Always rinse your rice hulls!

[MapleGroveAleworks]

I used to just toss my rice hulls into my mash, but today while brewing a German Hefeweizen I thought I might pre soak them so I won't lose volume to wort absorption. Low and behold after draining the water came out like this, yuck! Whether or not this contributes to any bad flavors, I sure don't want it in my beer!

View attachment 1472396342323.jpg

 

[laredo7mm]

Try doing the same with barley, I would think the results would be similar.

 

[MapleGroveAleworks]

Try doing the same with barley, I would think the results would be similar.

Well yeah of course, but I'm looking for flavor contribution from barley. I'm not looking for it from rice hulls.

 

[laredo7mm]

OK, try it with just barley husks then. Do you really think grains are clean and rinsing them won't make dirty water? What flavor would come from rice hulls that wouldn't come from barley husks? The flavor should be in the grain itself not the husk.

Just because rinsing the husks produces ugly water, it is no reason to "Always rinse your rice hulls!"

 

[oceanic_brew]

My girlfriend who works as an environmental officers with Halifax water always says that color and smell are the two worse ways to determine water quality.

Rice hull wine!

Someone do it

 

[MapleGroveAleworks]

OK, try it with just barley husks then. Do you really think grains are clean and rinsing them won't make dirty water? What flavor would come from rice hulls that wouldn't come from barley husks? The flavor should be in the grain itself not the husk.

Just because rinsing the husks produces ugly water, it is no reason to "Always rinse your rice hulls!"

Ok I won't rinse them then anymore, whatever, jesus christ.

 

[LandoLincoln]

Soak some rice hulls in a glass and then remove the hulls and take a sip. If it tastes bad...

 

[smurfjuice]

I rinse my rice hulls just to get the grit and $hit out of them before adding to the mash ... sorry, just me ... :beard:... :rockin:

 

[madscientist451]

Are the rice hulls any more filthy than the various grains? I figure the 60-90 minute boil plus the production of alcohol will pretty much wipe out any harmful bacteria.
This thread got me thinking about all the "dirty" places my mouth has been over the years.....

 

[JohnSand]

That would be distracting.

 

[jptweb64]

I rinse in hot water (ie. mash temps). They smell terrible. I don't care what anybody says - the smell will be in your mash if you don't use hot water soak then cold water rinse

 

[day_trippr]

Interesting. I soak my hull addition - to make it essentially neutral wrt strike water volume - in whatever comes out of the brew sink cold tap, which for at least the first couple of quarts is warm as the sink backs up to my furnace room. I honestly have never noticed any off-putting aroma from them while draining or afterwards.

I'm doing another batch of my raspberry wheat tomorrow and will use 3/4# of hulls. I'll try to remember to take closer notice of them...

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

Ok, I hydrated a pound of hulls (that smelled solely of grain) with roughly room temp water, and a half hour later when I went to drain them gave it a good whiff. Still only got a light grain aroma.

Otoh, the teaspoon of Irish moss that I hydrated in a cup of boiling water stinks to high heaven! Can't believe it doesn't seem to leave a trace behind...

Cheers!

 

[danielthemaniel]

Ok I won't rinse them then anymore, whatever, jesus christ.

Rinse them if you want.
Don't rinse them if you want.

There is more than one way to brew. If it works for you, then it's the right way to do it.

 

[RPh_Guy]

If it works for you, then it's the right way to do it.

That argument falls apart when you try to get other people to adopt a useless practice.

 

[danielthemaniel]

That argument falls apart when you try to get other people to adopt a useless practice.

I don't believe it to be of use personally. It isn't something I will do. However, I have no right to dictate to other brewers how to brew. If it is something they find personal value in, then they should be able to do it. I certainly haven't conducted any research or testing into soaking rice hulls. If you have, then great. I'd love to hear it. Otherwise, it brings no value for me to belittle someone else's process that they find helpful without bringing to the table evidence that may make them a better brewer.

 

[monkeymath]

Barley husks contribute a considerable amount of tannins to beer. For example the brewery "Augustiner" in Munich - which brews the iconic Munich Hell if you ask anyone in Munich - separates the husks from the grain (and later mixes in a bit of a pure "husk brew", afaik) to reduce the amount of tannins in the product.
Now, I don't know about rice hulls and how they differ from barley husks: I've never used them (they're somewhat hard to find in Germany) and I accept that they very well may be an entirely different beast. But I always assumed that everybode pre-soaked or even pre-boiled them before dumping them in the mash.

I guess it makes sense to me to soak them, but it may very well have a negligible impact that would be hard to detect in a side-by-side comparison. But that appears to be true of most of the common "best practices" in the homebrewing world.

 

[mongoose33]

I used to just toss my rice hulls into my mash, but today while brewing a German Hefeweizen I thought I might pre soak them so I won't lose volume to wort absorption. Low and behold after draining the water came out like this, yuck! Whether or not this contributes to any bad flavors, I sure don't want it in my beer!

View attachment 368047

How does it taste?

 

[Bassman2003]

I think it is good to rinse them so they are not deployed little sponges to lower your brew water amount. Upon rinsing them with any kind of warm water, I have noticed a rice-like aroma (imagine that...) plus the water is quite dirty. Anyway, not a huge thing but I soak them and pour through a strainer before putting them in the mash.

I don't see the argument of "barley so dirty, lets add some more dirty stuff..." I would prefer to not have to use rice hulls, but they system runs better. (Anvil Foundry). I will experiment with not using them in the future, then it will be moot.

 

[RPh_Guy]

I don't believe it to be of use personally. It isn't something I will do. However, I have no right to dictate to other brewers how to brew. If it is something they find personal value in, then they should be able to do it. I certainly haven't conducted any research or testing into soaking rice hulls. If you have, then great. I'd love to hear it. Otherwise, it brings no value for me to belittle someone else's process that they find helpful without bringing to the table evidence that may make them a better brewer.

Read the thread title and the first post. You could say he is "dictating" that we should all rinse our rice hulls, and "belittling" our process of not soaking them. He brings no evidence to the table besides a picture of murky water, which doesn't mean anything (by that logic we wouldn't add yeast, or barley, or hops).
No one was getting belittled, it was just a discussion.

It's long been understood that rice hulls don't significantly impact flavor.

 

[danielthemaniel]

Read the thread title and the first post. You could say he is "dictating" that we should all rinse our rice hulls, and "belittling" our process of not soaking them. He brings no evidence to the table besides a picture of murky water, which doesn't mean anything (by that logic we wouldn't add yeast, or barley, or hops).
No one was getting belittled, it was just a discussion.

It's long been understood that rice hulls don't significantly impact flavor.

I stand by my statement. No one should be dictating how to do something without any supporting evidence. You should be free to do what you want without being belittled. I'm sorry if you feel differently. Just my opinion.

His "evidence" was his dirty water. So at least there was an attempt to show reasoning for doing a particular process. There was a post earlier where the reply did come off as being belittling and dictating that he shouldn't do the process he wants to do. I wasnt talking about your post.

I'm really not looking for an arguement. Just stating my opinion that this should be a forum where people work collectively to become better brewers. Like mom said, if you dont have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. I'll just leave it at that.

 

[Brewbuzzard]

OK, try it with just barley husks then. Do you really think grains are clean and rinsing them won't make dirty water? What flavor would come from rice hulls that wouldn't come from barley husks? The flavor should be in the grain itself not the husk.

Just because rinsing the husks produces ugly water, it is no reason to "Always rinse your rice hulls!"

I've wondered for some time about the tannin level of rice hulls but can't find any info.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

My takaway from this thread is that I'm going to pre-soak my rice hulls just to deal with water absorption. I've never thought about that before to be honest (and I feel kinda stupid for not taking it into account). I don't put them in my recipe or calcs, I just toss them into the grain bucket after I've milled them.

So, for those of you who pre-soak, do you add them after dough in?

Edited to add:

Maybe it would be easier to just add them to the recipe so that they're taken into account for the water calcs. Then I don't need the pre-soak step.

 

[dwhite60]

Best way to not see the skeletons in the closet is to not open the door.

 

[Bassman2003]

I soak them and just dump them on the grain in the tun before adding the strike water. Or after the strike with a stir. You really could add them right before the last time you stir as their main purpose is to help with creating space for the liquid to pass through during the lauter.

 

[day_trippr]

[...]So, for those of you who pre-soak, do you add them after dough in?[...]

I also spread the drained hulls over my FB, dump the grain on top, then underlet the strike. After a few minutes I give the works a good stirring all the way down to the FB, then let it sit a few more minutes before slowly starting the recirculation...

Cheers!