Mario Rubio

Rye ask Rye, Try Bud Rye?

Don’t let the title scare you, there is no Bud Rye, at least not that has been publicly announced. I did think it was fitting to mention “The King of Beers” when starting a discussion on adjuncts. In case you hadn’t guessed, I’m talking about rye.

Rye is a huskless grain and in the brewing process is similar to wheat. This can be good and bad, as rye has a tendency to muck up the lauter and be a bit of a hassle to work with. That being said, it’s becoming one of the most popular adjuncts used in brewing with craft brewers.

Personally, I’ve always liked rye beers. They seem to be more full flavored and satisfying. One of my friend even tells me he gets less of a hangover from rye beers. While this can’t be proven, I think it’s best we assume it as fact until proven otherwise. On second thought, a splitting rye hangover the next day may not be the best way to disprove a theory. Let’s move on.

To better understand rye I set out to try a handful of rye beers and see what the journey taught me. I thought the best place to start would be Bear Republic Brewing Company, the only known brewer of a 100% rye beer.

Bear Republic Rye Pale Ale and Roggenbier

While EZ Ryder wasn’t available to try that day, I was able to find two other rye offerings, the Rye Pale Ale and Roggenbier. In the pale ale I got a spiciness that added a sharpness to the hops. This wasn’t a soft or rounded out beer by any means, but one whose rough edges were brought out. With the Roggenbier I got a rich malt flavor and nothing like I experienced with the rye pale ale. So far the rye experiment was producing differing results.

Part two of the rye tasting involved sitting down with a friend and going through another selection of rye based beer. On this afternoon we had three Bay Area representatives of the rye brewing scene: Ale Industries Rye’d Piper, Bear Republic’s Hop Rod Rye and He’Brew’s Lenny’s Bittersweet R.I.P.A.

Ale Industries Rye'd Piper, Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye, He'Brew Lenny's RIPA

Each of these beers had their own style to them, making a comparison of the use of rye even more difficult. The Rye’d Piper was rich and robust with flavors of milk chocolate and rye jumping to the front. Surprisingly this beer uses only 4.9% rye malt. Brewer Morgan Cox notes the use of carafa malt as working together with the rye to bring out such rich flavors, unlike anything I’ve tasted in a beer.

Hop Rod Rye is possibly one of the more famous of the rye based beers. The flavors here are similar to Bear’s pale ale: sharp. The hops are accentuated by the spiciness of the rye leaving an almost metallic character that plays off of the caramel and toffee malt flavors. Hop Rod Rye uses 18% rye malt in the recipe, astonishing when compared to the less than 5% in the Ale Industries brew.

With He’Brew’s Lenny’s R.I.P.A. the hops are less pronounced with the malts and rye stepping to the front. Slightly sweet, the rye fades back in with the rest of the malt in a very “Shmaltzy” way, adding chocolate and caramel flavors that seem to act as a heavy base on which the rest of the beer sit.

In the end, rye proves to be surprisingly versatile. From light to dark, sharp to soft, rye can add a distinct flavor to a beer that can’t be achieved any other way. Some may expect the flavors they have become familiar with in rye breads, but in brewing, there is an ability to bring out other sides of this grain. With 5 beers down, I was only able to scratch the surface of rye in brewing, but hopefully this provides some sort of introduction to an adjunct that is becoming increasing popular.

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