Beer Forum

Thinking about dry hopping my Rye beer with Caraway seeds. Any tips on doing this? I assume they don't have the same antiseptic qualities that hops do ... so would it be best to sterilise them in some way before they hit the beer? (I'm thinking steaming and then cracking them lightly ... if there's a need to sterilise).

Thanks.

Chunk wrote:Thinking about dry hopping my Rye beer with Caraway seeds. Any tips on doing this? I assume they don't have the same antiseptic qualities that hops do ... so would it be best to sterilise them in some way before they hit the beer? (I'm thinking steaming and then cracking them lightly ... if there's a need to sterilise).

Thanks.

just toast them in a dry pan over medium heat (keep 'em moving!) until they smell aromatic. That should more than sanitize them and make them give up their essential oils to your brew more readily.

I added mustard seeds in a secondary on a rye pale ale, and it actually came out pretty good. I just added them straight from the jar, with no sanitization, figuring the alcohol in the beer would be sufficient to fight off any slight contaminants that may be in there. I like the idea of slightly toasting the caraway, though, more to allow their flavor to come out than to sanitize.

Nice ideas ... sounds better than steaming. Thanks, I'll go with the toasting I think.

How much caraway do you plan to use for dry hopping for a 5 gallon batch? What about using at flame out? How much to use then? I've thought about adding caraway to a rye beer before but was never sure of how much. I didn't feel like experimenting and ruining a good beer by adding too much.

Rails wrote:How much caraway do you plan to use for dry hopping for a 5 gallon batch? What about using at flame out? How much to use then? I've thought about adding caraway to a rye beer before but was never sure of how much. I didn't feel like experimenting and ruining a good beer by adding too much.

It's a good question and one I don't really have an answer to. It's new territory for me, so I'm sort of playing by ear with it. My plan is to add a small amount and monitor the change by tasting samples. If it tastes strongly of the caraway straight away, I'll rack it off the seeds and bottle. If it doesn't taste at all like the seeds, I'll slowly increase the amount.

I had the same idea for a rye beer I did. Then, I noticed this on the wikipedia page for caraway:

"The fruits, usually used whole, have a pungent, anise-like flavor and aroma that comes from essential oils, mostly carvone and limonene. They are used as a spice in breads, especially rye bread. Seeded rye bread is denser partly because the limonene from the caraway fruits has yeast-killing properties."

Don't know if you'll need the yeast to stick around, but looks like caraway is a yeast killer.

I brewed a rye-caraway beer last weekend. I brewed a beer similar to an Oktoberfest/Marzen lager (looking for someting unique to go with German food during Oktoberfest). I made a 3 gallon batch for experiment purposes. 5 minutes prior to flame out I added 15 grams of caraway seeds. I chilled the wort quickly using the JZ whirlpool immersion chiller system to around 65F. Racked to a 3 gallon Better Bottle. Waited until the wort got to 47F (overnight in my chest freezer) and pitched yeast per the Mr Malty calculator. No problems with yeast staying alive. Fermentation has gone like all my lagers so far (at 50F right now). I tasted the wort prior to pitching and tasted a hint of caraway; enough so I knew what it was. If I like this and decide to go to a 5.5 gallon batch I think I wouldn't use more then 25 grams; my thought is 20 grams next time.
Hope my experience helps. I'll post once I have it kegged and lagered as to what I think about it.