How many lbs. of rice hulls do I need?

6.5 lb vienna malt

3.25 lb white wheat malt

2.15 Wheat,Flaked


In Beersmith it says that I should not have more then 5% rice hulls. A half a pound gives me 4%. Does this sound about right?

Thanks for any input.

I think about 0.5 pound if you are doing a 5 gallon batch. I used 1 pound in a 10 gallon batch of something similar and it worked fine. No stuck sparge.

I used less than 1 pound when I did a 10 gallon batch so I think you'll be fine. Your grain is less proportion of wheat than mine was and mine sparged like a champ with about half a pound or so.

Thanks guys.

Zero...................

I use about a quarter pound for my normal mashes. I'm pushing my crush and have had to deal with a stuck sparge before (in large part because of some diastatic malt powder I added to see what would happen) and don't want to experience that again. I bump the rice hulls up to a half pound if I'm adding a large amount of wheat to the mash. I'd think a half pound would be about right for your recipe.

Chad

I have a 60% wheat that I brew, and I have never used hulls, and never had a stuck mash.

Why is anyone so afraid of a stuck sparge? It's not a big deal. Close the valve, stir, and vorlauf. If I get a stuck sparge I usually get higher efficiency. When it does happen it's only once in the first runnings.

Conroe said:

Why is anyone so afraid of a stuck sparge? It's not a big deal. Close the valve, stir, and vorlauf. If I get a stuck sparge I usually get higher efficiency. When it does happen it's only once in the first runnings.

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Because for my first try at all-grain I got a stuck sparge and it was a huge pain in the a**! So, I will give the rice hulls a try on my wheat beer.

It's not a pain if you know how to fix it.

None. If you are really worried about it, add a pound of 6-row malt instead. It is much cleaner than rice hulls and will not change the character of your beer (it might raise the O.G. by a couple of points). Domestic 6-row is a very clean product and much "huskier" than 2 row. It is a bit higher in nitrogen and may cause a chill haze in beers where it makes up >50% of the malt bill. This is why it is commonly paired with nitrogen diluting adjuncts such as HFCS, unmalted barley, rice and some unmalted wheats.

Conroe said:

It's not a pain if you know how to fix it.

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One way NOT to fix it, is to shove you had into the 160+ degree mash tun to make sure your braid didn't slip off.....

Owie!

Q2XL I never measure my hulls, I just grab a couple handfulls and go from there...never had a problem. But then again I have large hands....Except for the one that melted in my mash tun.

Malticulous said:

Zero...................

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Malticulous said:

It's not a pain if you know how to fix it.

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I know this thread is 5 years old now but that gave me a good hearty laugh this morning. Malticulous, wherever you are, I salute you. The least helpful comments I've ever seen on homebrewtalk.com. haha