Wheat

[freeradical]

I have a few pounds of completely raw wheat, like that you would plant to grow wheat grass. How can I brew with these?

 

[Pommy]

what are you wanting to use it for?

 

[emjay]

Same way you would brew with malted wheat... just make sure you have the extra diastatic power for it.

Some people will almost inevitably say you need to do a cereal mash for raw wheat, but the truth is that it's totally unnecessary.

Do you know what kind of wheat it is? Hard/soft, red/white, winter/spring (eg. Hard red winter wheat)? Raw wheat can be fantastic in a Belgian Wit.

 

[freeradical]

what are you wanting to use it for?

Beer man!!

Do you know what kind of wheat it is?

It's hard white spring wheat.

 

[Pommy]

im no expert with wheat but you can use it to brew a wit or use it as an adjuct to add head retention to your brew. You could always do a BIAB (near) 100% wheat wit beer if you have enough and want to use it all up in one go? You would need to make sure you got the diastatic power from somewhere though.

 

[emjay]

Hard wheat isn't typically as desirable as soft wheat due to its higher protein content, but it'll do. Spring wheat also has a somewhat higher protein content than winter wheat. So ultimately, you can expect that your wheat is pretty high in protein compared to other typical wheats, which is saying a lot because wheat already has the highest protein levels of any grain commonly used in brewing.

But, white wheat is typically used in Wits (red wheat in hefes), so once again I recommend brewing that particular style, especially since raw wheat is really important for the style.

However, the high protein level will definitely make this particular wheat a lautering nightmare, especially since wheat obviously lacks a hull and there's a good chance you'll find yourself dealing with a stuck sparge even if it's never happened to you before. So this is what I recommend:

Boil the wheat for 15 minutes, and then mash it with the barley (and oats, if you use them). I strongly recommend a step mash here (and I say that as someone who almost exclusively does single infusions) - with a beta-glucan rest, a saccharification (AKA conversion) rest, and a mash out. A protein rest is not necessary, but keep it very short if you decide to do one. Some people like to a decoction mash, but a Wit should really be as pale as possible, so IMO, stick with infusions.

And yeah... it may sound daunting for some brewers, but it's easier than it looks. Oh, and of course, a liberal addition of rice hulls to the mash would be a good idea as well.