Little help with Grodziskie BIAB Mash

I have a few pretty successful BIAB under my belt now. I am still not too sure of what exactly I am doing though.
Ive got 7 lbs Oak Smoked Wheat Malt I am planning to BIAB.
Usually I heat about .3 gallons per lb of malt to 170° then put in grains, the temp drops by about 10°.
I sparge with 2.5 to 3 gallons 170° water to get my total volume

Ive been getting 65 to 75% efficiency this way.

If I am going to have a 100% wheat mash will this require any changes to my method? I cant make hide nor hair of the following excerpt below but it is some technical info on the traditional Grodzskie.


"Mashing. 1500 kg of smoked wheat malt (100 %) was milled in two-roller mill. Infusion
method: from premasher 20 hl of thick mash at 38 oC (break 30 minutes). Addition of 11 hl of
hot (75 oC) water, so in 10 minutes the mash reached temperature of 52 oC. Break 30 – 60’,
depending on the malt modification. Addition of 24 hl of hot (98 oC) water during 20 minutes,
to reach temperature of 70 oC (break 30 minutes). Final addition of 12 hl of hot water (98 oC),
to rise temperature to 75 oC and transfer of the mash to lauter tun."
source:
http://www.pspd.org.pl/uploads/grodziskie/grodziskie-redivivus-raport-1-eng.pdf

They are doing a step mash, with a mash out. Something like 100-125-156 then mashout at 167. You are using 100% wheat, you may want to do a protein rest at 125, or some grodziskie breweries used finings (traditionally isinglass) and did a single infusion mash (154-157 range), that can work too. . The beer is supposed to be clear.

Practically you may want to add some rice hulls. I don't BIAB, so I don't know if its necessary, but the mash is going to be gummy, and may hurt efficiency. I don't know. But id add a 1/2 lb to be safe.

Weyermanns oak smoked malt seems to really vary in how much smoked character it has. I assume its the age of the bag. I hope you get lucky. Cause it is a surprisingly delicious beer when it is.

You may want to add yeast nutrient. I also dont know if its strictly necessary, but I always have out of general fear.

Thanks Giraffe! Now when doing a protein rest for say 30 mins does that count against your total mash time?

Nope its an additional amount of time at a lower temp. The enzymes that break down starch into sugars arent active in the 120s, only at around 140-160.

I just had a bad experience with a half wheat brew. I have done quite a few BIAB's, including one with 50% rolled wheat, always hitting 70-75%.

Just did a belgian wit with 50% malted wheat. Didn't do mashout as I did a 77deg batch sparge for 10 mins. Didn't add any rice husks. Didn't do anything different to a normal brew really.

Was down around 50% efficiency.

Reading up after the fact, you should definately do a proper mashout with malted wheat. The mash didn't look too bad (ie doughy) but I would probably add rice hulls too.

I guess the lesson I learnt, respect the wheat!!!

°

Well, I attempted to wing it even though my hydrometer broke taking care of a 6 gallon Kolsch earlier.

The oak smoked wheat had a wonderful smoky aroma as it sat in the mash I also smelled that "farm" smell almost like manure, almost lol.

I put 7 lbs of the oak smoked wheat into
2.5 gallons water heated to 125° for 30 minutes
added 180° water to bring temp of mash to 140° for 20 minutes
added more 180° water to bring temp of mash to 156 for about 45 more minutes.

I sparged with over 2 gallons of 170° water to reach my total volume of 5 gallons.
I began my 90 minute boil. I planned to do 120 minutes but it was getting late.

Added .8 oz of Saphir 15 minutes into boil.
added .2 oz of Saphir with 30 minutes left in boil.

It is during this boil that things started looking weird.
First of all I noticed the bubbles and foam had a more iridescent quality to them than I had seen in any other wort before. Was it something about the wheat or the hops? I honestly cant remember if I noticed it before adding hops or not.

Towards the end of the boil there was a strange quality to this wort, it had all these thin bits of congealed stuffs swirling around getting hung up on the thermometer. Is this a sign of some misdeed I had committed on the smoked wheat?

And to top it off having no SG or OG..lol, lets see how this ones turns out

The weird stuff is probably hot break (looks like egg drop soup?), that is congealed proteins, you get more of them with a protein rest, and more, of course, with a protein heavy malt. You probably didnt get all the break when you skimmed (if you skim) cause there was so much of it. It will fall to the bottom of the fermenter with the trub. It is normal, and good it congealed and wont be in your final beer.