100% wheat

[Boleslaus]

I just acquired a few 2-4 gallon plastic buckets with lids from my local bakery after reading about that on here, so thanks to all those who mentioned that! Now that I have the ability to make small batches, I was thinking of doing some experiementing.

I know that you can do 100% wheat beers. But what type of wheat can you use. Could I make a 100% flaked wheat beer, or would I have to use some wheat malt as well? Thanks guys!

 

[TheMan]

You won't be able to make it with 100% flaked wheat. You would need some wheat malt. Adjuncts cannot convert themselves into sugar (flaked wheat).

 

[Boleslaus]

Would I have to go as low as 50% flaked?

 

[Saccharomyces]

You can go up to 70% wheat malt but you need 30% 2-row to be able to lauter it at all, as well as to get the correct pH for the mash (and even then you will need rice hulls or some other strategy such a coarsely crushing the 2-row to provide a filter bed). If you use unmalted wheat such as wheat flakes I recommend staying at 50% or less. Either way, you will benefit from a short 130*F-ish rest. An easy way to do this is to heat your strike water as usual, and just transfer about 2/3 of the water to the mash tun. It should settle around 130-135. Then after about 10 min transfer the remaining water over to hit the sacc rest temp.

 

[Boleslaus]

Thanks Sacc!

 

[BeerLogic]

I can't seem to find the threads, but I remember reading reports from several folks that you can easily do a 100% wheat malt beer (no mention of flaked wheat) with the brew-in-a-bag technique. This avoids the gunky sparge problem entirely. I would imagine that you would need to adjust the ph, as mentioned by Saccharomyces, by additives if you are going to do this.

 

[shanecb]

If you use enough rice hulls it would work out just fine (if you're doing it with wheat malt). You could also try a beta-glucan rest around 105-110F, which is claimed to help with lautering.

I don't really know anything about the pH issue, but you should be able to adjust with additives.

 

[Boleslaus]

If I decide to go the 100% wheat malt route, how do I adjust the ph? I've never done that before.

 

[944play]

I bet if you leave the mash long enough at 105-110ºF you'll see the pH drop by itself.

 

[Boleslaus]

So should I just do an acid rest and skip the protein rest? How long?

 

[BeerLogic]

http://www.brewwiki.com/index.php/Acid_Rest

I would say, based on this information, that adding minerals, acid, or buffering solution would be a better idea. Probably the easiest thing to do would be to add a small amount of acid malt to the mash.

 

[Boleslaus]

Ok I guess I'm still confused then. How do I know how much buffer to use etc. I know my water profile, but I've never used ph adjustments before.

 

[indigi]

Just get some 5.2 and dump however much it says to in the mash/liquor. Even if you add too much the stuff will apparently hold the pH in the right range and not affect the flavor at all.

 

[Boleslaus]

Just get some 5.2 and dump however much it says to in the mash. Even if you add too much the stuff will apparently hold the pH in the right range and not affect the flavor at all.

Ok thanks.

 

[Boleslaus]

So if I used a ph buffer, could I do 50/50 wheat malt/flaked wheat?

 

[944play]

I'd strongly advise you to measure and correct the actual pH rather than rely on voodoo panacea powder. pH strips are accurate enough to get you in the happy zone and are stupid cheap. You can even cut them in half.

Typical wheat malt has a diastatic power around 160 degrees Lintner; you want your mash grains to average at least 40 for proper conversion. So yes, 50% flaked grain should convert ok. I imagine you'd need quite a lot of rice hulls to keep it from becoming an unlauterable gooball.

Whether you'd actually want a 50% flaked wheat grist is another thing, but I guess it might be ok in a witbier..