Rye Irish Red?

Beer Recipe Design
1

Okay so I’m formulating a recipe as a tribute to my late stepmother, and it will be my first brew on my current setup at home. A little background, she was mostly Irish and English with a little German, had red hair, a fiery personality (in a good way) and was one of the sweetest and most caring people I’ve ever known, perfect for my dad. So as a tribute the beer style will be an Irish Red, and I was thinking as an interesting twist I could use some rye and perhaps some hops with some spicy character. My question is how will this mesh with the traditional Irish Red ingredients. Here’s what I came up with, lemme know what you guys think:

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Little Fighter Red Ale
Brewer:
Asst Brewer:
Style: Irish Red Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications

Boil Size: 14.88 gal
Post Boil Volume: 12.18 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 10.04 gal
Bottling Volume: 9.30 gal
Estimated OG: 1.054 SG
Estimated Color: 14.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 21.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.8 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:

Amt Name Type # %/IBU
18 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 78.3 %
8.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 6 2.2 %
2 lbs Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 2 8.7 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Carared (20.0 SRM) Grain 3 6.5 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 5 2.2 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 4 2.2 %
2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 Hop 7 17.3 IBUs
.75 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 20.0 Hop 8 3.9 IBUs
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 0.0 Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz Sterling [7.50 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 10 0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 11 0.0 IBUs

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 23 lbs

Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 28.75 qt of water at 163.7 F 150.0 F 75 min

Sparge: Fly sparge with 10.45 gal water at 168.0 F
Notes:

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EDIT: Also, the 20 min adition of EKG is supposed to be 1 oz not .75 haha :cheers:

2

Not enough rye! If you want to taste the rye, you’ll need to use at least 4 lb. Otherwise it will be buried beneath all the other ingredients. Rye has a very subtle flavor. In my experience it is NOT spicy like everyone thinks. It tastes like bread, but a somewhat different kind of bread. Like if you made bread with oat flour, you would expect it to taste different from when you use wheat flour. Same kind of thing. Rye has it’s own unique bready flavor. But it’s NOT spicy. It does NOT taste like caraway seed. So, if you want to be able to taste it, use a lot. I would go as high as 6-8 lbs to be able to taste it. 2 lb will be buried.

Other than that, it sounds like a great plan and recipe. Enjoy!

By the way… throw in a handful of rice hulls as well, to prevent a stuck mash. Rye is VERY sticky!

3

Thanks for the heads up, I wasn’t sure what would be too much or too little. I could kick it up to 4 lbs but cut the MO by 4, I want the gravity/ABV to stay close to the same. I feel like that would be enough. I have tasted plenty of Rye IPAs, most recently Green Flash’s Road Warrior. It’s so tasty, and I agree it’s not spicy in the sense of peppers but it has a taste that is hard to describe. And I definitely will be adding rice hulls! Thanks for the reply good sir :cheers: