Has anybody tried using flour, be it wheat, rye, corn, as an addition to an all grain recipe? As long as one uses a base malt with enough diastatic power, the flour should convert just fine. I realize the problem would be getting the flour to go into a nice suspension and not end up with gloppy balls. Maybe I could avoid this if the flour (I'm thinking 2-3 cups) was sifted into 3 gal of cold stike water while stirring and then heated to strike temperature and then mashing in with the grains. Hot water plus flour = lumpy gravy. I also realize a stuck sparge could be a possibility so I could add some rice hulls to help there.
So what do people think? I know that early beers were made using baked bread as a base. I'd like to skip the baking step. Or should I? I'm thinking there might be a pumpernickel ale in my future. However, I could just buy a loaf or two of pumpernickel and grind it up in the food processor and add it to the mash. That would cost more though - but would avoid any doughball issues.
So what do people think? I know that early beers were made using baked bread as a base. I'd like to skip the baking step. Or should I? I'm thinking there might be a pumpernickel ale in my future. However, I could just buy a loaf or two of pumpernickel and grind it up in the food processor and add it to the mash. That would cost more though - but would avoid any doughball issues.