Rye!

Update 3/11 - SG 1.017. Kegged with 1.75oz table sugar.
Update 3/1 - SG 1.020.
Update 2/14 - SG 1.024 and has been for a few days. Racked to secondary and fermentation jump started with WLP001 (1L starter, crashed, decanted, repitched into a second 1L starter to proof).
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One of my goals for this sack o' grain was to make a barleywine that doesn't suck. Then I got to thinking. Wouldn't a ryewine be kind of fun? Turns out I'm not the only one who thought so. I've heard of recipes ranging from 20-50% rye. I went for a solid 24% rye with 8% wheat. Shouldn't be overwhelmingly spicy, but I expect it will have enough potency to balance the caramel and honey flavors from the specialty grains. This recipe maxes out my mash tun. Rumor has it there's a fantastic oatwine out there that includes a hefty 60% oat malt bill.

Batch #53
Ryewine
--15lbs 2-row RAHR
--6lb Rye Malt
--2lb White Wheat Malt
--12oz Crystal 60L
--8oz Crystal 75-80L
--6oz Honey Malt
--4oz Crystal 40L
--2oz Crystal 120L
--4oz Rice Hulls
--1/2 tsp gypsum (infusion water)
--2oz Magnum 14.4%AA (60min)
--1oz Mt Hood 5.2%AA (30min)
--1oz Mt Hood 5.2%AA (15min)
--1oz Mt Hood 5.2%AA (5min)
--1oz Mt Hood 5.2%AA (1min)
--Whirlfloc (15min)
--1/4 tsp fermaid k (15m)
--WLP002 English Ale Yeast, 1.5C slurry from stout
OG: 1.100
FG: 1.017
ABV: 10.9%
IBU: ~75

Mash in with 29 qts water to 146F. This gives a decent water/grain ratio of about 1.15, and fills my 10gal cooler mashtun almost to the brim. The low mash temp is to make sure that I don't end up with a finished product that's cloyingly sweet. Bonus: 146F is within the range of protease activity, so the rye gets a decent treatment. Nice big thermal mass, the temp stays the same for a solid 90m mash (no wind either...too wet outside, so I was in the kitchen). Fly sparge with 10qts water at 170F. Ideally, more sparge water is needed, so my efficiency suffered some (59%), but I was running into the limits of my kettle, and with the crystal malts, I didn't want to boil too long. 60m boil, hops as noted. Cool to ~60F, pitch yeast, ferment in low 60s (don't want too much of the esters from the yeast...just a hint). I may have to add more yeast later, say after a week or so rack and pitch active WLP001 or something else hungry. That way I don't stress the english yeast too much and don't have to worry about sitting on trub and dead yeast while the ferment completes.