mashing hard winter red wheat

Anyone ever mash hard winter red wheat? I have some that doesn't make for the best bread so I thought at some point I would work it into a lambic.

Check this out: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2009/08/lambic-3-turbid-mash.html

I just did this a few weekends ago. You could also try a cereal mash.

Exactly (you need to gelatinize it), soft is supposed to be better for beer, but I had fine results with hard. Hoping to do it again in a couple weeks with a spontaneous fermentation...

Yeah, I knew I was in for the cereal mash, just wondering if the red wheat makes for better beer than bread.

Oldsock, now you make me wonder, do I need to have a longer rest for hard wheat over soft wheat (not sure of the technical difference there...ie if hard wheat means that it is actually harder and may take more time for water to gelatinize)?

Oldsock said:

Hoping to do it again in a couple weeks with a spontaneous fermentation...

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Going for DC flora? I'm in Bethesda and I can't get anything wild to attenuate to a level I'm happy with. Do you have something local cultured?

McKinley said:

Going for DC flora? I'm in Bethesda and I can't get anything wild to attenuate to a level I'm happy with. Do you have something local cultured?

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What is your time line for poor attenuation? I’m assuming this beer will need at least a year before bottling.

Haven't given it a try yet, but hopefully later this week I'll have a chance to put out some wort to collect microbes. I'm hoping that my barrel/fermentation room has its own unique flora by this point from all the beer I drip while taking samples. I’ll put some outside as well, maybe do a mix if they don’t smell off.

I tried two samples of wort that I had left over from the main batch. The first was actually a flanders beer--I was hoping to pitch the dregs into secondary. The second was a Vienna. I got them started in an open bowel in the back yard. The first I made the mistake of taking after the boil, so it was all hoppy and truby from the bottom of the kettle. I gave this a month but it pooped out in the 30s (from 60s) so after a month I pitched it.

The second time I did the same thing except took it from the first batch sparge runnings and boiled it separately to get out the lacto from grain. I just poured this out last week. It did a little better, did have some sourness, but was still grossly sweet 7 months in culture. I didn't do a gravity.

I'm sure it can be done, Bethesda is pretty clean but not THAT clean. What was your plan?

Sorry to hijack the thread.

McKinley said:

I'm sure it can be done, Bethesda is pretty clean but not THAT clean. What was your plan?

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Similar, couple starters with some aged hops at various locations (~12 hours with cheesecloth over them to prevent bugs from getting in) then move to growlers to prevent any acetic acid formation. Taste them after a couple weeks and pitch the best one(s) into a Lambic wort. Let it go until they are ready. If they end up too sweet after 12 months or so I'll toss in some bottle dregs to save it.