A-maize-ing Rye Pale Ale

18 November 2018

In which we play with a new toy and new to us ingredients!

The great thing about brewing, there is always something new to try out and learn. In this case, it was our new instant read thermometer and brewing with flaked maize.

My husband was lead on this brew, so he ‘drove the bus’ on recipe and decisions.

We wanted to experiment on our favorite brew so far. Our Rye-Pale-Ale, was the result of several accidents, so we wanted to deliberately put it together this time.

2.5 Gallons of Rye Pale Ale

Amount	Type	Ingredients
1 lbs	Base Grain	Pale 2 Row
2 lbs	Specialty Grain	Flaked Maize
1	Specialty Grain	Rye
15 g	Hops	Lemon drop- Flame out
28 g	Addition	Chopped Ginger-Flameout
15 g	Addition	Sweet Orange Peel-Flamout
15 g	Hops	Citra- Dry Hop
	Yeast	California Ale WLP001

Our new digital instant read thermometer was a massive improvement form the cheap candy thermometer we had been using previously! Highly recommend it as an upgrade. The top of the line is thermos-pen which retails at . Ours was a much more affordable amazon purchase. Probably not as durable as the other items, but something to upgrade.

Using flaked maize was also new. Not going to lie, it does not make for an appetizing mash. I didn’t take a picture, on purpose. Just a fair warning to those of you trying it, its normal to look that gross. Also, the flaked maize holds onto water very, very well. Lots and lots of squeezing was required to get the sugar out. Sparged the heck out of it and squeezed the sticky, sticky bag.

We wanted a fairly mild beer, so lemon drop hops at flame out, and then we plan on dry hopping with Citra.

Tasting Notes

This was a relatively mild beer, with almost no hop bitterness. The high proportion of rye kept the beer from getting overly sweet or cloying. Ginger was relatively subtle, creating a light sharpness. I preferred the original, to which my husband never wrote down the recipe!

Looking forward to lots more experimentation.