Rye Shell

I just made this beer for my brother’s wedding. I wanted to make something that embodied both him and his fiancée, and I added ingredients that corresponded to both of their tastes and personalities.

My brother loves big IPAs; Wookey Jack is one of his favorites, so this obviously had to be a rye beer. He also enjoys Founders Red’s Rye, so I added a pound of Weyermann CaraRed. He’s a big, bold guy, so the malt and rye spice needed to be present.

His fiancée loves bright, tangeriney hops, so I finished the boil with some Citra and dry hopped it with two ounces of whole cone Amarillos. Good relationships are about balance, and so are good beers. I see this beer as a metaphor for their happiness together.

Here’s the recipe:

Rye Shell

Style: Rye IPA

Water:

2 ½ gallons in brew kettle, heated to 155 F to steep specialty grains.

1 gallon in separate pot, heated to 155 F for sparging specialty grains.

Grains:

1 lb. CaraRed

Extract:

9.9 lbs. Briess Rye LME

Hops:

1 oz. Chinook pellets (bittering @ 60 min.)

1 oz. Centennial pellets (flavor @ 30 min.)

1 oz. Centennial pellets (flavor @ 15 min.)

1 oz. Citra pellets (aroma @ 5 min.)

2 oz. Amarillo pellets (dry hop)

Yeast:

Wyeast 1056 American Ale

Other Ingredients:

1 Whirlfloc tab or 1 tsp. or Irish moss (added 15 minutes before flameout).

Water to add to the wort to achieve 5 ½ gallons of total volume in the primary fermenter.

¾ cup of corn sugar or 1 ¼ cups of ex light DME boiled in 2 cups of water for five minutes to prime beer before bottling.

Notes:

The original gravity was about 1.064, which is slightly lower than expected. Maybe I added a little more water than usual. It finished around 1.017, which should still make the ABV around 6.2%.

I'll do some tasting notes soon. I tried some the other day after it carbonated, and I'll say that the rye bite is definitely there. The citrusy aroma is present, but not quite as strong as I hoped for. I think I'll use pellets for the dry hop instead of whole cone hops next time I make this. The rationale for using the whole cones was more surface area in contact with the wort, but unfortunately I think they absorbed a lot of the beer and didn't impart as much hop aroma as I wanted. Still, a noble brew for two people that I care about very much.