Wheat malt and stuck sparges

[Bill Tong]

I am planning my first wheat beer and after reading up I am concerned about a stuck sparge. I can not find rice hulls.

I have a cooler mash tun with SS braid. The grain bill is 50-50 wheat/barley. 2kg each. My plan is to mill separately then put the barley at the bottom and wheat at the top. I batch sparge. Will this work?

 

[VikeMan]

Some people can get away with 50% wheat malt without using hulls. But I wouldn't try to layer the grains the way you describe. I think you should get better lautering if the wheat is evenly mixed with the barley malt. The barley malt shares its husks with the wheat.

 

[day_trippr]

How much time before this beer needs to be brewed? Perhaps a Wilserbag to line the tun would be a good investment...

Cheers!

 

[Bill Tong]

Some people can get away with 50% wheat malt without using hulls. But I wouldn't try to layer the grains the way you describe. I think you should get better lautering if the wheat is evenly mixed with the barley malt. The barley malt shares its husks with the wheat.

Thanks for the reply, makes sense! Will give it a go.

 

[Bill Tong]

How much time before this beer needs to be brewed? Perhaps a Wilserbag to line the tun would be a good investment...

View attachment 705970

Cheers!

Thanks, yes I thought about this option. Will also make cleaning up afterwards a lot quicker.

 

[slayer021175666]

A false bottom would be a big help. SS braid can cause channeling.
I brew a lot of wheat beers. My advice about the crush is to grind the barley and wheat seperately.
Barley: set the grain crusher wherever you normally do.
Wheat: set the rollers or grinding wheel slightly closer together because, the wheat is smaller. Now, mix them both together before you mash.
Bill Tong is correct: If you simply put the wheat atop the barley, your wheat will just stop the lauter flow before it can ever get down to the barley. It would be, basically, setting up a stuck sparge on purpose.

 

[bwible]

This is why I never mash wheat. I make all my wheat beers with wheat DME. Always good results. It costs a bit more, but I always say for everything in life - my time, energy, and trouble is worth something too.

 

[Dland]

I usually order in batches of 10, fills one of their grain boxes nicely. A must for us rye brewers.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/rice-hulls.html

 

[IslandLizard]

I am concerned about a stuck sparge. I can not find rice hulls.
[...] I batch sparge.

Since you're batch sparging you can't get a stuck sparge, it refers to fly sparging.
But the mash may get gooey making the run off (lauter) take longer or even plug up.

When lautering is or becomes slow, stir more, it reduces viscosity. Also add more hot water, and stir more. It may take longer but it will all come out.

Sounds like you're using wheat malt. Wheat malt is not quite as gooey as unmalted wheat (e.g., flaked). It may well work fine without a lautering aid. Just keep stirring.
If you can source oat hulls you can use those, instead of rice hulls.

Moderator's Hint:
Since you're not in the U.S., it would be really helpful to put your general location (country would suffice) in your user profile.

When you do that, helpful members may not make suggestions like these, which are rather useless to those outside the U.S.:

I usually order in batches of 10, fills one of their grain boxes nicely. A must for us rye brewers.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/rice-hulls.html

 

[IslandLizard]

[Rephrased]

With expected gooey-ness, due to high protein content and beta glucans, you can also perform a (short) combined protein/beta-glucanase rest at 131°F (55°C) for 10-15'. No longer, or it may negatively impact head formation later.

After that short rest, heat up to your sacch rest temp (148-156F), under good stirring, and scraping the bottom to prevent scorching.
Then let that progress for 1 hour as usual.

 

[deuc224]

I did a 70% wheat with the blichmanns G2 false bottom and didnt have a stuck sparge, worth its weight in gold.

 

[day_trippr]

Agreed, Blichmann's FBs are amazing. Love mine, so much better performance than perforated FBs..

Cheers!

 

[mashpaddled]

Wheat certainly can be an issue. I brew with a lot of wheat and have a braid on one mashtun and a bazooka screen on the other. Rice hulls are a worthwhile insurance policy but three other tools you can employ to avoid a stuck mash/sparge are:

1. Thoroughly mix the mash so you don't end up with dough balls. The less hull material the easier it is for grain pieces to stick with flour and form balls which will reduce efficiency and when you sparge and end up breaking them up they will make the grain bed sticky.

2. Drain off at a slower rate. You should generally lauter with your ball valve open at around a quarter turn but go even slower with wheat. This will help avoid channeling and compacting the low filter grain bed.

3. Sparge hot. I sparge around 180-185F which will help loosen up the grain after the first runnings. Traditional lore is that this is a way to screw up your wort but it won't be an issue if your pH is on target.

Naturally everything else you normally do will help (e.g. vorlauf, mill consistent grain size, etc.).

 

[JAReeves]

If I can ask a wheat beer-related question to the brains here.

I am also going to do a wheat wine soon. I grind my own grain. Since I use a Wilser bag in my mash-tun for batch sparging, I am not worried about a stuck mash. However, I do want to get as much out of the 70% wheat grain bill as possible.

I grind most beers at .025. Where should I set my mill for wheat?

 

[50calshooter]

I make a lot of wheat beers at my brew pub (false bottom) but I also did with my HB cooler mash tun. 1-2 lbs of rice hulls fixed all my problems.

 

[bracconiere]

If you can source oat hulls you can use those, instead of rice hulls.

or oat malt? might change a wheat recipe a bit. but oat malt has some serious hulls on it! i've brewed a few batches with 100% oat malt, mash tun looks like i was trying to brew with just hulls...

 

[day_trippr]

Whole malted oats do indeed have impressive husks, and sharp li'l bastids they are when dry.
When I use them the spent mash goes in the compost pile because deer won't touch it and I'm afraid they might mess up the neighbor's chickens and/or ducks.
It's a dilemma...

Cheers!

 

[bracconiere]

Whole malted oats do indeed have impressive husks,

when i brewed with them, i was surprised i got any gravity points! and you'd definatly need to mill the oats seperatly. they're tiny. i think i set my mill to .015or 018"

 

[day_trippr]

You are correct, they will literally pass right through a barley malt gap virtually untouched.

You crush your oats a bit tighter than I but that may be differences in our respective mills' knurling. I use my old reversed Barley Crusher for oats at 0.20 and for wheat at .025. I can mess around with gaps vs the actual grain on that mill. Saves me from mucking around with my Cereal Killer gap (.032 for barley, usually) and having to reset it again...

Cheers!

 

[Bill Tong]

This beer turned out great! I did have problems with the sparge, but this was due to the fact that I changed from my normal way of sparging. I stirred the mash after adding the last batch of water. Ive seen this being recommended by many, but for me the floury bits all settle to the bottom and stops the runoff. Even for 100% barley. And I have seen no real gain in efficiency. So i will just do what i am used to, add sparge water gently over the back of a spoon so as to not disturb the grain bed. It works, why change it?!