Should be receiving a woodinville 8 gallon rye barrel here on Saturday (woot!)
So here’s what I’m thinking for recipe:
80% MO
20% Rye Malt
OG - 1.110ish
Neutral American Strain
Tropical hops (Citra, Calypso, Galaxy) to play against the coconut flavors from the wood.
Another thought was maybe a small touch to the Fawcett Crystal Rye, but I don’t have any experience with it and am inclined to shy away.
What do you guys think?
Is 20% enough?
If you bump it to 30%, do you get too much rye character?
I’d go 40% rye.
Oh geez…if you use Calypso, I beg of you to be careful on where you use them in the boil. So far I do not like what they contribute to bitterness or flavor. I think they leave a funny lingering bitterness/taste. I did an experimental IPA recipe with them for all additions and did not like it. Then I used them in a Rye IPA recently in my flavor addition…wasn’t as bad, but definitely did not think it was a winner. I’d say use Calypso for aroma only, but that’s just my experience thus far.
I’m down around 20 because I don’t want to go full tilt rye on the flavor and obscured more of the barrel character since it’s a rye barrel.
My thoughts were to produce 16 gallons which basically requires a sack of MO and 13ish lbs of Rye Malt. 8 into the barrel for secondary, 8 into steel. After aging produce 5 staight steel, 5 straight wood, 5 blend.
That sounds like a fun project. How long you planning to age it in the barrel for?
Until it tastes good? 
(I have a pretty quick trigger finger on oak - I prefer my beers to be beer with oak not oak with beer)
It’ll be interesting to see if the fruity hops play well with the bbl character. Personally, I’d play it safe and go with neutral hops. But I’m a wimp like that. 
I like to use some chocolate rye in my Rye Wine - just enough to give a red color and some depth of flavor. If you want to keep it simple this looks good to me.
That’s been my experience, too. I did an APA with all Calypso and it had a real funky bitterness.
i think if you’re going to call it tri-rye you need to have three sources of rye. One is the barrel, one is the malt . . . maybe some flaked or the chocolate rye mentioned above?
Yeah, as I noted in the original post I was thinking of maybe adding a touch of the Fawcett Crystal Rye, but I’ve never used it before.
I definitely don’t think I want to use anything roasted, I was this to be a lighter shade of pale.
Maybe a hint of sweetness to balance the alcohol depending on which yeast you are planning to use. If using an American Ale yeast then I would add a small amount of crystal malt. Maybe some 50 or 60L…
How much Crystal Rye were you thinking? My though would be to order the C-Rye atleast that way you can chew and steep it then make a more informed decision. If you don’t use it I bet it would be great in a fall saison… This sounds like a great experiment!
http://countrymaltgroup.com/fawcettmalting.asp
Fawcett Crystal Rye (70-80°L)
Will lend a dry, licorice, toffee flavor. Great for use in complex, multi-grain brews where that extra special something is required.
If you don’t want to use the crystal or chocolate rye, use the flaked. Or rename it.