JohnG's Homebrew: RYEPA All Grain Brew

RYEPA All-grain recipe

I absolutely love rye whiskey, so I thought I'd give a rye infused brew a try. This recipe from NB seemed to call to my name, although I decided to tinker with it and back-load a bit more dry hops into the secondary. I went with a blend of hops, Falconer's Flight 7C's. Fingers crossed for a smooth takeoff!

I got this all grain kit from Northern Brewer:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/

Taken form an official NORTHERN BREWER Instructional Document (The blue text is my notes).

With a reddish-golden hue and a good balance of firm body and lingering bitterness, this brew is a showcase of both hops and grain. The fruity/floral notes of Palisade hops are a perfect complement to the spicy flavor of rye malt.

O.G: 1065 READY: 6 WEEKS

Suggested fermentation schedule:

-- 1–2 weeks primary; 2 weeks secondary;

2 weeks bottle conditioning

MASH INGREDIENTS

-- 9.25 lbs. Rahr 2-row Pale

-- 3 lbs. Briess Rye Malt

-- 1 lbs. Briess Caramel 40L

-- 0.25 lbs. Briess Caramel 80L

MASH SCHEDULE: SINGLE INFUSION

Sacch’ Rest: 152° F for 60 minutes. (Note: Strike water 170F, Grain 61F, 13q SW added, temp eq at 149F let sit for first 30min then added 2q boiling water to get 152F for the last 30 min. Total 16q added to mash).
Mashout: 168° F for 10 minutes. (Note: Added 6q boiling water but only hit 157F... would need too much volume with this high grain bill so will just leave it at 157F for 10 min.)

LAUTER

Recirculated for 10 min before collecting wort.
Sparged 22q of 170F water, and collected 6.5 gal of wort in 30 min.

BOIL ADDITIONS & TIMES

(Note: 30 min to boil).

0.75 oz. Warrior (60 min)
1 oz. Palisade (15 min)
0.5 oz. Palisade (5 min)
0.5 oz. Palisade (dry hop) (Modification: Skipped the 5 min Palisade addition and was going to moved it to 1oz dry hop, but decided to go big on hops and added 2 oz of Falconer's Flight 7C's from Hop Tech. )
Boil time 65min. Used wort chiller for work min until the temp read 69F.

YEAST

LIQUID YEAST OPTION:

Wyeast 1056 American Ale.

Temperature Range: 60–72° F.

FERMENTATION

Just shy of 5 gallons made it into the fermenter.
Refractometer says wort is 12.1 Brix or 1.045 O.G.. lower than the recipe estimates (1.065).
Aerated for 30 sec with forced oxygen.
Pitched yeast at 72F (packet activated for 1.5 hrs... a little short)

Temp D1 70F, D2 70 to 68F, D3 68F-fermentation slowed, D4 66F-fermentation over.
Racked to secondary after 8 days. Dry hopped in a bag one week into the two weeks in the secondary (boil the bag for 10 min to sterilize, makes bottling easier.). Three days before bottling I placed the fermenter in a cold room and dropped the temp to 56F.
Bottled after two weeks in the secondary and let the beer carbonate for 11 days at 68F. FG 1.008 5% alcohol if you go by the refrac or 7 by the recipe. I think my refrac is giving low readings compared to my new hydrometer, which is spot on with the recipe, so I'm ditching the refrac.
The beer had a nice hoppiness balanced by a dry nutty body, delish. The body is a bit light, so would add more to the grain bill or mash at a higher temp next time. Also, the dry hop wasn't as robust, so I think I'll stop using the hop bag. Lots of haze as well, so I'll try some whirlfloc in the boil or polyclar 10 in the secondary on my next brew and see how that affects the clarity. After a week or so in the fridge the haze is starting to settle and the cleared part tastes much better (less bitter more hoppy) so with patience I think this beer will turn out good. The brew was hazy from the mash, which was low temp, so maybe this is a case of starch haze. Will treat a bottle with amylase and see what happens.... and nothing did so maybe grain husks? A few more weeks with more settling and the beer flavor is improving.

Update: After 2 months in the fridge some of the haze has settled out and the beer tastes quite good now! It's a very creamy ale with a nice hoppiness to it.

PRIMING SUGAR

-- 5 oz Priming Sugar (save for Bottling Day)

Delicious!