Little Rye Porter

It seems as if the season's cold weather is drawing to a close.  The grass is greener, buds have appeared on the trees, flowers have sprung forth, and the hop bines are already getting unruly (more on that soon).  As welcome as all of this is, it doesn't forestall DeAunn's love of dark, malty, roasty beers.  Couple that with my ongoing efforts to stick a proverbial fork in my sack of Weyermann rye malt, and we return to the mold of one of my first brews since the move: the rye porter.

This time around, though, I wanted to lighten things a bit for the warmer times ahead; there's plenty of body from using rye as a base, so my aim was for a lower-gravity brown porter over the amped-up robust porter style I made in the fall.  Rye was, of course, the base for this iteration, with brown malt again providing the main toast/roast components.  A little chocolate rye intesified the roast while keeping the rye theme (though I can't say I've noticed a massive difference between normal chocolate and the rye version), and some light crystal added a touch of sweetness and rounded out the body.  With a single bittering addition and a shot of Denny's Favorite slurry, this made for a fairly simple porter recipe that will hopefully hold its balance.

The lauter was, as expected, on the lugubrious side, though far from out of control; I've pushed it with rye and learned my limits, thanks.  Fermentation was a breeze, and this one's already nearly a week overdue to be bottled.  While it's not necessarily the first thing you might consider as as a springtime brew, there still seem to be a number of stouts around still from St. Paddy's, so it's not too far out of bounds.  Besides, for its intended audience--my porter-loving wife--it's the right beer at the right time.





Little Rye Porter

Batch size: 5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.051
Projected SRM: 24.9
Projected IBU: 22.4
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 89%

Grains/Fermentables
63.2% - 6 lb Rye malt
21.0% - 2 lb Brown malt
10.5% - 1 lb C 20
5.3% - 8 oz Chocolate rye

Hops
.5 oz Nugget (12.4%) (60 min)

Yeast
WY1450 Denny’s Favorite 50 (slurry)

Water additions
6 qts RO water

Brewday: 18 March 2012
Mash: 154F for 50 minutes
Pre-boil volume: 6 gallonsPre-boil SG: 10.6P (1.043)

Ferment at 66F ambient

Bottled: 21 April 2012
FG: 1.020
ABV: 3.9%
Bottled gallons with 2.7 oz table sugar

Tasting notes: The rye gives substantial body and character to this small beer.  This is a session style of which I approve.