Recipe: Ryght Time Roggen Place

Our second-annual Homebrew Summer program had such a fantastically high level of participation from San Diego County breweries—with over 30 of them taking part—that we’ve had to extend it into the fall. So you can keep checking back to San Diego Beer News each week for homebrew-scaled versions of popular beers from local brewing companies, as well as recipes from homebrewers that are being produced on a professional scale and put on tap around town.

The last time we checked in with Jacob Gottlieb and David Lord, the homebrewing duo was bringing their oatmeal stout to life on Culver Beer Co.‘s pro system in Carlsbad as part of Homebrew Summer. Fast-forward a few months and they were at it again, this time with Jim Connor and their collaborative recipe for a rye-heavy German-style roggenbier, which will be right at home at the bastion of Old World beers styles where it was brewed on a pro level, Deft Brewing. The beer, Ryght Place Roggen Time, will make its debut on Wednesday, October 12, but you don’t have to wait to peruse the recipe!

We chose the roggenbier recipe from Jacob, David and Jim for a number of reasons. We already knew these guys from previous visits to Deft and through QUAFF (Quality Ale and Fermentation Fraternity homebrew club) connections–I’m still a member of QUAFF, although not so active these days–and we knew the recipe was going to result in a really good beer. The roggenbier is a historical German style that fits right in with Deft’s focus on traditional and sometimes hard-to-find styles originating from Germany, Belgium and the British Isles, and this particular style is still fairly rare to find at breweries or even bottle-shops around town. Finally, we had done a roggenbier in Deft’s early days, with decent, but I’d call it ‘uninspired’ results, and we wanted to do another one that would make us much more proud. This recipe of theirs looked great and with a couple tweaks, mostly related to ingredient availability and equipment or process limitations. We came up with a final recipe that definitely honors their original recipe. This is a really fun beer with some of the uncommon rye character–that peppery kick–coming through in a subtle way, but not in a ‘liquid pumpernickel bread’ sort of way, as it is nicely balanced by the dry finish and the hefeweizen yeast character of light notes of banana and clove. It’s unique and very tasty, IMHO.”

Mo Nuspl, Owner & Brewmaster, Deft Brewing

The roggenbier, a German weizen-style rye beer consisting of a grain bill of up to 60% rye malt, is a beer style that many may not be familiar with. The recipe for Ryght Time Roggen Place was a collaboration between Jacob, David, and I to improve upon an old recipe by incorporating previous competition critiques. Receiving positive feedback from people who tried the beer, we entered the beer as part of the Homebrew Summer program. There was an open discussion and collaboration with Deft on how to best adapt the recipe to their system using some of their core ingredients and we believe the adapted recipe is a great representation of the original recipe. Though it took a while to find a time that worked for all, we finally met with Mo and Head Brewer Peter Howson in mid-September to bring the beer to life on their system. We are excited to share our collaboration and hope that everyone will come out and try a pint or two of this unique style of beer that is rarely brewed on a commercial scale.”

Jim Connor, Homebrewer