Rye Tripel (1gal BIAB)

I have never had a rye beer.  There, I've said it.  This isn't for lack of desire, so much as I haven't really seen a good quality one in my area that wasn't also an IPA (most annoying, actually).  Therefore, I set out to make my own.

Still not the best pic, I know.

I decided on a Belgian ale, primarily because that is the yeast I have available in my fridge.  It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I really enjoy Belgian ales...really.  Originally, I was going for a lower ABV% "table bier"...sadly, I seem to have failed.  Oh well....a tripel it is.  It's a bit on the dark side for a tripel--Brewtarget says that it should be 11.8SRM--but I really don't care.  The Belgian brewing culture is not hung up on style guidelines like Americans tend to be.

I decided to use one of my favourite continental hops--Styrian Goldings--in moderation, with bittering and flavour charges, but not aroma; the brewing recipe calculator says "Slightly Malty"--almost perfect.  I like the Styrian Goldings in part because I can get them as leaf hops, which I prefer (less mess).  The rye makes up a significant portion of the mash--upwards of 30%--so that I could get nearly maximum rye flavour for me to pick out.
Because this is BIAB, no rice hulls are necessary.  And this time, I actually got pictures!

Belgian Rye Single

1.5 lb pale ale (52%)

1 lb rye malt (35%)

6 oz munich 30L (13%)

1 oz acidulated malt

16IBU Styrian goldings (40min

8ibu Styrian goldings (20 min)

Ommegang Yeast Culture

Mash at 152

I heavily press my grain, and ran about a cup of hot water through to help rinse.

Strike water 162, 2 gallons approx.  Mash in settled at 155—slightly high, but acceptable.  Lost 5 degrees in the first 20 minutes.  145 at 40min, and turned on the heat to bring it up to 149.  After the 1hour mash, I brought the temp up to 170 for mash out.

Pre-boil, 1.025 at 147 degrees.  1.044 corrected.

0.25oz Styrian Goldings (3.6AA) at first wort (16.41

0.2oz Styrian Goldings (3.9AA) at 20 min. (8.61

25.02IBU

Post boil (a touch over 1 gallon) 1.046 at 155degrees.  1.072 adjusted.  75% apparent efficiency—much, much better.

11-24-15; Started.  OG 1.072.  Pitched yeast warm.

12-14-15;  SG 1.022.  Going slow.

12-29-15; SG 1.017.  Flavour is nice, though.  Can't wait for it to finish fermenting and be bottled. 

2-3-16; I bottled today, adding 1 oz of sugar, 9 12oz bottles, labeled RT.  The SG did not change. 

© John Frey, 2015. The Author of this work retains full copyright for this material.  The recipes, photographs and other contents therein may not be used for any commercial purposes.