Crystal Rye Pale Ale

[John Sand]

As noted, I bought a pound of Crystal Rye. I have since ordered 5# of Rye Malt for future Rye Pale Ales. So now I think I will make a 2.5 gallon batch of Crystal Rye Pale. Maybe a partial mash or extract+grains, no other crystal, no Munich etc. Just a half pound of CR plus whatever it takes to get me to 1.050. For bittering I'll use whatever I have most of, unless one of you sages advises me otherwise. I have plenty of Cascade, Centennial, Columbus, some leftover Warrior, Cluster, Horizon and Chinook.
What say you?

[MadBrewer]

Columbus has become my go to bittering hop for a lot of hoppy beers. But if it were me I might use some Warrior along with it for bittering. I also have been wanting to use some Chinook for late hops, I dont think I ever have or even tasted them. Never used the Crystal Rye or a lot of Rye at all for that matter. How much do you have of each hop?

[John Sand]

This will be a small batch, an ounce of anything will be more than enough. I do not intend to use finishing hops in this batch. I just want to profile the Crystal Rye. I can dry hop it after if I like.

[mashani]

The rye went nicely for me with Simcoe.

Columbus / Chinook are maybe closest stuff to that you have.

I used a couple of ounces in a 3 gallon batch (all late addition, lid on hop stand, etc.). IE more like an Crystal Rye APA.

[John Sand]

I have plenty of Simcoe too. Would you share your recipe?

[mashani]

Basically the last time I did it, it was similar to what you said, except I used a little bit of chocolate rye too because I had leftovers to use up and I didn't care if it was darker colored and had small hints of roasty. Because those go nice with the "toasty" you get from the Crystal Rye.

So, for 2.5 gallons it was I think 6oz Crystal Rye, 1.5oz Chocolate Rye, and 3# of MoreBeer Extra Light LME, and 4oz of dextrose (because MoreBeer Extra Light doesn't ferment out as dry as I like as compared to their pilsner extract). So it was in the low 1.05s. My normal process if the hops are 10%+ AA in such a beer would be to throw 1oz in @10 or @15 and 1oz in @flameout, and do a lid on hop stand (without any active cooling for 20 minutes, then chucking my pot into an ice bath to get it down to 140 or < before I took the lid off and started a chiller or top up with ice cold water or both). But basically variations on this theme are what my basic pales look like, just with different malts and/or hops all the time because I like variety. Sometimes I do 1/2oz @20 or @15, 1/2oz @10, 1/2oz @5, 1/2oz @flameout or some variation. I can't say what is better, I just do it based on the AA of the hops figuring an extra 10 minutes of utilization for each addition. I also always throw the hops in commando, and do not strain them, they end up in the fermenter. 2oz of commando hops doesn't clog my spigots, it's the sweet spot for that. If I go more then I run into trouble and have to auto siphon sometime, so I like getting as much flavor/aroma out of those 2oz as I can in an APA. Hence that process I settled on. I don't feel the need to dry hop these beers usually, although you of course can.

My experience doing that is I'm getting a hop utilization as if I added the hops at more like a 20/10 schedule depending on how hot my house is, because the wort stays hot enough for that much isomerization, but I get a lot more flavor and aroma that sticks around. And with 2oz of high AA hops that puts you right into the right AA range for an APA even though you didn't have a traditional bittering addition.

[John Sand]

Thank you.

[John Sand]

Brewing a version of this right now. 5.1# pale malt, .5# crystal rye for a three gallon batch. I plan to use 1oz cascade @40 for bitterness. If it wants any other hop flavor I'll dry hop it in the keg. This is really a test batch for the crystal rye, so I'm keeping it simple. My temptation was to use a spicy hop to pair with the rye, but I just want bitterness, and I have plenty of cascade.

[John Sand]

We are drinking this now. Well, yesterday, not right now, it's only 10 am. I have given samples to an experienced homebrewer, a couple of craft beer fans, and my wife. Everyone agrees that it is a good, easy drinker. The brewer thought it similar to an ESB. It is copper colored, slightly spicy and balanced. I think that if I used finishing hops, they would be spicy, but the beer stands well on it's own. I may make it again.