Raw wheat!

Ok, making a 65 G lambic, well need 30 lbs of raw wheat, so im ordering a 55lb bag! the thing is, raw wheat is SUPER hard, and we dont wanna mess up our equipment grinding it down, so were gonna get it premilled! is there any way to store 25 lbs of milled wheat for a year? vacuum sealed maybe? thanks for any ideas!

Better find out how they're milling it. For many places, when they mill it, they are making flour.

The soft white winter wheat I get from our local hippie grocery for my lambics and wits I have to mill 3 times. If they are milling it for you be aware that you might have to run it through your own mill another time or two before you are happy with your crush. If they are charging you to mill it I wouldn't bother, I have ran more than 30 pounds through my Monster Mill and it didn't even flinch. I did have to put some extra tension on the belt to keep it from slipping, but it didn't do any damage to the mill.

Get 30# milled - store 25# unmilled and figure it out in a year or sell the 25# (milled or not) at cost to another brewer (CL would do wonders here I'm sure...)

We are getting it from North Country Malt, I am assuming their milling should be adequate. The reason we are looking to get it milled is the pilot/starter batch I did, really proved that milling raw wheat is a tough nut to bust. I only used 3 pounds, and it taxed my drill. I cannot imagine this with 35 Lbs. It would burn out the motor for sure. I think the question is, would we notice a significant degradation of product if we vacuum seal and freeze some crushed raw wheat for a year?

Ryan_PA said:

I think the question is, would we notice a significant degradation of product if we vacuum seal and freeze some crushed raw wheat for a year?

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I doubt it, I have used flour that is over a year old in cooking before and it was fine. Air, moisture and bugs are really the only thing that could hurt it...so if you vacuum seal it and keep it cool it should be fine next year.

And since you are using a drill it probably is a good idea to get it premilled. You still might want to run it through again, because raw wheat isn't all fluffy like barley malt. But even if you do, having it initially cracked would make it a hell of a lot easier on you and your drill.