weizen plan and stuck mash worries

For my 3rd all grain batch i plan on doing a hefeweizen and i already have the ingredients for my recipe:

5.5 gallon batch
OG 1.050

5.5 lbs. Wheat Malt
4.5 lbs. Lager malt
1 lbs. Mild Ale malt
1 oz. Hallertau Hersbruck (Whole, 4 %AA) boiled 60 min
Yeast : White Labs WLP300 Hefewizen Ale

At 50/50 wheat to barley does this recipe sound like im asking for a stuck mash because i dont know where to buy rice hulls here in Ireland or the UK. I've heard of using hay as a replacement for rice hulls, would this work.

I also plan on trying a double decoction on this recipe, will this help reduces the stickyness of that wheat? i also have enough Mild ale malt to pull the ratio back a bit if necessary.

I have heard of people using 60% wheat malt and not having any problems with stuck mashes or sparges....I will bump this so they can speak to that.

I did a batch at 50\50 and all went well without rice hulls. I use a stainless steel braid. The mash is a lot stickier though so good luck on your brew. I also tried the decoction process and it only raised the temp 10 degrees so make sure you pull enough out.

I did a belgian wit that was 50/50.

First time, without rice hulls, major league stuck.
Second time, with rice hulls, no problems.

Rice hulls are cheap insurance. From my understanding, so long as you don't add an insane amount of hulls, they won't influence the flavor.

Maybe you could try steeping hay in water and seeing if you get a flavor from it. This way you know if the hay is going to make any contribution to your beer. Also, I would think that you would want to shorten up the hay, maybe in a blender or food processor.

I've got a 70/30 without rice hulls sparging right now. I've not had a problem with stuck sparges. But I think part of the reason for that is I use a rectangular cooler so there is less pressure from the weight of the grains. 50/50 you should have no problems at all though.

bradsul said:

I've got a 70/30 without rice hulls sparging right now. I've not had a problem with stuck sparges. But I think part of the reason for that is I use a rectangular cooler so there is less pressure from the weight of the grains. 50/50 you should have no problems at all though.

Click to expand...

You were the one that said they had no problem...I remeber now.

I did a 60/40 and used hulls, I have .5 lb left, when that runs out I will probably do without.

Ok cool well im also using a stainless braid in a rectangular cooler. I'd like to pull the mild ale back completely to make around 60/40 against the lager. i imagine with more wheat than barley it would have a truer bavarian weizen flavour?

I will also test out the hay in 155F water for a while and see if it imparts any flavours or raises the gravity.

If you're batch sparging with the braid then you definitely won't have a problem with 60/40. I was worried the first time I tried fly sparging 70/30 but I ended up with no problems (and none since). This one looks like it will finish fine too *knock on wood*.