Rice hulls

Does anybody know of a suitable substitute for rice hulls in the mash? I'm not sure I can get them up here and I want to try my hand at a wheat beer. Would un-milled 2-row work?

Chairman Cheyco said:

Does anybody know of a suitable substitute for rice hulls in the mash? I'm not sure I can get them up here and I want to try my hand at a wheat beer. Would un-milled 2-row work?

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Aren't rice hulls just used to put space between the grains? That's what I thought at least.

I haven't tried it, but wheat or corn bran might work. Should be available at your local health-nut store. Most bran has a small amount of oil/fat in it, but not much.

When i asked for Rice Hulls at my LHBS, the guy said, he didn't have any but offered Barley Hulls (husks) and said they would serve the same purpose. I suppose he would be right but he found some rice ones in the back anyway.
Don't know, but I made a wheat beer just this last batch w/o any grain bed fluff and at about 55/44 of @-Row and Red Wheat respectively with no stuck lauter.
It was a fairly shallow grain bed however as it was 11# of grain and a pretty big 54 qt cooler/tun.
For what it's worth.

"Aren't rice hulls just used to put space between the grains? That's what I thought at least."
Right. Used to increae voloume of the grist and to aid in sparge effeciency w/o adding fermentables.

I would think any kind of husks would work. I imagine wood shavings or perlite would work, but not too sure about the side effects...

While I use them now, I have in the past gotten by without them like Indiana Red. It's worth a shot. Also, if you don't stir your mash after dough-in you can try putting the barley in first, and the wheat on top. You may have to 'cut' the wheat layer if it sets up too much (just make shallow incisions in it to get to the barley layer).

Yeah, I now that I think about it, I can probably find something down at the health-food store. Thanks guys.