Atypical Wheat Brew Help

I'm in one of the beer hating regions of the world right now, but I think I got together everything I need to make a sort-of all grain wheat beer.

If you guys could look over the ingredients I have on hand, my plans, and tell me what the problems are and how to fix them, it would be a huge favor to me.

Check the list of ingredients:

13 lbs of whole raw wheat
4.5 lbs of crushed wheat
3.5 lbs of malted wheat flour with malted wheat flakes
Columbus hops
Ale yeast

Zymogen tablets which each contain:
25 mg lipase
30 mg amylase
35 mg protease
50 mg pepsin
50 mg dehydrochloric acid
50 mg hemicellulase

I've never done a wheat beer or tried to germinate such a large amount of seed. But what I've read says wheat beers are usually about half barley because wheat lacks the enzymes to convert the starch to fermentable sugar. I also read that some wheats are created with unmalted wheat.

I bought the enzyme tablets to pick up the slack on converting starch to fermentable sugar. Wheat also has a bunch of proteins which make the mash real thick, and I think the tablets will deal with that too.

My plan is to mash with a 15 min rest at 104F to break up some glucans, a rest around 125F to break up proteins, a rest at 140F for b-amylase, and a 160 rest to let a-amylase do it's magic. Then a 60 minute Boil to denature any remaining functional enzymes.

I have no idea on the amounts of any of the ingredients, especially the Zymogen.

I know my ingredient list sounds ridiculous, but it is what's available.

Any ideas? Telling me I'm way off target isn't going to hurt my feelings.

I've never used 100% wheat, and I've never used those tablets - so sorry I can't comment intelligently on your recipe. I just wanted to say that you should make sure you throw some Rice Hulls (at least 1lb) in your mash, or else you will probably get a stuck sparge.

I don't think I can find any rice hulls here. Would any cellulose material do the job? As in lettuce leaves or similar?

Or would steeping the grains in a mesh bag prevent that?

Flycal6 said:

I don't think I can find any rice hulls here. Would any cellulose material do the job? As in lettuce leaves or similar?

Or would steeping the grains in a mesh bag prevent that?

Click to expand...

Yes, steeping in a bag would be the way to go to prevent it. I don't know about alternatives for Rice Hulls. That's all I've ever used when I mash with something that might give me stuck sparge. I'm just speaking from my own equipment, which is a false bottom and I don't use a grain bag.