Rice Hulls?

[Porter_Stout]

I'm new to all grain so this might sound simplistic.

From things I've read, when brewing a wheat beer rice hulls are recommended. Is this actually the case with BIAB? I thought the rice hulls were to prevent a "stuck mash." This doesn't happen in BIAB, right? My understanding of a stuck mash was when lautering, your transferring from mash tun to boil kettle, right? Wouldn't this infer that rice hulls would not be needed, since there is no transfer?

 

[DBhomebrew]

Rice hulls aren't  needed with BIAB, but they won't harm anything either. If you've got the tun space for them. Lautering may take longer than it typically does with a 100% barley grist.

It's more a matter of the surface area of the filter than whether you are lautering. Lautering is separating the wort from the grain (traditional tun) or the grain from the wort (BIAB).

 

[hotbeer]

I do BIAB. I throw in rice hulls since I mill quite fine. My belief is pretty much the same as one of the reasons they are used for a more traditional lauter. That the mashed malts will drain faster and more completely. Whether this is any better than nothing I've not determined. But it can't hurt.

And the rice hulls are cheap. I'm not sure how many brews it's going to take to finish off this one and only bag of them I bought when I was doing a few traditional type lauters.

Maybe when I run out of them, I'll find out if they were really doing anything.

 

[doug293cz]

I recently did a BIAB with 24% Rye malt, and 8% wheat malt, with NO rice hulls. Had no problem draining the bag, and got a grain absorption rate of 0.083 gal/lb without squeezing, which is pretty typical for me even with all barley malt. Rice hulls are not usually needed, but won't hurt anything (as others have already stated.)

Brew on

 

[MaxStout]

First time I brewed a Roggenbier with around 50% rye BIAB and no rice hulls, I knew I was in deep doo-doo when I hoisted out the bag and it just hung there, not draining. Barely a drip coming out the bag.

I put on thick rubber gloves and squeezed it like it owed me money.

Worst. Lauter. Ever.

After 30 minutes of work, most of the wort was in the kettle. Beer turned out good. Learned my lesson.

A half pound of hulls in a mash with anything more than a little adjuncts is cheap insurance.

 

[doug293cz]

First time I brewed a Roggenbier with around 50% rye BIAB and no rice hulls, I knew I was in deep doo-doo when I hoisted out the bag and it just hung there, not draining. Barely a drip coming out the bag.

I put on thick rubber gloves and squeezed it like it owed me money.

Worst. Lauter. Ever.

After 30 minutes of work, most of the wort was in the kettle. Beer turned out good. Learned my lesson.

A half pound of hulls in a mash with anything more than a little adjuncts is cheap insurance.

Apparently the break-point is somewhere between 25 and 50%. Or, it might be my new motorized mill, that runs very slow, but leaves the hulls intact, even when crushing at a 0.022" gap.

Brew on

 

[MaxStout]

Apparently the break-point is somewhere between 25 and 50%. Or, it might be my new motorized mill, that runs very slow, but leaves the hulls intact, even when crushing at a 0.022" gap.

Brew on

You've had better luck than I have. I've done a few RyePAs with 10-15ish percent rye and needed the rice hulls.

Perhaps it's my crush.

 

[Bad Bubba]

Apparently the break-point is somewhere between 25 and 50%. Or, it might be my new motorized mill, that runs very slow, but leaves the hulls intact, even when crushing at a 0.022" gap.

Brew on

What mill are you using? How did you motorize it?

 

[RM-MN]

You've had better luck than I have. I've done a few RyePAs with 10-15ish percent rye and needed the rice hulls.

Perhaps it's my crush.

Perhaps it's the bag you are using. When I bought a new bag I started having more difficult with draining the wort because the weave of the bag was tighter.

 

[doug293cz]

What mill are you using? How did you motorize it?

This one.

Brew on

 

[Bad Bubba]

Perhaps it's the bag you are using. When I bought a new bag I started having more difficult with draining the wort because the weave of the bag was tighter.

Good point. I had a 200 micron bag and when I started recirculating during the mash I had flow issues. I got a 400 micron bag and that solved the issue. I might get an 800 micron for brews with a lot of corn.

 

[MaxStout]

Perhaps it's the bag you are using. When I bought a new bag I started having more difficult with draining the wort because the weave of the bag was tighter.

That might very well have been the reason. I use Wilser bags, which have a tight weave. That, plus the high viscosity of the wort could have combined to make for a slow lauter.

 

[doug293cz]

That might very well have been the reason. I use Wilser bags, which have a tight weave. That, plus the high viscosity of the wort could have combined to make for a slow lauter.

I also use a Wilser bag.

Brew on

 

[Saunassa]

Anytime I brew a wheat beer or a cream ale I throw in a handful or two of rice hulls. The wheat beer it helps drain, cream ale just as insurance. A pound of hulls is cheap and putting in a handful or two it lasts a long time. I do this whether using the anvil or the traditional biab.

 

[OleBrewing]

40% wheat in a keggle is the tipping point for me, its not biab but almost stuck sparges moved to rice hulls. and trust me stuck sparges are not fun. the hulls are cheap.

 

[z-bob]

First time I brewed a Roggenbier with around 50% rye BIAB and no rice hulls, I knew I was in deep doo-doo when I hoisted out the bag and it just hung there, not draining. Barely a drip coming out the bag.

I put on thick rubber gloves and squeezed it like it owed me money.

Worst. Lauter. Ever.

After 30 minutes of work, most of the wort was in the kettle. Beer turned out good. Learned my lesson.

A half pound of hulls in a mash with anything more than a little adjuncts is cheap insurance.

BTDT , also with a Roggenbier that was 50 or 51% rye. I just don't brew beers like that anymore; I've come close though, like a wheat beer with 50% all-purpose flour. No rice hulls, but I did full-volume mash and no sparge. It still drained very slowly and I had to coax it a little. I should get some rice hulls in case I ever get a hankering to do a real Roggenbier again, but with BIAB doing no-sparge seems to be good enough.

 

[k-daddy]

I BIAB and recirculate the mash through a Wilser brew-bag. I crush at a .028 gap (motorized 2 roller Pro Monster Mill). Initially had issues recirculating my IPA's where a vacuum was created under the false bottom (stuck mash). I now let the mash settle for 5-10 minutes after dough-in before slowly opening the recirculation valve. If you're too quick to begin the recirculation, the unsettled grain will unnaturally compact itself causing problems. I now get good recirculation and conversion with no need for rice hulls.

 

[whattabrau]

First time I brewed a Roggenbier with around 50% rye BIAB and no rice hulls, I knew I was in deep doo-doo when I hoisted out the bag and it just hung there, not draining. Barely a drip coming out the bag.

I put on thick rubber gloves and squeezed it like it owed me money.

Worst. Lauter. Ever.

Heh, I hear you. Once, out if spite, I brewed a beer with 20% each of raw oats, raw rye and raw wheat. Lifting up the bag, the first thought was "did I forget to add water into the mash?". I also had a "stuck transfer" from the kettle to the fermentor: I run BIAB'd wort through a sieve into the fermentor since BIAB prevents whirlpooling loose hops into a cone, but there was so much gunk in the kettle that the sieve got clogged half a dozen times. Beer ended up nice, just the thickness of motor oil -- I do want to say I did a b-glucan rest, but I'd have to dig up my notes to be sure.

Wheat is pretty harmless, though. Rye and oats are the troublemakers. So, OP, you can optionally add rice hulls if you want insurance, just be aware that they do absorb and adsorb wort, so adding them is a guaranteed [small] loss.

 

[Saunassa]

I BIAB and recirculate the mash through a Wilser brew-bag. I crush at a .028 gap (motorized 2 roller Pro Monster Mill). Initially had issues recirculating my IPA's where a vacuum was created under the false bottom (stuck mash). I now let the mash settle for 5-10 minutes after dough-in before slowly opening the recirculation valve. If you're too quick to begin the recirculation, the unsettled grain will unnaturally compact itself causing problems. I now get good recirculation and conversion with no need for rice hulls.

The 10 minute rest after dough in and slow start to recirculation is also the key to using Anvil all in one to prevent stuck mash.

 

[RM-MN]

The 10 minute rest after dough in and slow start to recirculation is also the key to using Anvil all in one to prevent stuck mash.

A high percentage of the saccharification will have occurred during that 10 minutes of the rest after dough in, perhaps most of it. What then is the advantage to recirculation? If you have to mill coarser so you can recirculate, then have to recirculate to keep the temperature stable during the last of the saccharirication you are simply increasing the time for no real benefit over a finer milling that does the conversion so quickly that the temperature drop is minimal.

 

[Barleycapable]

The 10 minute rest after dough in and slow start to recirculation is also the key to using Anvil all in one to prevent stuck mash.

I haven't tried waiting for 10 minutes, but a slow start to recirc is definitely important with the foundry. It took me far too long and too many stuck sparges to finally realize my problem...