Why Rye?
American brewers did not discover the joys of brewing with rye. German brewers have made roggenbier for several hundred years. According the German Beer Institute, brewers traditionally used a grist that was half malted barley combined with wheat and rye. The style has survived, with Paulaner making one of the wider distributed roggens. Brewers in Russia and Finland also make traditional rye beers from the grain.
Rye is not a friendly grain for brewing,” Buckowski notes, saying his cellarman is not a big fan of brewing Terrapin Rye Pale Ale. “Brewing with rye kind of gums up the system,” he says. “It is kind of like quicksand.”
Rees agrees with the assessment, pointing out that rye does not have a husk like other grains and the soft kernel can cause trouble as brewers try to move the beer from the mash tun to the kettle. “We add rice hulls to the brew. They add stability to the mash bed and help prevent clumping in the screen,” Rees says.
Andrew Marshall started homebrewing in 2000 and launched Black Market Brewing in Temecula, CA, in 2009. BMB Rye IPA uses 21 percent rye in the grain bill and is a “major pain” on brewing days.
We thought wheat was a hassle, but rye is something else,” Marshall says. “Rye is gross and sticky. Anything it can do to make your brew day miserable, it will do.” So why does Black Market Brewing use rye?
Rye has spiciness and an herbal quality that we really like,” Marshall says. “We brew an American IPA with rye and Amarillo and Cascade hops. I wanted to use hops that would let the spicy aspects of the rye come through.”
All of the work paid off for Black Market Brewing, earning the brewery the gold medal in the rye beer category at this year’s Great American Beer Festival. Marshall had been looking forward going to the Denver festival as a professional brewer for the first time and receiving “all-access” credentials to the big event. But, ironically, the demands of brewing kept him 1,000 miles away in Temecula.
We just wanted to participate in the GABF. We had no realistic hopes or dreams to win a medal,” Marshall says. He sent a couple of brewery representatives in his place.
It was pretty unbelievable,” Marshall says. “A little bit after two in the afternoon my cell phone started to go crazy. I was getting messages and calls saying we had won the gold medal.”
You might not get the message at first, but the chances are with the growing number of brewers going to the trouble of producing this style, your next beer just might be a rye brew.
