How do you prep your rice hulls?

[ICWiener]

When you mash and sparge with rice hulls do you perfer to soak and rinse them or do you just chuck them in? Any advantages to doing it either way?

I ask because I'm getting ready to brew a 100% huskless all grain beer. I've actually never had to use rice hulls before, so I thought I would get some input.

 

[Setesh]

I've always just chucked them in, but I've never used more than 1/2lb of them. I can't see why it would hurt to rinse them off first though, just to be on the safe side. It would be interesting to see what comes off of them and to taste the rinse/soak water to see if you think you would detect the flavor in the finished beer.

 

[70ls1nova]

I just chuck them in.

 

[jsmcclure]

toss in a few handfuls without any prep


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[JustLooking]

It would be interesting to see what comes off of them and to taste the rinse/soak water to see if you think you would detect the flavor in the finished beer.

I use to rinse them just to get any dust off, but got lazy and don't anymore. Never thought to taste the rinse water. Time to make some rice hull tea. :cross:

 

[ICWiener]

It would be interesting to see what comes off of them and to taste the rinse/soak water to see if you think you would detect the flavor in the finished beer.

From what I've read on HBT it seems like the people who do rinse or soak them do it not only to get any dirt off, but also to minimize the amount of wort they soak up.

The beer I'm designing is a gluten free oatmeal stout. 11 lbs of buckwheat/millet and 2 lbs of flaked oats. It's going to be a gummy mess, so I'm thinking at least 1 lb of rice hulls, maybe 2.

 

[glick]

I soak them in water first so that they do not absorb my mash water.

 

[Setesh]

From what I've read on HBT it seems like the people who do rinse or soak them do it not only to get any dirt off, but also to minimize the amount of wort they soak up.

The beer I'm designing is a gluten free oatmeal stout. 11 lbs of buckwheat/millet and 2 lbs of flaked oats. It's going to be a gummy mess, so I'm thinking at least 1 lb of rice hulls, maybe 2.

Have you thought of doing a BIAB instead? Could save you a lot of headache.

 

[IslandLizard]

From what I've read on HBT it seems like the people who do rinse or soak them do it not only to get any dirt off, but also to minimize the amount of wort they soak up.

The beer I'm designing is a gluten free oatmeal stout. 11 lbs of buckwheat/millet and 2 lbs of flaked oats. It's going to be a gummy mess, so I'm thinking at least 1 lb of rice hulls, maybe 2.

If you're batch sparging you can get away with sticky mashes more than fly sparging. I've never mashed with buckwheat or millet, so don't know what you're facing today or how much rice hulls to add. I toss them in.

2 days ago I almost threw them in the grain bucket before milling... that would have been interesting.

 

[Setesh]

If you're batch sparging you can get away with sticky mashes more than fly sparging.

You could also increase the amount of ingredients added and do a no sparge recipe. One run off and you're done. It's more expensive for sure, but it does save time and you don't have to worry about sparging at all.

 

[ICWiener]

Have you thought of doing a BIAB instead? Could save you a lot of headache.

I considered it, but I don't really want to buy a bag for one batch. 5 gallon paint bags aren't going to hold that much grain.

Not to mention, GF grains are lousy when it comes to conversion, so it'll be a multi step mash with the buckwheat going through an additional cereal mash. I feel like that will be easier using my standard equipment. Familiarity and all that.

 

[opiate82]

I've always thrown them into the mash tun with the strike water while I wait for the temp to drop to dough-in range. Operating under the theory that they will become saturated with water instead of precious wort.

 

[dangerbrew]

People prep rice hulls? This is the first I've ever heard of this... Always just grab a handful or two and toss em in.

 

[ICWiener]

If you're batch sparging you can get away with sticky mashes more than fly sparging. I've never mashed with buckwheat or millet, so don't know what you're facing today or how much rice hulls to add.

I batch sparge. The stickiest mash I've done was 50/50 2-Row and wheat on a 10 gallon batch. That one took a while to run off. This will be way worse, so I'm just prepping a little more. Not only is millet huskless, it's also teeny tiny. Like bird seed.

 

[JustLooking]

I soak them in water first so that they do not absorb my mash water.

I've heard this, but it makes no sense to me. The reason you use rice hulls is because liquids pass through them easily and makes the grain bed more porous. If you batch sparge, stirring will mix the fluids to equilibrium. Even if you continuous sparge, vorlauf and/or recirculating will do the same thing. If anything, by pre-soaking you’re just diluting the mash to a small extent.

 

[Setesh]

I've always thrown them into the mash tun with the strike water while I wait for the temp to drop to dough-in range. Operating under the theory that they will become saturated with water instead of precious wort.

Diffusion will cause their liquid constitution to equalize with their environment given enough time. The longer they are in contact with wort the more water they give up and the more wort they take on until they reach equalization.