Red Rye Ale

I have a coverted 50 litre keg,
I do BIAB.
An esky as my fridge and 2x15 litre jerry cans. Pretty ghetto but actually been making pretty decent beers
Doesn't have to be fancy to work well , i started out on the stovetop with a Kmart stock pot and made beer good enough to serve to a few state and national champs :cool: now i make better beer and i'll try my best to take those ribbons from them !

With BIAB you don't need to worry about a stuck sparge so can do things the 3V guys can't
 
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4.3% C-75
4.3% Caramunich I
.5% Roasted barley
With 2-row as a base malt
boiled 90 min.
Just to give you some ideas.
 
For those considering Red X, be aware it is not used in small amounts to turn another beer red. It is a blended malt that is designed to be used as 100% of the grist to reach 11-13° of color, or can be thinned out with pilsner to 11-13° in a higher gravity recipe. I believe it uses melanoidin for color which might not be a flavor you want in a non-German style red.
 
Huh, I had just assumed that it would do that for me. . . .
Will look into it for sure.

From my observations, the formula either doesn't take mailliard into account or isn't very accurate with it. It's a factor of time and temperature, so the effect is greater in denser worts or longer boils. The former affects me as I boil thick and dilute afterwards for gravity and volume. Anything amber or red I need to shoot 1-2° lighter in the calculator for the desired result.
Ultimately, the shape and size of the glass has an equally important impact on perception of color. If you overshoot darknesss, pour in a tall, thin glass. If it's a little light, a wide glass will make it look darker. A pint glass or other fluted shape should draw out a red hue somewhere if you're in the ballpark.

have read that small amounts of roast barley will lend colour and not flavour, so that is what I am hoping for here, saying that I might pull it back a little bit.

For color without flavor, use a huskless malt (Midnight Wheat, Blackprinz) or a de-husked malt (Carafa Special I/II/III). The husk contains all the heavy bitterness and astringency from dark roasting.
 
I don't do subtle .... I like my hops to smack me in the mouth and my rye to be front and centre .
It can cause problems through the mill and getting a decent grain bed to set but at that % you should be fine

LHBS double mills the grains for me and I brew in a bag so no worries there.
Yeah well I don't see the point in calling a beer a red rye and not have it be the star in the beer
 
From my observations, the formula either doesn't take mailliard into account or isn't very accurate with it. It's a factor of time and temperature, so the effect is greater in denser worts or longer boils. The former affects me as I boil thick and dilute afterwards for gravity and volume. Anything amber or red I need to shoot 1-2° lighter in the calculator for the desired result.
Ultimately, the shape and size of the glass has an equally important impact on perception of color. If you overshoot darknesss, pour in a tall, thin glass. If it's a little light, a wide glass will make it look darker. A pint glass or other fluted shape should draw out a red hue somewhere if you're in the ballpark.



For color without flavor, use a huskless malt (Midnight Wheat, Blackprinz) or a de-husked malt (Carafa Special I/II/III). The husk contains all the heavy bitterness and astringency from dark roasting.

My boil is very, very soft, like just turning over, that's actually why I always boil for 90minutes, Would that mean that the Maillard reaction is less than it could be? or is 100c, 100c no matter how it is staying there?

I have used Carafa III before and really liked it, I might try midnight wheat to see what all the fuss is about though.

Cheers
 
My boil is very, very soft, like just turning over, that's actually why I always boil for 90minutes, Would that mean that the Maillard reaction is less than it could be? or is 100c, 100c no matter how it is staying there?

I have used Carafa III before and really liked it, I might try midnight wheat to see what all the fuss is about though.

Cheers

Note there's Carafa and Carafa Special. Special is the de-husked version.

Boiling temperature is a fixed temperature at a set concentration. Plain water boils at 100. Wort full of sugar actually boils hotter than 100, and as water boils off and further concentrates the sugars boiling is hotter still (and happens faster at more rapid boil as more steam is released). It's only a couple °C difference between 1.00 gravity and 1.10 gravity but over the course of 60-90 minutes it's enough to slightly affect color. In dark beers you'll never see it but in light beer or the red zone you may want to take it into account.
 
I brewed this last Friday, she is fermenting away nicely, I went a little lighter on the darker malts, decided on Galaxy and Nelson Sauvin for hops ( brew store was out of both !!! ) so just got 100grams of Citra, going for a single hop brew, I heard Nail Red is hopped with just Citra so ..... fingers crossed. I will post pictures and "review" when it is ready.
Also I just became a paying member so you will probably be seeing more of me!!

Cheers
 
I brewed this last Friday, she is fermenting away nicely, I went a little lighter on the darker malts, decided on Galaxy and Nelson Sauvin for hops ( brew store was out of both !!! ) so just got 100grams of Citra, going for a single hop brew, I heard Nail Red is hopped with just Citra so ..... fingers crossed. I will post pictures and "review" when it is ready.
Also I just became a paying member so you will probably be seeing more of me!!

Cheers
Looking forward to it swish oh I would love to do a Galaxy/nelson sauvin combo! They are both Stella hops and both from down south hemisphere doesn't mean their any cheaper closer to home though they have a large following no matter where you go:).
 
Got some poor quality photo updates.
Colour is perfect thank you for the advice to pull back on the SRM.
As it is I think it's decent for the style but I think that the 25grams of Citra yet to go in will finish it off nicely.

Edit : can't get the photos to upload :/
 
Got some poor quality photo updates.
Colour is perfect thank you for the advice to pull back on the SRM.
As it is I think it's decent for the style but I think that the 25grams of Citra yet to go in will finish it off nicely.

Edit : can't get the photos to upload :/
Make sute their under 1mb and will be all good i crop mine down till inder 1mb max file size and shes all good.
 
I find the easiest way to resize (on my iPhone) is to email pics to myself.
 
They are now both under 100kb.
I will try again when the beer is ready and carbed up, I hope mods don't mind me bring threads back to life like I always do.
 
For anyone interested this is the finished product:

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Some Tasting Notes ( I'd take with a grain of salt )


Appearance: Darker than I wanted but still well within the Style Guidelines.
Pours a great thick compact head, retention not fantastic but it never dies away completely. Probably the clearest beer I have made.

Aroma: Fruity, Can't really pick out anything else. Maybe very light Passionfruit, No Malt that I can smell or Rye, There is another aroma there that is stronger than the rest that I am not familiar with, maybe it's the Rye, It's nice, not offensive.

Flavour: Starts sweet, Malt finish, Ever so slight drying on side of palate. Background Citrus flavour

Mouthfeel: creamy without being overly heavy, Well Carbonated almost to the point of effervescent, I think the beer would feel much heavier without it

Overall: By Jove, I think I have made a pretty well-balanced beer. It is slightly malt forward with the hops taking a backseat but they are there for sure. I don't think I would change anything, Maybe except adding more rye to try and get a better feel for it. Sucess!!!!
Cheers
 
Rye tends to lend a certain spiceness, with a crisp/edgy flavour, but not unpleasent so. I have tried both Rye IPAs, porters and Rye Saison and all have that very light, crisp, delightful flavour, which makes them absolutely easy to drink.
 

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