Style Details

Name
Rog­gen­bier
Cate­go­ry
His­to­ri­cal Beer
BJCP Style Code
27 A8
Appearance
Light cop­pery-oran­ge to very dark red­dish or cop­pery-brown color. Lar­ge cre­a­my off-white to tan head, quite den­se and per­sis­tent (often thick and rocky). Clou­dy, hazy appearance.
Aro­ma
Light to mode­ra­te spi­cy rye aro­ma inter­mingled with light to mode­ra­te wei­zen yeast aro­ma­tics (spi­cy clove and frui­ty esters, eit­her bana­na or citrus). Light spi­cy, flo­ral, or her­bal hops are acceptable.
Fla­vour
Grai­ny, modera­te­ly-low to modera­te­ly-strong spi­cy rye fla­vor, often having a hear­ty fla­vor remi­nis­cent of rye or pum­per­ni­ckel bread. Medi­um to medi­um-low bit­ter­ness allows an initi­al malt sweet­ness (some­ti­mes with a bit of cara­mel) to be tas­ted befo­re yeast and rye cha­rac­ter takes over. Low to mode­ra­te wei­zen yeast cha­rac­ter (bana­na, clove), alt­hough the balan­ce can vary. Medi­um-dry, grai­ny finish with a light­ly bit­ter (from rye) after­tas­te. Low to mode­ra­te spi­cy, her­bal, or flo­ral hop fla­vor accep­ta­ble, and can per­sist into aftertaste.
Mouth­feel
Medi­um to medi­um-full body. High car­bo­na­ti­on. Modera­te­ly creamy.
Over­all Impression
A dun­kel­wei­zen made with rye rather than wheat, but with a grea­ter body and light finis­hing hops.
Typi­cal Ingredients
Mal­ted rye typi­cal­ly con­sti­tu­tes 50% or grea­ter of the grist (some ver­si­ons have 60-65% rye). Rema­in­der of grist can include pale malt, Munich malt, wheat malt, crys­tal malt and/or small amounts of debit­te­red dark malts for color adjus­t­ment. Wei­zen yeast pro­vi­des distinc­ti­ve bana­na esters and clove phe­nols. Light usa­ge of Saa­zer-type hops in bit­ter­ness, fla­vor and aro­ma. Lower fer­men­ta­ti­on tem­pe­ra­tures accen­tua­te the clove cha­rac­ter by sup­pres­sing ester for­ma­ti­on. Decoc­tion mash tra­di­tio­nal­ly used (as with weissbiers).
Histo­ry
A spe­cial­ty Ger­man rye beer ori­gi­nal­ly bre­wed in Regens­burg, Bava­ria. Never a wide­ly popu­lar style, it has all but dis­ap­peared in modern times.
Comm­ents
Rye is a hus­kless grain and is dif­fi­cult to mash, often resul­ting in a gum­my mash tex­tu­re that is pro­ne to sti­cking. Rye has been cha­rac­te­ri­zed as having the most asser­ti­ve fla­vor of all cere­al grains. It is inap­pro­pria­te to add cara­way seeds to a rog­gen­bier (as some Ame­ri­can bre­wers do); the rye cha­rac­ter is tra­di­tio­nal­ly from the rye grain only.
Com­mer­cial Examples
Thurn und Taxis Roggen
Ori­gi­nal Gravity
1.046 - 1.056 SG
Final Gra­vi­ty
1.010 - 1.014 SG
Color
14 - 19 SRM
Alco­hol
4.0 - 6.0 %vol
Bit­ter­ness
10 - 20 IBU