Belgian Wit - Protein Rest Required?

I'm brewing my first all grain Wit and was wondering if anyone had thoughts on doing a protein rest as part of the mash. The grain bill includes:

5 lbs Belgian Pils
3 lbs White Wheat malt
2.25 lbs Flaked Wheat

Thanks for any advice!

With that grain bill it's not really all that necessary but it would help a little. Basically, everything I've been reading lately says unmalted grains such as flaked wheat or flaked oats should have a protein rest and that it will increase efficiency. So far the only beers I've made since getting my own grain mill that have come in under efficient are my Belgian Wit's, since I've not yet done a protein rest with them and they use about 4.25lb flaked wheat and about a pound of flaked oats.

I have ingredients coming and will do a protein rest when I brew it up two weekends from now. Your recipe has only 2.25lbs of Flaked wheat and no oats so I don't think it's really necessary. If you'd done all flaked wheat for the wheat portion I would say yes it would help.

BTW, your grain bill is just a tad on the heavy side for a wit. I put it in Beersmith and even with a 75% efficiency it comes out to a 1.057 OG. The SRM also tops the color range at 4.0 SRM also. I do mine about a pound less, usually around a 9.25lb grain bill or so. Nothing wrong with the way you're doing it of course. Good luck!


Rev.

The protein rest helps with sparging the wheat and unmalted flaked grains as well as helps with head retention, which in a wit, is definitely needed to help get that huge frothy head.

I might suggest rice hulls to aid in your sparge and efficiency. Flaked grains get a bit gummy and the hulls help a lot. I don't think you'll miss that extra rest too much.

I would like to concur that your batch is small and it might not be needed. However, I always play it safe when I use wheat. I dough in low, and do a protein rest for 30 minutes with wheat. Then I ramp it up to 155ish.

I have used 50% pilsner and 50% flaked wheat. I definitely recommend using rice hulls and run off slow, slow is better than not at all. It came really great but if you use that much pilsner use a 90 min boil

Good Luck

bschot said:

I have used 50% pilsner and 50% flaked wheat. I definitely recommend using rice hulls and run off slow, slow is better than not at all. It came really great but if you use that much pilsner use a 90 min boil

Good Luck

Click to expand...

I assume you're talking about DMS reduction, but there's no need to boil 90min unless you want to. I typically do 80 or 90% pils for saisons with a 60min boil, and I don't boil Berliners at all (although I'll concede that the microbes may reduce DMS in that case).

Thanks to all who offered advice!
I skipped the 'Rest'. We'll see how it goes...

Cheers