still_stirrin wrote:
Mashing rye is another ballgame all together.
Rye is very high in beta-glucans, and if that sounds like "glue", it should. Beta-glucans are long chain carbohydrates that make the mash very viscous and sticky. A gluconase rest where the enzymes reduce the glucans is key to mashing with rye. But the rest temperature is lower than a protein rest temperature. The enzymes are more effective around 90-95*F. You need to do the glucan rest before the protein rest.
I have never attempted a 100% malted rye mash. But I have done several 60/40 rye/barley mashes. And I ALWAYS do a glucan rest with rye. If not, the runoff is so sticky and viscous that I can't sparge it. Rye makes a "spicy" beer and I'm sure that the character in a distilled product would be similarly spicy. A 100% rye may be too much, it would be for me at least.
I suggest starting with not more than 50/50 rye/barley and always do a glucan rest. See how that works first before raising the rye percentage.
ss
SS thanks for the comment. Before attempting the 100% rye, I did a ton of reading on the subject and bought a bottle of small batch 100% rye to make sure I liked it. I agree it is a bit spicy for my taste but a friend of mine likes it and wanted to try it. He's an all grain beer brewer so between us I figured we could do it. We used his RIMS system with a very thin mash to keep and raise temp after the mash in.
Glucan rest is what I meant. From what I read, around 110-113F was a good rest to do if doing a single rest. we did this and it was thinner, but still thicker than I was used to. Maybe we should have done the rest at a lower temp like you suggested and done multiple rests.
Before this, I had done a 68% Corn, 28% Rye and 4% Barley mash and didn't run into any issues not doing a rest. 100% Rye is a different animal. It will be my last attempt at a 100% rye. Not worth it in my opinion. I may end up having to buy another heating element.
Luckily only half the mash got scortched. I didn't attempt to run the other half. What I think we will do is make a bourbon mash of 68% corn/16% rye/16% barley, which I have made and aged before with good success, and mix it together with the 100% rye leftover. This will hopefully give us a rye spice that is not overwhelming and a more complex taste. From my calculations we will have a final grain bill of 51.37% Rye/39.37% Corn/9.26% Barley. We will see how it goes!
