Strong Rye

I have made this and it is good. I was a little concerned when bottling it because when I tasted the remnants, there was a a heavy caramel then grapefruit flavor and my initial thought was: that doesn’t work.

Remnants are only semi-useful when predicting a beer though; they’re too warm, non-carbonated and frequently have a bit of yeast and malt sludge mixed in due to the fact that the brew has been handled a bit before bottling. As a result I try not to get entrenched in an idea about a brew and take that initial sampling as more of a: what might this be like?

The most relevant thing about the beer now is that the grapefruit and caramel switched places. I know how that sounds but nevertheless, now the beer has grapefruit notes, then caramel and it makes a world of difference when talking about the drinkable qualities of the ale.  There isn’t much of a hop nose on this beer, so I’m taking that as a lesson that some hops are better as bittering agents.

Let’s get to the recipe, shall we?

Brew Date: 6.29.11

Steeping malts:
1.25 lb C40
.25 lb Rye

Fermentables:
7 lb LME
1 lb dry malt extract

Hops:
1 oz Citra (already used in dry hopping IPA) @ 60
.5 oz N Brewer @60
1 oz Ahtanum @ 15

Yeast:
Reused-WLP008, 3rd use

OG:
1.068
FG:
1.018
TG:
1.027
ABV: 6.51%

2ndary on 7.25

According to my notes, I had to add quite a bit of water to this one, once I put it in the carboy. Seems like a lot of water got lost between the kettle and the carboy and adding some water is standard but I recall having to put in quite a bit, maybe even two gallons’ worth!

Still, all’s well that ends well.