is pretty much exactly what I had envisioned when planning the recipe!
I’ll try and remember to post a final update in about a month, once the beer is matured a bit and fully carbonated.
A follow-up from earlier this summer…the beer turned out great! It’s one of those (somewhat rare) cases where the end product nailed my initial goals. Thank you to everyone for the recipe advice.
Personally, I would toss both crystal and chocolate malts, and replace all with rye.
I didn’t think so, but the wife thought one batch I made with rye was the best one I made.
That recipe was 50% rye malt.
That’d be an interesting variation; I might have to try it at some point. I’m quite happy with where my crystal/chocolate version landed (I was going for an amber ale, after all), but think a base malt+rye batch might be good for a lighter body/flavor.
