movet22

Recipes 

I'll be brief, as these seem to be pretty straightforward questions for a 5 gal batch...

1. I am slightly confused about when I should add my hops to my full volume boil. Do I add them as soon as the wort begins to boil, or do I wait for the boil off to bring my batch down to ~5 gallons and then add them? (If I go with the latter, won't I boil off more wort during my 60-90 min boil, and thus be under 5 gal?)

2. I was at my LHBS yesterday and one of the owners was telling me about adding rice hulls to my grain bill to promote the natural filtration. (a) is that going to alter my character/flavor/color/ect? (b) if not, how much should I add to the grist and should I be doing it for every batch?

Thanks guys!

mredge73

Recipes 

Bittering hops usually need to boil for at least 60 minutes. For just bittering, put them in as soon as you get a rolling boil. For bittering and flavor, put them in at the first runnings before the boil starts.

Rice hulls do not contribute anything that I am aware of as far as flavor goes. They are used to help with filtration, mostly in high adjunct and wheat grain bills.

iowabrew

Recipes 

like said above, i've used rice hulls in every high wheat & adjunct bill with no contributing flavors. you will need to account the rice hulls in with the total grain as far as absorption goes.

movet22

Recipes 

Gotcha. Thanks for the info guys!

deezy

Recipes 

If you use rice hulls; soak them in water a bit before throwing into your mash. It will rinse the dirt off them and they won't be able to absorb so much of your wort in the mash.