Rye

[Jayme]

Hey guys - I just made my first rye beer this past weekend from Brewing Classic styles and it got me to thinking. My dad plants a whack of what he calls 'fall rye' every year in the garden, and is going to leave a little patch to go to seed this year. I'm assuming rye is not unlike barley, and certain varieties will malt better than others. Does anyone have any knowledge on the subject or know where I might go to find some info? I did a quick google search and didn't find much.

[mr x]

If you can't find any info on malting, I would imagine you could use it raw.

[Jayme]

Yes true - I found a good brewing techniques article on brewing with rye. I guess it's not so much malting it though as I just don't know what varieties work well. I suppose the easiest thing is just to give it a shot and see how it turns out!

[amartin]

I've thought about using fall rye as a winter cover crop for my hops, and then making some roggenbier with it, but I'm a little concerned about the possibility of ergot poisoning. I think it's a bigger risk if you malt it, but you could use it raw. If anyone has anymore information on this, I'd be glad to hear it.

[jeffsmith]

Wow, I don't think I've ever heard of ergotism before. After reading up about it, that's a pretty scary disease/infection, however it's classified.

[Jayme]

Just looked at "The Home Brewers Garden" and it states that malting rye is even more dangerous than malting oats for the exact reason you stated. However, you can certainly use it raw. I'm still not clear on whether there's a difference between 'fall' rye and 'regular' rye and can't seem to really find info on that. There is a great brewing techniques article on using rye in its various forms (ie, raw, unmalted, etc) but it has nothing on different varieties in it.

[GillettBreweryCnslt]

About 3 years ago when I was living in Peterborough, ON a new micro brewery opened up, the Publican. A good friend of mine was working there in a bottling/general bitch capacity and got to taste the first few pints of any brew. The very first batch of their very first beer had a small amount of ergot in it. But before they found out they gave all the employees some to try. We met up at the bar the day or two after and he was complaining about how he drank a growler, got a stomach ache, then hallucinated for a while, andhe didn't know why. The brewery of course dumped all the beer, but a few workers got a very enlightened experience from the house IPA.

[amartin]

Do you know if it was raw or malted rye? I don't think I'll be using home malted rye, but I don't want to write off raw rye yet.

[Jayme]

I was doing some more reading last night on ergot, and it sounds like it doesn't matter if the grain is malted or not - the fungus will actually grow along with the rye on the stock and just looks like a darker grain. I found a very cool write up from the University of Hawaii with a complete history that was very informative. I'll post it later if I can find it again. Long story short, raw rye can contain ergot too and make you very sick. While LSD was derived from ergot, the additional potential side effects are likely not worth the hallucinations. Gangrene sounds just awful!

[amartin]

From Jayme's article:

"Through careful screening out of the ergot stage, ergotism is now rare. To clean Rye seeds, a floatation method has been devised. A solution of approximately 30% potassium chloride is poured over the Rye seeds and stirred. The ergot stage is buoyant and will float to the top and can be skimmed off and the seeds planted. To minimize the amount of ergot formation, after Rye has been harvested, the field is deeply ploughed so that the ergot will not germinate. A different crop can then be rotated the following year that is not susceptible to ergot, which will break the cycle of any ergot that may have survived the previous year's ploughing. Unfortunately, there has never been a variety of Rye that has been developed that is resistant to ergot."

Depending on the where the rye is planted, that could be a workable idea. However, deep ploughing is not an option in a hop field, so I guess I'll have to find another cover crop.

[jeffsmith]

You might be safer with something like winter wheat. From what I can recall (grew up on a farm) it should add some great nutrients to the soil as well if it's cultivated under in the spring.

[Jayme]

What about clover? I seem to recall reading somewhere recently it is a good cover crop for hops.