Accidentally bought flaked wheat instead of wheat malt. Ok substitute?

[tmontana48154]

Here is the grain bill for my recipe.
10# Wheat Malt
8# Vienna
1# Midnight Wheat
1# Carafoam

Unfortunately my dumb a$$ bought flaked wheat instead of wheat malt.

Would it be ok to just substitute the flaked wheat in place of the wheat malt?

 

[GenIke]

Not at those amounts.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/flaked-wheat-vs-white-wheat-malt-142320/

 

[buzzerj]

Whoa you bought 10 lbs of flaked wheat? Wow I'd go back to the store and get the wheat malt you want. Boy that's going to be a black beer with one whole pound of Midnight wheat. I only use 3 oz or less of Midnight wheat for color in a 5 gallon batch. Looks like you are going to do 10 gallons. Interesting grain bill. Going to taste a bit grainy too. What yeast are you using with this? What are you intending to make? When you use that much wheat be sure to use a blow off tube for the primary. You don't want to have to clean this off the floor and walls. That one will be explosive when fermentation starts.

 

[Silentdrinker]

I hope you like oatmeal. You'll be having it for a while...

 

[tmontana48154]

I was planning on trying a 10 gallon batch of this
http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Recipes/beer/display/dunkel-er-weisse

 

[buzzerj]

Ok yeah. Man Breiss really wants to sell a lot of Midnight Wheat malt. Mash at 153 and try to ferment lower than 68 degrees. You will get a better result. This is already going to be a clove bomb. But wheat beer fermentations are better closer to 62 degrees even though White Labs recommends 66 as a minimum optimal fermentation temp. You can use a half lb. of the flaked wheat in the batch for a bit of the hefe. But otherwise, go with it and have fun.

 

[tmontana48154]

Alternatively does anyone have a good recipe for a dark wheat that doesn't use wheat malt? I have plenty of 2 row and vienna at home.

 

[Gavin C]

Pretty bad form on the part of the LHBS, no?. Surely they must have had an inkling that wheat malt and not flaked wheat was intended.

I'm not expecting people to be mind readers but the store I use often confirms I want certain malts and not others just to be sure they are giving me a suitable product.

Just yesterday the owner asked me if I wanted UK crystal malts as he could see I was making an ESB and an American ale from the requested items on my list. Top notch service for sure.

With so many malts with similar names these errors are very easy to make

 

[buzzerj]

Substitute the flaked wheat for 2 row. What yeast do you have laying around other than the Bavarian Weizen yeast? You could do a 10 gallon batch of an interesting blonde ale with that vienna malt 50/50% with 2 row if you have a couple Safale-05 yeast packets or similar dry yeast. Nix the Midnight Wheat in that case.

 

[IslandLizard]

You can still make a wheat beer with that if you substitute some of the flaked wheat with 2-row. The total DP of the convertible grist (excluding the midnight wheat) should be above 30 °L to get complete conversion. I would keep it at 40 °L for all security. Cooking the flaked wheat or doing a cereal mash before adding it to the mash may help in converting faster and more completely.

And you need plenty of rice hulls to keep it lauterable, unless you BIAB.

Common DP:
American 2-row 140 °L
Vienna 50 °L
Wheat Flakes 0 °L

8# Vienna: 8 x 50 °L = 400 °L
4# U.S. 2-row: 4 x 140 °L = 560 °L
6# Wheat: 0 °L

960 °L / 18# = 53 °L <== OK (>40)

Since the average DP is higher than 40 °L, there should be enough to convert your grist. There is even a safety margin of 13 °L in case the DP of your 2-row is a bit lower. Even if it's only 100, your average is still safe at 44 °L.

If you're sure the 2-row is 120-140 (do a small test mash with a pound of the grist mix) you could push the Wheat flakes to 7# and drop the 2-row to 3# (42-46 °L).

Use low mash temps (148) and check for complete conversion. It may take up to 2 hours, particularly when the DP of your malts are a bit lower than projected.

 

[tmontana48154]

Thanks for the replies

 

[IslandLizard]

Let us know what you end up brewing. As long as you have diastatic malt you can mash and brew pretty much with anything, except sawdust.

 

[tmontana48154]

I ended up going back and buying wheat malt. During brew day though I forgot to add the carafoam to the mash. Other than that I followed the original recipe with the addition of .5# rice hulls.
For the yeast I split the batch b/w 2 carboys and used WLP 351 in one carboy and wlp 320 in the other.

I'll post how they turn out.

 

[catdaddy66]

I don't mean to hijack the thread but I didn't want to start an entire thread about it either as it may only need 2-3 responses at most.

Flaked grain is flattened grain that allows sugars to be extracted without the need of cooking said grain. The term is called 'gelatinized' I think.

I bought some 'rolled oats' that appear to be flaked (flattened). Are these oats gelatinized or do they need to be cooked before adding to my mash?

 

[IslandLizard]

I'll try to answer that in one response.

Rolled adjuncts have been steam heated and then rolled. That process gelatinizes the starches. Flaked are rolled or sliced thinner. Neither of these have to be cooked, although you can speed up conversion by pre-cooking them, if they're very thick. For example, microwave and instant oats (rolled and flaked) and old-fashioned (hot rolled) are ready to be added to the mash directly. Some health food stores' rolled oats may benefit from cooking beforehand. Steel cut oats have only been cut, and are not gelatinized, so they definitely need to be cooked.

I always run flaked products through the mill with a tight gap, to make the pieces smaller. Easier to hydrate and more completely.

 

[catdaddy66]

Thanks, IL!

One response, name that grain! Lol