100% Rye Malt Brew

[roastquake]

Hello homebrewers, so I am friends with some farmers who have given me a very generous price on a very large amount of rye. I'm going to run out of bulk barley malt soon, and while it isn't very painful for me to buy more, this excess/shortage situation has got me thinking of alternatives.

I've had great success malting wheat from these folks before, and I'm sure I could do the same with this rye. I'm wondering if anyone has ever brewed something with 100% rye malt, or even as high as 75%:

what flavors can I expect?

how is the diastatic power of rye malt?

should I shoot for over-modification or under-modification?

Suggestions for hops?

Suggestions for styles?

Any suggestions are welcome, except for "don't do it," curiosity already has the better of me, I'm going to do it. I already know the implications of rye being a huskless grain, rice hulls, yadda yadda. I know about the "gummy mash" and how to prevent that too.

Thanks in advance ya'll, HBT is awesome!

 

[cheezydemon3]

AWESOME!!

100% rye would be spicey (?) from what I have heard, but you gotta do it......I guess.....

 

[kingwood-kid]

Briess Rye's DP is 105. I'm guessing that malting it yourself would give you a much smaller number, but if you hit 1/3 of that, you'd be fine to brew. I made a beer once with maybe 70% rye. It looked like milk and was not enjoyable to drink. My cautionary tale not withstanding, good luck!

 

[stillbrew10]

Just made a few small test batches of 60% rye, 40% marris otter pale ale. One batch was with Nelson Sauvin only and one with Pacific Jade only. IMHO, the Nelson one was better. We also got our batches pretty clear. If you like the taste of rye (as I do), try it! Rye at high levels should work.

 

[roastquake]

Briess Rye's DP is 105. I'm guessing that malting it yourself would give you a much smaller number, but if you hit 1/3 of that, you'd be fine to brew. I made a beer once with maybe 70% rye. It looked like milk and was not enjoyable to drink. My cautionary tale not withstanding, good luck!

What made it unenjoyable, was it flavor or appearance? Did you step mash? I've made a good wheat beer that was cloudy in a way that made me not want to look at (it was kind of milky like you described), my solution was to drink it out of a ceramic coffee mug.

 

[kingwood-kid]

I'm sure the appearance was a contributing factor, the way you say "if it looks like that, it can't possibly taste good." But I'm pretty sure it would have tasted bad out of a coffee mug, ceramic stein or red solo cup. I don't remember the details of the recipe or the flavor, but it was sharp in an unpleasant way. Perhaps step-mashing and cold-crashing would have removed some of what I didn't like. If it doesn't work out, there's always rye bread.

 

[BadMrFrosty]

I made a 60% pils %40 rye brew, flavour OK but had the viscosity of cough syrup. If that's your thing go ahead, if not use less rye!

 

[dannypo]

Check out Basic Brewing Radio and Basic Brewing Video. James did this a couple times. He described the beers as having the viscosity of cough syrup.

 

[BeerGrylls]

Well since this thread is now in fully necro, I might as well chime in. I was curious and watched the basic brewing video that dannypo suggested here: http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=may-28-2012-reuben-deconstructed and the beer talk begins about a third of the way through.

They suggested that a BIAB is almost a necessity since there's no husk to act as a lautering filter. Also, he suggested a protein rest, because there was a lot of protein slime in the fermenter. They said it was pretty tasty, but the problem was the 'snotty' mouthfeel. If the protein rest, or something else like irish moss, whirlfloc, agar, or gelatin was able to help it, I'd be curious to try it.

roastquake: so what were your experiences?? You never came back to comment.

 

[oconnorshomebrew]

In my experience, beers with large quantities of rye get really thick and viscous. Personally, I don't care for the mouthfeel. It's not something I would discourage from, as I'm sure it would be a learning experience.

 

[roastquake]

Haha I love that 3 people decided to zombify this thread at about the same time. It was an incredible failure! Here's why:

1. It was too hot for malting, the grain grew mold. Now that the weather is milder, I'll try again.

2. I dried and mashed it anyway, using a new electric burner that caused scorching of the grain (that was actually because of a thick mash, subsequent mashes have been fine)

3. Stuck lauter, who woulda thunk it!?!? Yea I used a bunch of rice hulls and did the beta glucan rest, so who knows... easy fix though, I just dumped the mash into my mesh bag and BIAB'd it.

4. As if there wasn't enough to discourage the continuation of the brew, I brewed it anyway! STUPID IDEA!! all the samples tasted scorched so I dumped it. basically I wasted time, hops, rye, and yeast, and all I got from it was frustration (and I guess experience/education).

Being a hard-headed jackass, I'm still going to try again but I will be much smarter about it this time. The weather is perfect for malting right now. I'm going to start with a BIAB setup, so no stuck lauter and no scorching!

Thanks for checking up

 

[Bsquared]

If your going to try it again, keep in mind rye had a lot of beta-glucans, and the enzyme ,beta-glucanase, that breaks these down is inactivated at temperatures above ~120ºF. So you will want to do an extensive beta-glucanase rest at 100-105ºF to break down as much of these as you can, or you will end up with a sticky snot like wort that will be next to impossible to lauter.

 

[roastquake]

If your going to try it again, keep in mind rye had a lot of beta-glucans, and the enzyme ,beta-glucanase, that breaks these down is inactivated at temperatures above ~120ºF. So you will want to do an extensive beta-glucanase rest at 100-105ºF to break down as much of these as you can, or you will end up with a sticky snot like wort that will be next to impossible to lauter.

How extensive? My beta-gluc rest was 20 minutes

 

[Yooper]

whatsleftofyou (from this forum) made a beer that was something like 60% rye. It was, um, interesting. I could finish a glass, but my husband took one sip and wouldn't take another!

It was very spicy, thick, and unusual. I wouldn't go over 40% on the first try, just to make sure the beer is at least somewhat drinkable.

 

[roastquake]

I'm gonna take a one gallon BIAB approach next time, so if I do have undrinkable beer (doubtful, I truly drink anything) at least it will only be a 6-pack or so. My goal for this experiment is to not buy malt and only use the grains that are readily available in my area at feed prices, and right now I have a buttload of rye.

edit: I'm also gonna do the same thing with wheat, corn and sorghum

 

[Cider123]

100% corn is good in another fashion. But that is bad to talk about.

 

[Bsquared]

I don't really know how long you should do a Beta-glucan rest for for a 100% rye mash. I did a 40% rye beer recently and I did not do a beta-glucan rest on it. But I was able to feel that the wort was thick and slippery, so I'd imagine you should be able to monitor the viscosity of the mash as you go.

 

[emsroth]

How did the beers go?

I just brewed a 50% rye beer with the alt yeast. It also had 2 lbs of raisins which really helped to dry the brew out. It's almost cidery. There is a strong lingering bitterness in the finish that doesn't seem like hops (probably the rye). This beer is also the color of milk, but quite possible a product of pectin haze. A truly experimental, radical beer. I'm definitely making it again next Christmas, but I'll reduce the rye to 25%.