Rye Farmhouse Session Ale – Recipe Development & Brew Day

The homebrew club I’m in runs an annual competition focusing on a particular attribute. The range is wide, but the quality is outstanding. Last year was focused on sour beers, for which I entered a rather shoddy oak smoked saison using a mix of Philly sour and a saison yeast to produce low acidity. This was my first competition, so I wasn’t super hopeful, but it has spurred me on to be more refined with my entry for this year. 

2025 will be focused on rye beers, which once again is wide open to interpretation. There is no minimum percentage of rye required, but we’ve agreed loosely that rye should be a contributing factor.

Recipe Development:

This time, rather than starting with an abstract idea of what I want the beer to be, I’ve focused on what rye contributes (body, spice, earth, and colour) and how I can complement these features within a recipe. 

Farmhouse beers often contain malted and unmalted non-barley varieties, and rye is particularly common. Years back, I experimented with rye in a saison to make something a bit dark and sweet, adjacent to a Belgian double. I really liked the way rye contributed to the flavour and how it played with the yeast profile. I’ve also read a bit about how rye can be very useful in brewing table and session strength beers, as it can provide a lot of flavour and body. So, making a lower ABV farmhouse style seems like an ideal place to integrate rye. Here is my recipe:

Volume: 10L

OG: 1.033

FG: 1.005

ABV: 3.64%

IBUs: 21.19

SRM: 4.57

Water:

Mineral Water

My first brew with Tesco Ashbeck water was a cream ale which I tried recently, and it finished up rather clean and crisp. The water may have only been a small factor, but I’m feeling encouraged to stick with it for the next few brews. Also, as there is no general water profile for farmhouse style beers, I can get away with not putting too much thought into it with this recipe.  

Malt:

1 kg – Crisp Malting – Finest Maris Otter – 66.7%

0.25 kg – Crisp Malting – Rye Malt – 16.7%

0.25 kg – Simpson’s – Malted Rye – 16.7%

Two main varieties of malted rye available from my regular supplier are suitable as base malts. They both sound similar in regards to flavour and body, but wildly different in terms of colour contribution. Crisp Malting’s rye malt has an EBC of 25, whereas Simpson’s malted rye only has 4. I’ll be using both equally to make up 33% of my grist. My theory is that, if the Crisp’s variety is more like a Munich malt, then I won’t risk adding too much body acidity and sweetness. Viceversa, if the Crisp’s has a more muted rye character, then the Simpson’s has me somewhat covered. 

At 33% malted rye, I think I should achieve robust rye flavour, but I’m aware that at high percentages there can be lautering and sparging issues. To mitigate these, I’ll be doing a loose mash and no sparge, so I am not so reliant on filtering the grain bed. I’ve also had the grist milled to a fine crush, which should help too – but I have not included any oat husk or rice hulls to aid filtration. 

Usually, in a saison, I’d consider using a pils type malt combined with either a pale ale malt or even a touch of Vienna or Munich to add a little depth to the malt character. In this instance, though, I’d like to keep things simple and complement the rye with a single base malt. For this reason, I’ve chosen Maris Otter, as I hope the more malty biscuit character will be a better base to complement the rye. I also feel more comfortable running this with only a 30-minute boil than I would with a pils malt, which will make brew day a little quicker. 

Hops:

20 g – East Kent Goldings – 30 min

10 g – East Kent Goldings – 10 min (+ 5 g of yeast nutrient)

For the hops, I want to complement the earthy and spiciness of the rye, so this leads me to look at classic British hops. East Kent Goldings famously gives marmalade notes, which I feel are right at home in this beer, and a British variety isn’t too far out of style. I usually like my saison style beers more on the bitter side, but I’ll be dialling this back to around 20 IBUs to keep the focus more on the malt. 

Yeast:

WHC Farmhouse Vibes

I’ve had some pretty good results from WHC Farmhouse Vibes as it has a broad temp range, so I’ll revisit this. I believe this is somehow sourced from the Dupont strain, so we can expect classic peppery, fruity and earthy esters that I think will complement the rye and EKG.   

Usually, I write and post my recipes ahead of brewing, but my ingredients arrived earlier than expected and I had a free weekend to brew sooner than I had thought. Here are my notes:

Mash:

I mashed into 10 litres of mineral water heated to 66 degrees Celsius and then used my power drill and paddle attachment to stir intermittently. Throughout the hour of mashing, the temperature held strong and I recorded highs of 68 and lows of 64.  

Sparge: 

I didn’t run a sparge on this batch, as I chose a large single infusion with fine grist to help with filtration. Instead, I sieved the mash and collected around 8 litres of wort with a pre-boil gravity of 1.041. 

Boil: 

I boiled the wort for 30 mins with a first-wort addition of 20 grams of EKG and 10 min addition of 10 grams of EKG, along with 5 grams of yeast nutrient. 

Cooling and Yeast Pitch: 

I cooled the wort in the sink for 20 mins, then added the wort to my bucket fermenter along with 4 litres of fridge temp mineral water. I aerated and recorded a temperature of 26 degrees, an original gravity of 1.033, and 11.5 litres of volume. I proceeded to pitch most of a pack of WHC Farmhouse Vibes. 

Overall: 

I’m happy with this brew day, I hit my target gravity and produced slightly more wort than intended. The wort was tasting pretty good, not particularly thin with a decent bitterness. I did perhaps overpitch my yeast and it was a bit hot, but fermentation kicked off quickly and the ambient temperature has stayed consistent over the first couple days. I’ll be sure to follow up with a part two once the beer has finished fermenting and conditioning.