Beer Forum

Anyone have any experience with doing a rye pilsner? I thought about it on the way home from work today and I'm curious what it might be like. I'm thinking something low ABV, good summer drinker.

This is my initial thought:

OG: 1.036
FG: 1.009
ABV: 3.5%

4lb pilsner
2.5lb malted rye
0.5lb caramunich

1oz Mt Hood @ 30
1oz Aurora @ 5

Wyeast 2124

Alternatively, scale up the rye and pilsner to get to 4%.

Sounds like a great idea overall-

I'd ditch the caramunich and just go base malts.
It'll dry it out nicely and be much more thirst quenching. You don't need it for a really nice beer. If you want a touch of color, add dark Munich instead.

Otherwise, I'd run the numbers, target 22-27 IBUs total by adjusting the 30 min addition to zero in on the total.

Yeah, I was debating the caramunich part. I'm trying to keep it from being TOO light and thin, but the real thing against that is the rye.

The hops are calculated at 24 IBU with those additions for the AA% that I have. I'll yank out the caramunich and give it a whirl.

If you really want to use a cara malt, cararye would be cool with the malted rye.

I had considered the cararye, and I still might add a bit (maybe 4oz or something). I have found historically that the cararye gives a lot of rye flavor for a small addition. I'm not sure how strong the rye-ness should be in it. With 40% rye malt, I might just do this one without and then do it again with a bit of that in it and see which rye intensity I like better.

Even without the caramunich, the rye addition will give you plenty of body and mouthfeel needed for this style. And I would totally scale this up to a 1.045 or so.

Just FYI, Bugeater (here on the forum), makes a rye cream ale. You could also do a search for that one.

Caramunich is typically around 57 Lovibond. You will be very far from a Pils color/flavor profile if you add the typical 1/2 - 1 lb in a 5 gallon batch. It will be much more like an APA or cal common malt beer.
If you are trying to cross a Sam Adams Boston Lager with Rye, then fine. If you are trying to create a Pils profile with Rye, then leave out the caramunich.

I'm not really shooting for a style, just something easy drinking and low ABV. I enjoy the challenge of brewing under 4% and still having full tasty beers. I'll leave the caramunich out, I wasn't married to it (or anything for that matter). If I was really hooked on what recipe I was going to do, I wouldn't post it here for feedback and suggestions.

Thanks for pointing me at the rye cream ale, I'll look that up and see what he has going on.