Hefe Buchweizen

I'm expecting tomorrow to be the brewday from hell. I've got the grain crushed so fine, it looks like flour.

3 Gallon Recipe
OG: I'm overshooting for 1.058 on paper because I expect to be off.

4.5 lbs of Buckwheat Malt
1.5 lbs of Dry Sorghum Extract
14.9 oz of Rice Hulls
.5 oz Liberty Hops (60 minutes)
Danstar Munich Yeast

Even though I malted the buckwheat, I'm considering adding a drop or two of Convertase and some alpha amyase to the mash. As much as I'd like to say my malt fully converted itself, I'd also like to have some beer when this is done.

I can't wait to hear how this one turns out.

That was a looooooong brew day. My decoction procedure was perfect. I had to add more water when I gelatinized the grains because they ended up having the consistancy refried beans. I'm not sure if that's a buckwheat problem or if I'll have to include that step in my procedure. I ended up mashing for 2 hours and then sparging was impossible. I had a stainless braid, with a colander over it, I lined my MLT with a 5 gallon paint straining bag and I added 14.9 ounces of rice hulls. I could get a cup of clear, yellow wort an then nothing. After screwing around for way too long, I ended just sqeezing the bag. It wasn't clear and pretty, but I did get a 3 gallons of 1.030 wort.

I normally do not secondary, but a lot of trub, hop pellets and flour made it into the primary and I was worried about it causing off flavors. I racked two gallons of clear liquid to the secondary and left a gallon of sludge. I'm going to hold onto the sludge for another week or two to see if it settles at all.

Did you do a taste test?

I did. If you've ever tasted buckwheat pancakes, buckwheat waffles, buckwheat honey, etc., you know that buckwheat has a distinct flavor. The same can be said about this beer. I liked what I was tasting, but it is different. You won't be able to make a 100% buckwheat beer taste like any beer you've ever had before, but I won't rule out making a good beer out of buckwheat.

I'm already thinking that I need to get some buckwheat honey and make a buckwheat braggot.

http://www.mediafire.com/i/?yu6kxaf16rhqa8l

Let's see how this works. I haven't posted an image in a while.

Looks good. I'll be brewing up a buckwheat stout in the near future.

Thanks. Like I said before, the buckwheat taste is strong, so you aren't going to fool anyone that they're drinking Blue Moon. I found a lemon helps cut the buckwheat flavor, which I really don't mind. I was going to say that I wouldn't recomend using this much buckwheat in another recipe, but I think a buckwheat stout could be a good. Buckwheat kinda comes of as roasted to me anyways.