non-malted grains

I am looking to make a beer from none malted grains a wheat beer or something I can use grains that are locally grown? can this be done does anyone have any type of recipe?

Whew, drop a comma, period or something in there my friend. Local grains are a challenge, most not designed for the brewing hobby. You can always order online if there's no LHBS. That and finding the right grain mill (assuming you don't have one laying around) would be an added challenge. There are some folk here that might be just crazy/advanced enough to go the route you intend.....

sorry about the punctuation. we own a grain mill, so that would be a problem

typically even wheat beers are at least 50% barley and I think the wheat is still malted... maybe not but there's still barley in there.

There's a byo article on malting your own grain, not worth it imo, but still.

http://byo.com/feature/284.html

I believe you can use some malted grains to convert the sugars in non malted grains. Something on the order of 2 lbs 2 row to 6-8 pounds barley or rye. This is done doing a different method of obtaining alcohol. Look here www.homedistiller.org for more info. There is a discussion forum there you could ask questions on

No malting = no enzymes = no conversion = no sugars = no alcohol.

Best case, you might be able to get by with using some (half?) of the non-malted grains, in conjunction with regular base malt. Might want to use 6-row instead of 2-row (slightly higher diastic power). Still, I have no idea if a beer made mostly with unmalted grains would taste decent at all; there's a big flavor difference between malted and unmalted barley.

Paging Dr. Malt! Paging Dr. Malt!

The malting process creates the enzymes needed to convert starches to sugars. Your other choices are adding concentrated enzymes, Aspergillus oryzae (used in sake making), chewing the grain to add enzymes or fermenting on the grain. The latter two are chancy.

I've heard of a brewery in Korea (brewing traditional European/ American beers) which is using largely unmalted grains. It was came up as a digression during one of the Brewing Network interviews with Chris White, if I remember correctly they are using something like 70% unmalted barley. I think the brewery Modern Time Jeju Brewery, but they don't seem to have a website... you might try calling them (international calling charges may apply).

As the others already mentioned, you need some malted grain in the grist to convert the starches into sugars. How much? Depends on the diastatic power of the malt used. Or you need to add some additional enzymes. But then we are already talking grain alcohol. Wrong forum.

A nice beer to use some non malted grain would be a classic American Pilsner. Search for that and/or cereal mashes.

And yes, this is not really for brewers who just start out. Not only is the mashing more complicated, large amounts of adjuncts, which non malted grains are, can also lead to fermentation problems.

Kai

Don't forget the Belgain Wit - typically 50% pilsner malt and 50% unmalted wheat.

I would only use unmalted wheat in Belgian beers, like Wit and Lambic.

thats what I was thinking something along a wit

Thinking about it you could probably use a fair amount of unmalted grain as a base as long as you had a high enough DP and are able to do an extended step mash. It is all theoretic but I could see good beer coming from a 75% unmalted grist.