Malted Wheat vs. Flaked Wheat in a Hefe?

I am in the process of thinking through my next beer which will get brewed as soon as my two primaries are empty...should be a couple weeks...finishing off a saison with a second yeast and it is going sloooow.

I want to do a 10-gallon Hefe/American wheat, something yummy for this nasty heat we have been having here in CO (although quite cool today). I am going to split the batch into two primaries, and make one a Raspberry Wheat, and leave the other normal. I have WLP380 Hefe IV frozen away, will make starters, so that is set....

Looking at AG recipes out there, seems like most people just do a 50/50 split of 2 some base malt and malted wheat, or flaked wheat. I understand that one is malted, whereas one is just gelatinized, other than that, what would be the difference between using the two?

Any links to good recipes are helpful too!

Thanks in advance

Malted wheat has been malted (naturally ) and some of the proteins and whatnot in the kernel have been broken down and altered. Flaked wheat starts with a raw wheat kernel that is basically 'cooked' and gelatinized by being passed through high pressure rollers. So two different products that would result in different flavors.

I would stick with malted wheat for a Hefeweizen and limit the use of flaked wheat as a low % cereal adjunct for head retention.

%100 agree with the Baron. Plus if you think about it, a wheat is very much about the wheat!!!

What about for other wheat beers, like a Belgian Wit?

I've done a Blue Moon clone a few times that uses 3 lbs of flaked wheat and 1 lb of white wheat (not sure how that fits into the discussion). It's turned out great, but I'm wondering now how changing some of that to malted wheat would effect the outcome.

zoebisch01 said:

Plus if you think about it, a wheat is very much about the wheat!!!

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I'm sure that made complete sense, but I didn't get it. Malted wheat and flaked wheat are both wheat. Can you explain?

I use both when making Wits as well. However, I typically use more malted wheat than flaked. Usually only use about a lb of flaked.

so for a hefe, say maybe 50% 2-row, 40% malted wheat, 10% flaked wheat?

And Sparky, I agree with you completely, that was a bit of a non-sensical post.

Look at Baron's hefe recipe in the database; I can vouch for it, it is spot-on a great, great, great, simple brew. If you've ever contemplated a decoction mash, it's a great candidate as well. No flaked wheat, it's just 50/50 Pils and malted wheat, IIRC.

Lil' Sparky said:

I'm sure that made complete sense, but I didn't get it. Malted wheat and flaked wheat are both wheat. Can you explain?

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What I am getting at is that the less interference (processing) the better. You can say DME is the same as Malted Barley...they are both Barley. The difference is in the amount of processing.

ColoradoXJ13 said:

so for a hefe, say maybe 50% 2-row, 40% malted wheat, 10% flaked wheat?

And Sparky, I agree with you completely, that was a bit of a non-sensical post.

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I don't get how you think it is nonsense. Perhaps incomplete. Sorry didn't mean to go off-the-cuff so much there. Sometimes I make statements that make sense to me

.... I liken Hefe's to Pils in a way. They are all about the most simple ingredients. Any time you have a 'naked' recipe, the base of that recipe is going to take center stage and anything odd will certainly show up.

I know I'm digging this thread up from the dark ages of 2007, but I don't access to any malted wheat here (I've tried malting my own twice, and it just ends up rotting and molding within two days), so is it worth it to try a hefe with just raw wheat plus a protein rest and/or boil?