Hey to my fellow brewers!
I'm a newbie and my 5th all-grain batch is/was a Rye IPA. I do 'partigyle BIAB' and read all about rye first. I read the forums here and elsewhere. I used rice hulls, but thought since i BIAB it would not be much of a problem. I also decided to do a beta-glucan rest. Note: i am a woman who brews alone in my city apartment, and though i have good form & ergonomics, i am not very big/strong.
Well HA HA HA!! I felt like i was wrestling alligators! I ended up bruised & battered, including one huge black bruise on my arm and i am thinking 'huh? how did that happen?' Maybe from throwing equipment around all day?! It must have been a 12 hour day from milling to the last pot scrubbing. I think i was in an altered state of consciousness.
Where do i start?
First, i had no idea rye was so hard to mill! i mill finer because i BIAB. It took me forever to set & re-set my roller gap for it. I milled it with my other grains (mistake 1) & ended up having to re-mill about half my total grain, probably leading to too small a particle size. I also milled the flaked rye because someone said he got better extraction (and i am all about extraction, mates!)
Next, my beta-glucan rest failed because my cheap floating thermometer was slow & inaccurate. I mashed thick (1/1) at first because i thought i would do the BG rest and step-increase with boiling water to the sacch rest to my target mash ratio (1.5/1). So after BG FAIL, I added water to mash at 149 average, which went well, but i ended up with a stuck sparge. I usually bag-dunk sparge but *nothing* was draining out of my bag!
Soooo, I drained the mash by hand in batches in a colander & freed my poor BIAB bag (!). Then i batched sparged directly in my brewkettle - pretty hot to prevent more caking, & that went OK. I semi-vorlaufed, i guess, but only a little.
Removed spent grain from the BK & had a great, rolling boil. It took about 40 minutes for my copper coil to cool the wort down to 73 or so - not great, not terrible - but damn if this wort was not SO THICK and full of fine, floury muck. I just could not filter the stuff fast enough, so i said 'what the hell' and just added to my primary and said a little prayer, if you will.
WHO KNEW RYE WOULD BE SO DIFFICULT?!
Ferment has been going well so far (we're on day 3 using WLP001 from a starter and krausen has settled down, airlock affixed, bottom flocculation happening & i've had pretty good temp control from between 67F to 72F). The wort sample I took for my hydrometer - after being refrigerated - was about 50% clear, beautiful, tasty wort - just like i wanted - on top, and 50% thick suspended gunk on the bottom. I got a postboil reading, not sure how accurate it was because of the thick wort. Otherwise, i think this has the potential to be an incredibly tasty beer with a spicy rye heartiness and a floral orange nose.
I think I am going to get only 2 gal of this 4-gal batch because there is so much dreck! And so i want to fine it. I have read whatever I could here about fining rye beers, but i would love some wisdom. I did use whirlfloc but my wort just laughed at it. So far it seems like the best option would be either a kieselsol-chitosan product (KC Superkleer) or just kieselsol (Biofine Clear - so it would be friendly to vegans). I know it might not be perfect, but it was so beautiful coming out of the fridge, separated, so i would love it to be clear. Has anyone used these - can anyone discuss? I don't know if my dreck is primarily particulate, protein or tannin or a combo. I do have a 'tea' taste, but it's not astringent. The UK First Gold hops are kind of orange-pekoe tea like in flavor.
Note: I do not have a kegerator or an extra fridge - i cannot 'cold crash' anywhere but a bucket or my bathtub! And that would mean buying a lot of ice at Safeway & lugging it up 2 flights. Which is ok if it must be so!
Here are my own future lessons I think i am going to apply - what do you think?
1) Have LHBS mill the damn rye separately
2) Don't mill the rye flakes
3) Use a better thermometer and do the damn beta-glucan rest. One dude said he did his for EIGHTY minutes. Is this --- you know - normal?
4) Double my rice hulls to 4% - what the heck!
5) Mash thinner, even for a multi-step mash and even if it means sacch resting with all the water and no sparge (this is BIAB after all).
6) Suck it up and lauter for a half hour with drained wort.
7) Be prepared to be at it all day next time i do this and be prepared to lose a lot of beer to the trub
8) Keep in primary 3 weeks before racking
9) Keep in secondary 2 more weeks to let settle & clear
10) Dry hop for 5 days before fining
11) Fine before bottling
Here's the basic recipe I worked up & my results:
"Don't Tell Me What To Do Rye IPA"
Recipe volume: 4 gallons
70% Maris Otter pale
14% Rye malt
11% Flaked rye
2% Crystal 10
3% Crystal 80
[Rice hulls 2% of rye weight]
60 Min - Centennial & UK First Gold
20 Min - Citra & UK First Gold
15 Min - Whirlfloc
10 Min - Amarillo, Centennial & Citra
Flameout - Amarillo, Centennial, Citra, UK First Gold
Dry Hop in Secondary - Amarillo, Centennial, UK First Gold
Yeast WLP001
Mashed at 149F for 70 minutes
Wort Ph about 5.0
Measured estim boil gravity - 1.063
Measured estim OG - 1.077
Target FG - 1.014 to 1.018
Target IBUs - 70
Target avg ferment temp - 68F
Actual measured extraction efficiency - 85.6%
Any wisdom on success with rye beers, esp if you BIAB, would be great. Any wisdom on fining rye beers, especially. I would like my vegan friends to be able to try but if not that is OK too (the beer is more important than dietary habits!!). You live, you learn, right?!
I'm a newbie and my 5th all-grain batch is/was a Rye IPA. I do 'partigyle BIAB' and read all about rye first. I read the forums here and elsewhere. I used rice hulls, but thought since i BIAB it would not be much of a problem. I also decided to do a beta-glucan rest. Note: i am a woman who brews alone in my city apartment, and though i have good form & ergonomics, i am not very big/strong.
Well HA HA HA!! I felt like i was wrestling alligators! I ended up bruised & battered, including one huge black bruise on my arm and i am thinking 'huh? how did that happen?' Maybe from throwing equipment around all day?! It must have been a 12 hour day from milling to the last pot scrubbing. I think i was in an altered state of consciousness.
Where do i start?
First, i had no idea rye was so hard to mill! i mill finer because i BIAB. It took me forever to set & re-set my roller gap for it. I milled it with my other grains (mistake 1) & ended up having to re-mill about half my total grain, probably leading to too small a particle size. I also milled the flaked rye because someone said he got better extraction (and i am all about extraction, mates!)
Next, my beta-glucan rest failed because my cheap floating thermometer was slow & inaccurate. I mashed thick (1/1) at first because i thought i would do the BG rest and step-increase with boiling water to the sacch rest to my target mash ratio (1.5/1). So after BG FAIL, I added water to mash at 149 average, which went well, but i ended up with a stuck sparge. I usually bag-dunk sparge but *nothing* was draining out of my bag!
Soooo, I drained the mash by hand in batches in a colander & freed my poor BIAB bag (!). Then i batched sparged directly in my brewkettle - pretty hot to prevent more caking, & that went OK. I semi-vorlaufed, i guess, but only a little.
Removed spent grain from the BK & had a great, rolling boil. It took about 40 minutes for my copper coil to cool the wort down to 73 or so - not great, not terrible - but damn if this wort was not SO THICK and full of fine, floury muck. I just could not filter the stuff fast enough, so i said 'what the hell' and just added to my primary and said a little prayer, if you will.
WHO KNEW RYE WOULD BE SO DIFFICULT?!
Ferment has been going well so far (we're on day 3 using WLP001 from a starter and krausen has settled down, airlock affixed, bottom flocculation happening & i've had pretty good temp control from between 67F to 72F). The wort sample I took for my hydrometer - after being refrigerated - was about 50% clear, beautiful, tasty wort - just like i wanted - on top, and 50% thick suspended gunk on the bottom. I got a postboil reading, not sure how accurate it was because of the thick wort. Otherwise, i think this has the potential to be an incredibly tasty beer with a spicy rye heartiness and a floral orange nose.
I think I am going to get only 2 gal of this 4-gal batch because there is so much dreck! And so i want to fine it. I have read whatever I could here about fining rye beers, but i would love some wisdom. I did use whirlfloc but my wort just laughed at it. So far it seems like the best option would be either a kieselsol-chitosan product (KC Superkleer) or just kieselsol (Biofine Clear - so it would be friendly to vegans). I know it might not be perfect, but it was so beautiful coming out of the fridge, separated, so i would love it to be clear. Has anyone used these - can anyone discuss? I don't know if my dreck is primarily particulate, protein or tannin or a combo. I do have a 'tea' taste, but it's not astringent. The UK First Gold hops are kind of orange-pekoe tea like in flavor.
Note: I do not have a kegerator or an extra fridge - i cannot 'cold crash' anywhere but a bucket or my bathtub! And that would mean buying a lot of ice at Safeway & lugging it up 2 flights. Which is ok if it must be so!
Here are my own future lessons I think i am going to apply - what do you think?
1) Have LHBS mill the damn rye separately
2) Don't mill the rye flakes
3) Use a better thermometer and do the damn beta-glucan rest. One dude said he did his for EIGHTY minutes. Is this --- you know - normal?
4) Double my rice hulls to 4% - what the heck!
5) Mash thinner, even for a multi-step mash and even if it means sacch resting with all the water and no sparge (this is BIAB after all).
6) Suck it up and lauter for a half hour with drained wort.
7) Be prepared to be at it all day next time i do this and be prepared to lose a lot of beer to the trub
8) Keep in primary 3 weeks before racking
9) Keep in secondary 2 more weeks to let settle & clear
10) Dry hop for 5 days before fining
11) Fine before bottling
Here's the basic recipe I worked up & my results:
"Don't Tell Me What To Do Rye IPA"
Recipe volume: 4 gallons
70% Maris Otter pale
14% Rye malt
11% Flaked rye
2% Crystal 10
3% Crystal 80
[Rice hulls 2% of rye weight]
60 Min - Centennial & UK First Gold
20 Min - Citra & UK First Gold
15 Min - Whirlfloc
10 Min - Amarillo, Centennial & Citra
Flameout - Amarillo, Centennial, Citra, UK First Gold
Dry Hop in Secondary - Amarillo, Centennial, UK First Gold
Yeast WLP001
Mashed at 149F for 70 minutes
Wort Ph about 5.0
Measured estim boil gravity - 1.063
Measured estim OG - 1.077
Target FG - 1.014 to 1.018
Target IBUs - 70
Target avg ferment temp - 68F
Actual measured extraction efficiency - 85.6%
Any wisdom on success with rye beers, esp if you BIAB, would be great. Any wisdom on fining rye beers, especially. I would like my vegan friends to be able to try but if not that is OK too (the beer is more important than dietary habits!!). You live, you learn, right?!