Experimental SMaSH Rye malt and Willamette RESULTS

Beer Recipes
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So in the pursuit of experimenting as much as possible I recently brewed an all oat malt ale. Before that one has even had a chance to finish up I am about to start my next experimental batch. A SMaSH beer with 100% Weyermann Rye Malt, Galaxy hops and WLP008. The purpose of these small batch experiments is to really see how ingredients play a role in my brews. I have never used rye but I have had some delicious beers containing it. After reading around the internet 100% is difficult, but possible to do. Here is my procedure for a 1 Gallon Batch.

2lbs of Weyermann Rye Malt aiming for a OG of 1.040
Two Step mash: Beta-Glucanase Rest for 30 minutes, raised to 148F for 40 minutes.
30 IBU’s of Galaxy hops added at 60 minutes, Galaxy hops added at 10 minutes and whirlpool.
WLP008 East Coast Ale yeast pitched at 66F and held there until end of fermentation.

I will probably post a more detailed description of the process once I brew it but it will probably be a week or two.

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Yum.  Expect it to have a very full oily body, unique earthy bready flavor, and the most huge creamy head with the best retention you ever saw in your life.  I would recommend priming less than normal for carbonation on the low end for that reason.  Also, of course, the Galaxy hops are lovely but will also overpower some of the rye’s more subtle complexities.  But it will turn out awesome overall.  Cheers.

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Have some rice hulls on hand.

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He’s only making a tiny batch, I assume BIAB, so for that the hulls probably aren’t necessary.  Otherwise, yes, they would be in a cooler mash tun!

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For my 1 gallon batches I use a 10in. fine mesh strainer. Works pretty well, I would like to try BIAB because I never had used it before and it sounds interesting.

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You may not like the way a 100% rye malt beer tastes.

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Well keep us posted. Should be interesting if nothing else. I would love to try stuff like this but am pretty committed to 5 gallon batches these days which leads to less experimenting.

Will your next Experimental SMaSH be with wheat?

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That’s a good word of caution.  Everyone doesn’t love it.  I find that in amounts as high as 40% as I have used, it gives a downright earthy, sort of muddy flavor, and muddy grayish color as well for that matter.  It’s not for everyone.  But, you WILL learn a lot about its flavor if you do a SMASH, though!  I still think it’s a worthy experiment.  And with Galaxy in there… it’s going to taste great I think.

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I’ve gone as high as 60%.  I LOVE rye beers, but that was enough for me.

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All very true but worth the risk for me at a 1 Gallon level. I just really want to see what rye malt can bring to the table I think this is the best way. I originally was just going to use a clean bittering charge so there was minimal hop flavor/ distraction but I fear the beer might be boring and bland in doing so. I have never used galaxy but just reading about them makes me thirsty.

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There might be another way to go about finding out about rye.  Brew  SMaSH beer using barley malt.  Then replace 60% of the barley with rye malt.  I guarantee you that you will know what the rye malt brings and the resulting beer will be a lot more pleasant.

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The highest I have gone with rye malt was 65% as well for a RyeWine I brewed 3 years ago. Awesome beer, but very oily and creamy even at a 1.016 FG.

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I think I am still going to stick with 100% rye, I understand that It could be overbearing or not a beer I prefer but that’s okay with me. I am just doing this for sake of experimentation. Worst case scenario is the beer is undrinkable and it gets dumped which by that time will only be 7-8 bottles at most which I don’t think will happen.

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Another option if you like experimenting is to repeat the brew with ordinary pale ale malt and then blend in different proportions at bottling, so some 25% rye, some 50%, some 100% etc. Twice as much work brewing though.

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I like this idea. Although I am very curious as to the character of a 100% rye beer. I know many love it, but I am not a big fan of rye - for some reason, even small amounts seems to overpower everything for my palette.

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That’s what I was getting at.

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Well… How did this end up turning out? I’m still new to brewing, but love a good rye. mash batches should be what i focus on for a while so i can understand the ingredients i have at my disposal.

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When you pour those bottles it will look like the beer is on nitro (ala Guiness) with all those head forming proteins. Must see a pic.

19

Well I can’t believe I haven’t been on since May but I have been too busy with School and work to get any brewing going…But finally I just mashed in for this 100% rye beer with some minor changes…Same grain bill just not using that yeast or hops. I am going to use Willamette hops and Safale US-04. I know that it makes it a totally different beer but this is what I have on hand and it has been way too long since my last brew. I will keep this post updated over the next couple weeks!

20

Almost finished with the mash and the wort isn’t looking syrupy so I think the Beta-Glucanase rest did wonders. I also went with a thinner mash thickness. Looking good So far!