Rye Pale Ale

Grain Bill / Fermentables

  • 4 lbs Pale 2-Row
  • 2.75 lbs Munich
  • 2.75 lbs Victory
  • 1.25 lbs Malted Rye
  • 1 lb Honey Malt

Hops

  • 1 oz Magnum (13.3 AA)
  • 1 oz Fuggle (3.5 AA)
  • 1 oz East Kent Golding (4.8 AA)
  • 1 oz Cascade (6.3 AA)
  • 1 oz Amarillo (8.6 AA)

Yeast

  • White Labs WLP001

Gravity

  • OG 1.062
  • FG 1.015
  • ABV 6.21%
  • IBU 36.24
  • SRM 13

Brew Day

Heat 5 gallons of water to 154°. (2 gallons filtered Dover city water and 2 gallons of distilled water to reduce sulfates.)

Gently dough in grains until all grain is covered by water. Adjust mash ph as necessary.

Mash grains at 143° for 30 minutes. Heat an additional 2 gallons of water to 163° during this time.

Add the remaining 2 gallons of 163° water, bringing your mash temperature to 153°, assuming minimal heat loss during the first 30 minute rest.  Hold mash at 153° for an additional 30 minutes.

Remove “grain bag“, rinse and allow grains to drain.

Bring wort to a boil for 15 minutes.

Add 0.5 oz Magnum hops and continue boil for 15 minutes.

Add 0.5 oz Magnum hops and continue boil for 12 minutes. (This is a good time to drop in the wort chiller.)

Add 0.5 oz of each Fuggle, East Kent Golding, Cascade & Amarillo hops and continue boil for another 3 minutes.

Remove from heat source and reduce wort temperature to 68° and take OG reading.

Sufficiently aerate and transfer to primary fermenter.

Pitch yeast starter.

Allow beer 2~3 weeks in the primary to adequately ferment and cleanup any diacetyl produced during fermentation.

Transfer to secondary for 1 week adding remaining 0.5 oz of each Fuggle, East Kent Golding, Cascade & Amarillo hops for dry hop.

Bottle and wait another 2 weeks…

Enjoy!

Notes:

  • July 1, 2017 Brew Day
    • Attempting a step mash and short boil for this batch.
  • Pressure in the airlock after 3 hours.
  • Vigorous activity after 12 hour, raising fermenting bucket temp to 74°.  Dropped it into a water bath to get the temp closer to the ambient room temperature of 68°.
  • 48 hours and still seeing a steady stream of bubbles in the airlock.
  • 72 hours and visible activity (bubbles only, this batch is fermenting in an opaque bucket) has dropped to 1~2 bubbles per minute.  Vessel temp is 68°, matching ambient room temp.
  • July 16th, transferred to secondary and added dry hops.
  • July 21st, bottled. The sample tastes amazing flat.
  • It would be fun to try this again with Wyeast American Ale II 1272.