Critique an Amber Rye Ale Recipe

[drainbamage]

I was tooling around with an amber ale recipe and hoping for some feedback. I wanted to add some rye, and thought the spiciness might pair well with the woodsy/piney notes of Northern Brewer and Simcoe.

6.6 lb. light LME
10 oz. rye
8 oz. Crystal 40L
8 oz. Crystal 80L

0.25 oz. NB @ 60 min.
0.25 oz. NB @ 30 min.
0.25 oz. Simcoe @ 30 min.
0.5 oz. Simcoe @ 15 min.

Kind of undecided on yeast at the moment, but open to suggestion. Nottingham? US-05?

 

[chickypad]

The rye should be mashed, otherwise I don't think you'll get much out of it. That's also a pretty small amount. I'd go with 2 lbs, if you steep at 150-156 for 30-60 min in about 3 qts of water that will constitute a mash. I'd try to use a smaller pot, then to hold temp you can wrap it in towels or put it in a oven that's preheated to 170 then turned off.

 

[drainbamage]

That works out alright, I use a smallish pot anyway since I do all my brewing on the stovetop.

2 lbs, really? Isn't rye supposed to be kept under something like 10% of the grain bill to keep from taking over? Would I need to include some 2-row to help it convert?

(I haven't brewed with rye yet, so I'm not very familiar with its use.)

 

[chickypad]

The rye can convert itself (malted, not flaked). I've been using 20-25% rye including a portion of it flaked, which is supposed to have a stronger flavor. I've tried 10% rye malt and it didn't seem that noticeable to me. Some brewers on here go 40-50% but that is probably too much for a lot of people. Two lbs at 70% conversion in your tiny mash would give about 40 gravity pts , so in that recipe you'd still be at about only 13-14 % of your fermentables. But up to you of course!