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Talk to me about Roggenbier

Northern Brewer General
#1

So just did a test run on my buddy’s really nice, triclamped-out, stainless steel pump-fed 1/2bbl system on Sunday, and its effing awesome. Hopefully our faux pils we made will come out.

I think big systems are great for brewing big beers, so you can have a bunch to put aside and age. One style I have been dying to make is a Weizenbock. I typically do not dig hefe’s at all or dunkelweizens. However, when ‘studying’ for my bjcp, I had a bottle of Aventinus, and it was love at first sip. I want to have this ready for the crisp upstate NY fall.

Anyway to my question: I was thinking of brewing up a lower-gravity roggenbier on my ghetto brew in a bag system, primarily to grow up a big enough slug of WLP300 to ferment a 1/2 bbl of weizenbock.

Is roggenbier like a dialed-down but spicier weizenbock? I will go to my local find-any-beer-in-the-world store and try to sniff out an example, but thought I’d put it out there to the forumers.

Thoughts on the style? If you do like it, do you also like hefe’s?

#2

I got interested in a roggenbier recently when I had one at a local, brand new, brewery. Not sure how close it was to style, but I like it. I didn’t pick up any weizen characteritics, though. Acording to BJCP guidelines, moderate weizzen characteristics are typical with “banana, clove and sometime citrus” specifically called out. So, is it a Ryed up Weizen? BJCP calls it a “dunkweizen made with rye instead of wheat.” Sounds like the weizen flavors/araomas could be very typical.

I’d like to find an honest, commercial (read German) beer and try it out.

Good luck with brewing one and keep us posted.

#3

So, sittin here sippin a Rogue Roguenbier Rye. It’s good. Weizen-like and a little tart which threw me. Defiantly on the dark side in appearance. I’ll probably brew one.

#4

I have to say, I picked one of these up because I couldn’t find any other examples of a roggenbier. Really didn’t dig it. I didn’t get any Weizen yeast character from it at all. Looking at the grain bill, it looks (and tastes) really muddled. Then again, I’m not a big fan of Rogue, except their stouts.

Still going to brew one, might try to coax out a bit more yeast character by slightly underpitching or fermenting a touch warmer. Also not going to have 50 malts in it.

#5

A typical Roggenbier recipe is basically a dunkelweizen with rye instead of wheat. So basically a spicier dunkel. I quite like them, but if you don’t like dunkels you might not like it. A Weizen-bock is basically a stronger dunkelweizen, so I suppose you could indeed call a Roggenbier a dialed down spicer weizen-bock.

Be warned, rye is sticky sticky stuff. Maybe not so m uch an issue with BIAB, but my worst stuck sparge ever was a Roggenbier.

#6

[quote=“Nate42”]A typical Roggenbier recipe is basically a dunkelweizen with rye instead of wheat. So basically a spicier dunkel. I quite like them, but if you don’t like dunkels you might not like it. A Weizen-bock is basically a stronger dunkelweizen, so I suppose you could indeed call a Roggenbier a dialed down spicer weizen-bock.

Be warned, rye is sticky sticky stuff. Maybe not so m uch an issue with BIAB, but my worst stuck sparge ever was a Roggenbier.[/quote]

I don’t mind dunkels, and I don’t like hefe’s, however, I do like hefe yeast character, and I love the spice of rye. To me, hefe’s can just be flabby. Enter the rye.

“Dialed-down spicier weizen-bock” sounds frigging awesome to me. I guess my point above is basically that I didn’t really care for Rogue’s as it just tasted like a muddled up brown ale with no hefe character, but a bit of spice.

Yeah, I did my wit (+/- 60% wheat) via BIAB, and though there was a built in filter, the wheat was still a pain in the @$$ and I wish I had used rice hulls. Will be using them for sure in the Rogg.

#7

I don’t find rye to be spicy at all. It has an earthy, bready flavor all its own. A roggenbier should taste just like a hefe with clove and banana except that it has earthy bready rye, as opposed to the white Wonder bread flavor of wheat.

#8

Yeah, I suppose ‘spicy’ isn’t really the right word for it…more of a heartiness. I mean, its certainly not like a habanero in a beer, but I think there’s a ‘prickly’ kind of sensation that comes along with rye’s earthy/woodiness that people associate with ‘spicy’.

I like the Wonder Bread analogy. I think what wheat-lovers dig about wheat beers is more the texture/mouthfeel that comes along with wheat, but I am not much for most wheat-derived/forward styles, except for a well-made wit. I can knock a few of those back and enjoy every nuance of them. Maybe some summer saisons too.

Anyway, if a roggenbier is a hefe with a bigger, more nuanced, robust, and ‘earthy’ malt backbone, I’m on board.

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