Denny's Wry Smile

[Matt in Birdham]

A complete comedy of errors this one, pretty much from start to finish.

Recipe: Denny's Wry Smile Rye IPA AG
Brewer: homebrew4less.com
Asst Brewer:
Style: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 27.42 l
Post Boil Volume: 23.92 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 23.00 l
Bottling Volume: 23.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.072 SG
Estimated Color: 20.1 EBC
Estimated IBU: 70.6 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 74.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 74.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
3.10 kg Maris Otter Low Colour (3.0 EBC) Grain 1 42.3 %
2.00 kg Pale Malt, Golden Promise (Thomas Fawcet Grain 2 27.3 %
1.00 kg Rye Malt (Weyermann) (5.9 EBC) Grain 3 13.6 %
0.50 kg White Wheat Malt (4.7 EBC) Grain 4 6.8 %
0.25 kg Crystal Dark - 77L (Crisp) (147.8 EBC) Grain 5 3.4 %
0.25 kg Crystal Light - 45L (Crisp) (88.7 EBC) Grain 6 3.4 %
0.23 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC) Grain 7 3.1 %
30.00 g Mt. Hood [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 16.6 IBUs
25.00 g Columbus (Tomahawk) [16.30 %] - Boil 60. Hop 9 40.9 IBUs
28.35 g Mt. Hood [6.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 10 13.1 IBUs
28.35 g Mt. Hood [6.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
2.0 pkg Denny's Favorite (Wyeast Labs #1450) [12 Yeast 12 -
28.35 g Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Dry Hop Hop 13 0.0 IBUs


Mash Schedule: NO SPARGE
Total Grain Weight: 7.33 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Saccharification Add 34.42 l of water at 71.3 C 66.0 C 75 min
Mash Out Heat to 75.6 C over 7 min 75.6 C 10 min

Recipe modded a bit from the original, using up last few kg of my GP, also didn't have enough rye in the end so that was dropped from 1.5kg to 1 and made up with a little extra wheat (0.23 -> 0.5kg). I also tried to recreate 60l crystal using some 45 and 77.

I tried a beta-glucan rest with the wheat and rye and 10l of water in the herms tun, with no recirculation. Temp held well, hard to say if it did anything useful though. Heated up the other 25l of mash liquor in the kettle and pumped over at mash temp (67). Had a complete brain fart here and totally forgot to account for the 10l @ 40c that it was mixing with.. and mashed in with another 6kg or so of grain. Started recirc and the temp was 55C Recirc was slow despite the glucan rest and a few good handfuls of rinsed rice hulls - very slow, in fact, and I think it took a while to stabilise at the mash temp (15 minutes or so). Mash *still* seized up on me a couple of times, with very poor recirculation. I think the net result was an effective mash temp that was a few degrees below target - we will see after it ferments. Pump out to kettle took 40 minutes instead of the usual 5-10, and then somehow I ended up over vol and under gravity (1.056), so boiled for half an hour before the first addition to bring it in a bit - at least this seemed to work OK, and a gravity reading at that point was the required 1.060.
Boil was smooth enough, but after chilling I went to transfer to the FV and nothing came out of the kettle tap. Luckily I was able to dislodge the dip tube with a sanitised spoon and all was well. On inspection, the dip tub had a solid plug of hop trub inside that took some (blowing) force to dislodge. I didn't even know that was possible! (half inch bore). It's certainly never happened to me before with pellets, and this wasn't a super hoppy brew.
So all in all it took about 2 hours longer than normal and was quite a frustrating brew - hopefully the beer will be OK, although if I did end up mashing in the 63-4 range it could be an 8% er.
Yeast was a 2l starter of Denny's favourite. Not tried this one before, so looking forward to it.
On the plus side, heating mash liquor in my kettle and pumping over to the cooler worked well - something I might do again if I am in a hurry, as I can split the liquor between herms and kettle and effectively put 5.5kw through it.
No more rye beers for me for a while, but if I do another I will probably just use the cooler without running the herms.

Hydro sample - off the scale of my 1-60, and you can't really extrapolate down there. Refract says 1.071 so I'll go with that (roughly on target):

[Rookie]

I'd suggest using oat hulls next time, I've never had a problem with a rye beer when adding oat hulls. And I'm sure that Denny would suggest making sure you have at least 20% rye malt the next time you brew it.
I've never used that yeast, but have read nothing but good things about it.
Several breweries, including one in Finland, have made versions of this beer.

[Matt in Birdham]

Yeah I did use oat hulls -perhaps I should have used more. I thought I had more rye than I did - original recipe was for 20% but it was either use a lower % or brew less beer. Still a distinct hit of rye in the sample. I brewed this once before, a few years back, and it was fantastic - I used 1272 for that one. I'm interested to see if I can detect this "slick" mouth feel that Denny goes on about for this yeast.
I don't know what it is with me and rye - maybe it just doesn't suit my herms and the constant recirc (it seems to start OK, then bog down as the grain=bed compresses). I reckon just a simple infusion in the cooler and vorlauf & pump out with the herms would be a better bet for these sorts of beers.