bRYEnRYEs Ale & Penny Biere

Brew Day 5/26/12

Re-do of the Rye Amber from the previous weekend.

After brewing up a split batch of Rye Amber wort as a Bret fermented funky brown and a clean American Amber Rye with coffee, I didn’t feel satisfied that I had accomplished what I originally wrote the recipe for… A solid, plane old, moderately sized and hopped Back Yard Beer… and a nice and easy “table Belgian” for the holidays this winter. So I brewed the same recipe again the next weekend with the help of my Father in Law, Brian.

 bRYEnRYE’s Ale- (American Amber Rye)-I set out to make something that would appeal to all drinkers of good beer. Easy, satisfying, simple- the Everyman’s beer. A nice amber color, a dry raspy finish, a well rounded hop profile, and enough bitterness to satisfy the lupulinophile in all of us. This is meant to be a riff on my first favorite craft beers, the ones that got me hooked.

Penny Biere- (Belgian Ale: “Copper Single”)-I love the great fruity and spicy phenols and esters that darker colored Belgian beers seem to have a monopoly on, but I find most dark Belgians- Dubbles right on up to Quads- are often taxingly sweet and too boozy to enjoy without taking notes. I like the idea of having one around that is a bit easier to drink, but is still yeast-forward in that great Belgian way. Also, I think the dark-fruit and clove and ginger spice notes in abbey ales are a great partner for holiday weather and food, so I plan on sitting on this until Thanksgiving rolls around.

The brew day went exceptionally well, we hit all of our target temps, volumes, and even hit a higher than usual efficiency of 68% (which meant a batch yield of almost a whole extra gallon). I’m really looking forward to what should be a solid-ass beer.

The Recipe (for 9 gal): **Planned on 8, but the water in Salinas was a great fit for the pale-amber grain bill, so the efficiency was up 5%.**                                                     
14 lbs Marris Otter-70%
3 lbs Rye Malt-15%
1.5 lb Special Roast-7.5%
1.5 lb Crystal 120L-7.5%


Whole batch got 1oz Nugget for 60min boil

Brian hard at work

BnR got 1oz each Palisade, Cascade, and Willamette for 15min boil
BnR got 1oz Cascade, 1oz Willamette, and 2oz Palisades at F/O
Penny got 1oz Willamette at F/O

**I diverted 4.5 gal of wort into .5 gal ice water at F/O to bring the Penny Bier to my target lower gravity and IBUs, and to be able to give different F/O hop dosages to each beer**

BnR got 1 Packet of Safale US05 “Chico” dry yeast.

Penny got 1 vile of White Labs WLP530 “Abbey Ale”- The Westmalle strain.


Single infusion mash at 150F

Batch OG (before splitting and adding water): 1.050=68% efficiency
bRYEnRYE’s OG(4.25 gal after boil): 1.051 FG:-- 1.013= 5%ABV
Penny Biere OG(after splitting wort and adding ~2l water): 1.049 FG:--
SRM: 16ish
IBUs: 45ish BnR, 30ish Penny Bier

5/27- Chico yeast is going strong. Abbey is a little slow to start. Reckon I under-pitched thanks to the larger than planned volume.

5/28- Both bubbling away.

6/4- Activity on Penny has stopped. Brian has the Chico carboy.

6/7- Penny @ 1.012

6/12- Transfered Penny to purged Better Bottle to free up the bucket for a Dark Mild.

6/15- Penny is bubbling away again! Starting to form a pellicle too... Lesson learned on re-using plastic that has housed Brett. The carboy was used previously for Swamp Thing, so this is def a Brett L infection. Oh well, time to rethink this one.

6/24- Added the dredges form a bottle of Supplication to Penny. I'm going to plan an additional couple of gallons to top up the carboy on this and add some raspberries and oak. Next year hopefully I'll be sittin' on a tasty sour. 

8/26- Topped up the Penny Bier carboy with a quart of pure Blackberry purre and about a 1.5 gal batch of OG1.060 Amber Dry Malt Extract.

8/19- BRYEn'RYE's is just OK. Nice balance, but a wierd metalic finish that is throwing it off.