Honey Rye

THE PLAN

Recently I started participating in a local homebrew club here in Vermont called the Green Mountain Mashers.  They're holding an internal club competition on style 6D - American Wheat... but substituting the wheat with rye, or at least a portion of it.  I'm kind of late in the game, but I think I can squeeze a batch in before the night they're judged, just about 6 weeks from now.  After looking into the style, I decided I'd do a 40/20/20/20 split of pale malt/wheat/rye/honey.  I'm hoping the honey will add a little complexity to the the wheat and rye, but we'll see.  I'm also opting to use a Kölsch yeast instead of an ale yeast, just to play around with the style a bit. All in all, this should be a nice crisp spring time beer that we can enjoy!

THE RECIPE
4# Pale Malt
3# Rye Malt
3# Wheat Malt
1 oz. homegrown Tettnang (60)
1# Honey (@ flameout)
10g Citra (@ flameout)
Wyeast 2565 - Kölsch

2/23 BREWDAY (night brew):
Need to get this brew ready for the 4/4 club competition, so I couldn't wait til the weekend to brew.  Shooting for a single infusion batch sparge to make things simple.
10# grain - 12.5 qts strike water - target mash temp = 152, did some scrambling with initial temps, but finally got it there.  After 60 minutes, I added 7 qts boiling water for mashout.  It only brought the temps up to 163 which I was a little disappointed in.  But whatever, not a big deal.  After 10 minutes, I did first collection:
1st runnings - collected just under 3 gallons, Brix 13.3/1.054.
Added 15 qts sparge water @ 170, after 10 minutes I started the 2nd run off.
2nd runnings - collected 15 quarts, Brix 5.25/1.021 - this seemed very very low... so I decided to only add up to 6 gallons for the boil rather than all 15 quarts.
Pre-boil - 6 gallons, Brix 8.9/1.035.  Not great, but whatever.
Boil was set for 60 minutes, added 1 oz. homegrown Tettnang at 60.  Added wort chiller with 10 minutes left.  At flame out, I added 1 pound of local honey, and 10g of Citra hops. 
Chilled to 60F, collected 4.75 of 1056 wort, decided to add a quart of water to bring it up to 5 gallons.
SG - Brix 12.3/1.049, 5 gallons, fermenting at 60 degrees.  Plan on doing this for a while, then lagering for a while as well.  Maybe 4 weeks for primary, 2 weeks for lagering?  Other way around?  Not sure yet.  Actually I don't think I have that much time, so hopefully this will finish fermentation quickly!

2/25 FERMENTATION WATCH
Been checking in on this guy... it's rockin steady in my basement at 58F.  Started bubbling within 24 hours, and is steadily chuggin away.  Hope this will finish out within a week or two so I can start lagering soon.

3/6 TRANSFER FOR LAGERING
It was nasty out today, so I decided to transfer this bad boy from primary to a keg today start lagering for the next 3 or so weeks.  Used my new hydrometer  - 1.016... not bad.

Golden-straw color, hazy still, pretty bland aroma... a little yeasty yet... really everything is pretty subtle.  Nothing really pops at this point.  Taste is fairly clean, crisp, a little sweetness from teh honey & malt... getting right to where I want it.  This could turn out pretty good.  At least a nice crisp Spring beer.

3/27 BOTTLING
Decided I better get this thing bottled if I want it to be ready for April 4th.  Gravity said 1.018, but then again it was just out of the fridge, so probably 36F or 38F.  Smells crisp from the Kolsch yeast, a tiny bit of spice, wheat, and hops... very subtle though.  The yeast is definitely overpowering everything else at this point.  Haze, straw color, might clear up a bit as it warms.  Taste is similar to aroma - very crisp at the front, smooths out to a balanced mix of hops, wheat, and maybe a little spice from the rye.  Honey really isn't overtly present, kind of hidden in the texture.   Used a little less than a cup of corn sugar to prime, collected twelve 22oz bottles, and a case of 12 oz bottles.  Wish I had a warm room to condition these in, but until I do, they'll be upstairs in one of the bedrooms next to the baseboard heater.  A week should be good enough to provide some strong carbonation, so we'll see... will probably test one a week from today.  This will definitely be a great beer to enjoy on a warm Spring day.  Lookin forward to it!

And a review by Mr. Don Osborn: