American Wheat Beer

[u02scn]

Hi All,

I've been brewing a wheat beer recently. I'm using 4.8kg marris otter, 2.5kg flaked wheat and some rice hulls in the mash. After the mash (68degC for 1hr) i start to sparge. When i get to about 20L in the boil kettle the the gravity coming out of the mash tun drops to close to 1, i.e way too low. I'm trying to take about 40L in the boil kettle. I don't have this problem with other brews and am a bit confused.

The final gravity in my fermenter seems fine if i continue to sparge until 40L but in doing this i'm worried about pulling tannins etc from the husks.

I thought of a few solutions but not sure which way to go. These are:

1. Use more grain so i have a gravity of about 1.008 when the kettle has 40L. Problem here is the final gravity would likely be huge.
2. Stop sparging when the gravity is low at 1.008 with around 20L in the boil kettle and top up to 40L with water. I'd probably get the right final gravity, but this seems an odd method to me and would likely taste a bit light.

Any help here woould be appreciated.

Regards

Steve

 

[CorporateHippie]

After converting your metric units to "understandable" I think you look fine with your grain bill. (15ish lbs of grain for 10ish gallons of wort). Now you didn't mention how much water you use, how much you strike with, or how much you sparge with....also we will need to know the method that you sparge. Based on the limited info given, my guess would be that you are not getting all the sugars out of the grains either by conversion not being complete, or by your mash/sparge methods.

 

[u02scn]

Hi,

Thanks for getting back to me. Much appreciated.

I add 26L of strike water. I then wait for one hour, my mash generally drops about 2 degC in that time from the original 68degC. At the end of the hour i start fly sparging (continuous with rotating sparge arm). I would generally spend 40mins doing the sparge. I usually sparge until the gravity drops to below 1.008, or i have enough in the boil kettle. but with my wheat beer the gravity drops really quickly, after about 20L of sparge water added i'm down to the 1.008. Can't understand this.

Thanks

Steve

 

[u02scn]

Could it be too much rice hulls? I add about 200g (just under 1/2lb). I use these to stop the mash getting stuck.

 

[JonM]

I don't know the exact reason why, but my gut tells me you should be using malted wheat rather than flaked and that might be part of the problem.

 

[CorporateHippie]

I don't know how much experience you have brewing but I would tell anyone who asked me that you are using too much strike water. I would suggest sticking to a 1.2quart/1 lb of grian ratio. So for your mash bill, I would use about 4.5 gallons to strike with. Back when I first started I noticed a poor efficiency (60%ish) and played with all parts to fix it. I realized my water/grain ratio was 2:1 (where you are) and when I adjusted to 1.2:1 my efficiency is now 75% dead on almost every time

 

[u02scn]

Hi,

The wheat i use is as follows:

Schill Wheat Malt

So it should be malted. That maybe wasn't clear from above post so apologies for that.

I usually aim for 1.7quartt/ 1 lb for my strike water. This is based on the 'How to brew book' by John Palmer. he says:

"A thinner mash of >2 quarts of water per pound of grain dilutes the relative concentration of the enzymes, slowing the conversion, but ultimately leads to a more fermentable mash because the enzymes are not inhibited by a high concentration of sugars. A stiff mash of <1.25 quarts of water per pound is better for protein breakdown, and results in a faster overall starch conversion, but the resultant sugars are less fermentable and will result in a sweeter, maltier beer. A thicker mash is more gentle to the enzymes because of the lower heat capacity of grain compared to water. A thick mash is better for multirest mashes because the enzymes are not denatured as quickly by a rise in temperature."

So at about 1.7qt/lb i though i would be in the middle. Will try a mash with 1.2quart/ 1 lb to see how i get on. Will be very happy if this sorts it out!!

Regards

Steve

 

[CorporateHippie]

another cheap thing to do is buy an iodine tincture from a local drug store and test for full conversion before sparging. I usually mash for an hour but occasionally find that conversion isn't complete for 80-90 minutes. Thanks to my couple buck investment I save those valuable sugars from being wasted to the squirrel feeder.

 

[u02scn]

Thanks for that!! Will try that too. Would be good to know how far through conversion I am. Is it easy enough to use?

 

[CorporateHippie]

When you think conversion is done, just place a teaspoon of wort into a small white dish/cup/bowl and add one drop of the iodine tincture. If it is clearish/yellow then conversion is complete. If it is dark/black then there are still starches that need to be converted to sugar. It is such an EASY and CHEAP way to know you are getting all the sugar out of your mash

Here is a video I found that shows it in use.
https://youtu.be/CzrNE3gr8qM

 

[u02scn]

Thanks for that. Really good video. Now i know how it works!