Making a wheat beer

So today I went to a new store. I found some wheat that I think would be great in a beer.
Questions:
First can I use it?
Next how do I use it?
Also do any of you have a recipe that I could use?
Here is what I found

I would really like to use one of them if not all of them in a beer. Please let me know what you guys think.
Thanks.


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I doubt you could mash as is since it hasn't been malted. I believe that You can boil it to gelatinize the starches and effectively make flaked wheat to then mash. It has been a while since I read anything about this so definitely do some more research before throwing it in a pot on my word.

I think you certainly can.

It appears to be soft white wheat berries at top. SWMBO bought a 25 lb bag of it, and I tried them.

I don't have a mill, but she said the BlendTec claims it can crush grains so I tried it. It didn't crush them and doesn't seem to have any sort of setting to do so. I used the pulse button, which pulverized quite a bit of it since it was leaving so much of it unscathed despite doing small portions at a time.

I brewed with it and got about 70% efficiency in one brew (wheat beer), and another hit ~72.5%. I only used small amounts (1.75 lbs in wheat and 0.5 lbs in other). I used 2-row too.

One of these days I'll get a mill, but until then I'll continue to use a little in some of my brews.

Mmmm sounds like I could use it. It would be cool. Do you have a recipe I could try? I mean I'll have to go to the brew store and buy hops and yeast but the wheat I could almost for free.


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You can use unmalted wheat. You just have to mash it with some malted grain. A 50/50 mix of 2-row and wheat will work just fine.

You need a mill to crush those grains though. If you don't have one, that is pretty much the end of that plan.

BTW - your local brew shop assuredly has wheat for sale too, and probably cheaper than that, and they will mill it for you.

Well ****. I don't have a mill. I'm going to the brew shop this weekend so I'll get some stuff there. I was only thinking of using that stuff because it's grown local.


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If you're really determined but don't want to sink money into a mill, you could use a rolling pin. But I'd definitely mix the unmalted grain with malted grain. There are enzymes that develop when you malt that are necessary for making beer. Without it, you'll make something... it may even taste like beer, but it won't be the best thing you've ever made.

How does blending it a bit, such as how I had done, work with it?

It obviously worked to some degree as my efficiency numbers weren't too low.

It wouldn't do so well with barley I wouldn't think, but maybe ok with the wheat berries and possibly the rye?

The wheat berries we have are too hard for a rolling pin, and I even tried a mallet to no avail.

The recipe I have, if you are still interested, is for a honey wheat. I didn't use a whole lot of wheat berries as it was my first try with them, and I do partial mashes BIAB. It's great! And I'm not a wheat beer fan.

I'm a wheat beer fan. May I see your recipe?


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My latest one was intended to be a bit heavier than a standard wheat. It breaks beyond what ought to be an American wheat.

Hard Hopped Honey Wheat
6 gal partial mash/partial boil

3 lbs wheat DME
2.25 lbs honey (FO)
1.75 lbs 2-row
1.75 lbs soft white wheat berries
0.5 lb honey malt
0.4 oz (ea) Willamette and Mt Hood @ 45 mins
0.8 oz (ea) Willamette and Mt Hood @ (both) 20/5 mins
WB-06 dry yeast

1.053/1.008
5.9% ABV
30 IBU's
4 SRM
70% eff

I'm guessing the honey fermented lower, which is why I got a FG of 1.006 instead for ~6.2% ABV.

I made this stronger as we will be moving soon, and being busy won't have the time to just enjoy some beer.

Typically I make this closer to 5.2-5.6% ABV and with closer to 20 IBU's.

This didn't come off as being nearly 30 IBU's. I'm not sure if it's due to 2 gals of top off water or plenty of honey.

Thanks it looks pretty good to me. Maybe I'll brew a batch and let you know how it comes out.


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One question what temp did you mash in at?


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I always try for 153-4*. At that time I had my pot on the burner set to a lower setting and stirring every 5 mins or so. It could also play a part in my lower efficiency #. Hard to say.

That's what I was going to say just wanted to ask.
So it's pretty good to drink you say?


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SWMBO and I both enjoyed it! It didn't come across as being as strong as it is, but after a few there is no doubt.

Ever try (I know, I know) Blue Moon's Honey wheat? Not too dissimilar.

I've used more honey than this (3 1/4 lbs IIRC) and it turned out a bit thin (6 gal batch).

My previous batch was a try at a honey cherry wheat, which turned out exquisite! And I hate cherries! Care for it instead?

I'll just post it.

4.8 gal batch

4 lbs wheat DME
1.5 lbs honey malt
1.5 lbs honey (FO)
0.4 oz Willamette (4.7%) @ 50/15 mins
WLP 320

1.052/1.015
4.9% ABV
15 IBU's
7 SRM

The FG was much lower at 1.007. It was certainly much higher than 4.9% ABV.

I used the whole 4 oz cherry extract from MoreBeer at bottling. You need to pour 1/2-2/3 of a bottle, stir, and try it to make sure it's not overpowering, and add until satisfied.

I hadn't used wheat berries, but you could certainly sub out some DME for 2-row and wheat berries.

You can pressure cook (or regular cook) the berries to gelatinize the starches and then food process further after that - that's one way to get a good "crush" without having a mill. That was my method on my most recent wit I made. It worked fine but the extra effort didn't seem worth it.

SWMBO and I were just talking about trying the food processor instead. Would it do a better job of "crushing" the wheat berries instead of pulverizing them?

rodwha said:

SWMBO and I were just talking about trying the food processor instead. Would it do a better job of "crushing" the wheat berries instead of pulverizing them?

Click to expand...

I haven't been able to do much damage to dry wheat berries without either a proper mill or cooking them first.

Those dry wheat berries are hard, quite a bit harder than malted barley and rye seems to be even harder. I hand crank my Corona style mill and I can really tell the difference when I add unmalted wheat or rye.

rodwha said:

I'll just post it.

4.8 gal batch

4 lbs wheat DME
1.5 lbs honey malt
1.5 lbs honey (FO)
0.4 oz Willamette (4.7%) @ 50/15 mins
WLP 320

1.052/1.015
4.9% ABV
15 IBU's
7 SRM

The FG was much lower at 1.007. It was certainly much higher than 4.9% ABV.

I used the whole 4 oz cherry extract from MoreBeer at bottling. You need to pour 1/2-2/3 of a bottle, stir, and try it to make sure it's not overpowering, and add until satisfied.

I hadn't used wheat berries, but you could certainly sub out some DME for 2-row and wheat berries.

Click to expand...

Not sure if is like a cherry beer. I wonder if I could add some strawberries when it's about done fermenting. That might be good!


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6footbrewery said:

So today I went to a new store. I found some wheat that I think would be great in a beer.
Questions:
First can I use it?
Next how do I use it?
Also do any of you have a recipe that I could use?
Here is what I found
View attachment 199480View attachment 199481View attachment 199482
I would really like to use one of them if not all of them in a beer. Please let me know what you guys think.
Thanks.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Click to expand...

I've been making Shipwrecked Saison, or derivatives of it according to what I had on hand, since I started brewing last year. A couple of times I substituted hard red winter wheat for the 20% malted wheat in the original recipe, and it worked fine; apparently malted barley has enzymes to burn. I'm willing to bet I could get away with up to a 50/50 mix of malted barley and unmalted wheat....

Of course, I'm guessing. I'm sure someone reading this has actually tried it.

troy2000 said:

I've been making Shipwrecked Saison, or derivatives of it according to what I had on hand, since I started brewing last year. A couple of times I substituted hard red winter wheat for the 20% malted wheat in the original recipe, and it worked fine; apparently malted barley has enzymes to burn. I'll willing to bet I could get away with up to a 50/50 mix of malted barley and unmalted wheat....

Of course, I'm guessing. I'm sure someone reading this has actually tried it.

Click to expand...

I've done a 60/40 unmalted wheat to malted barley mix and it converts fine. From my calculation based on the diastatic power of 2 row barley, it could convert up to 65%.

As stpug said, boiling (or steaming) them like rice is one of the best methods to soften the wheat and rye berries, so the malt enzymes can get to them later. They'll swell up, and when they're mushy (like thin porridge) they can be added to the mash. Don't forget to add a few handfuls of rice hulls, depending on how much wheat or rye you're mashing, if you want it to lauter at all. If it doesn't lauter, add more rice hulls and stir it up really well again.

Food processors do a very poor job on grinding grains. It may even damage it. I know blenders are different but I once melted out the bearing in a blender carafe trying to grind coffee. :smack: I was desperate and not thinking straight.

IslandLizard said:

As stpug said, boiling (or steaming) them like rice is one of the best methods to soften the wheat and rye berries, so the malt enzymes can get to them later. They'll swell up, and when they're mushy (like thin porridge) they can be added to the mash. Don't forget to add a few handfuls of rice hulls, depending on how much wheat or rye you're mashing, if you want it to lauter at all. If it doesn't lauter, add more rice hulls and stir it up really well again.

Food processors do a very poor job on grinding grains. It may even damage it. I know blenders are different but I once melted out the bearing in a blender carafe trying to grind coffee. :smack: I was desperate and not thinking straight.

Click to expand...

I assume that means you hadn't had your morning coffee yet...

I once folded a small pile of coffee beans into a dish towel, and attacked them with a waffle-headed framing hammer. It worked. But it took a while to coax some of the coffee out of the cloth.

White wheat is what's referred to as soft wheat. It's going to be sweeter and more dough like with aroma and flavor. Most all wheat beers use white wheat. Red wheat is a hard kernel wheat and is often used for bread baking. It will depart a bready character and has a darker color than white wheat when brewing. Red wheat is used in 3 Floyd's Gumballhead and is a good example of the taste, color and aroma it will depart. I like red wheat in American style wheats. White wheat is great in Belgian styles. Not much difference overall though. 50/50 mix with either 2 row barley or pilsner malt gets you a good wheat beer.


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