Does White Wheat Malt Get Milled?

[yournotpeter]

I just bought a grain mill. I milled some pilsen malt just fine. I then tried milling my White Wheat Malt and they don't crack - they basically fall right between the rollers. I noticed that the 'kernel' in the White Wheat is much smaller than the 'kernel' for the pilsen. Does the White Wheat not get cracked? Or am I doing something wrong with my new grain mill? Normally I use the mill at the homebrew shop....

 

[FromZwolle]

you need to adjust your gap. what mill do you have?

 

[yournotpeter]

I've got the 15-pound Barley Crusher from Northern Brewer. It just seemed the crush on the Pilsen was good, so I didn't adjust it...

 

[shutupjojo]

You need to tighten your gap when milling wheat and mill it seperately from your other grains.

 

[nicegut]

I always mix my grains together, and seem to get a good crush on everything with factory settings on my BC. I'm always open to trying new methods though.

 

[BrewThruYou]

I noticed that my last beer with wheat was low on gravity. I think I'll need to adjust the gap when milling wheat on my BC.

 

[yournotpeter]

Well, this whole process has been enlightening. I had mixed my pilsen and wheat malt together, not thinking for a second that I needed to mill the wheat separately. So, the only way I could crack the wheat was to really close the gap. Well, you guessed it, I had stuck sparging all morning long. Live and learn, I guess! My OG was supposed to be 1.050 and I came it at 1.054.

 

[erikpete18]

I did the same thing a while back not thinking about it. If you run your grains through once on the "pilsen" setting, you can then tighten it up a little more and run everything through a second time and you should get the wheat broken up a little better. Make sure your malt is well conditioned and most of the husks should drop through the second time. Of course I'd like to think I'd have the foresight not to make this mistake again .

 

[yournotpeter]

Make sure your malt is well conditioned and most of the husks should drop through the second time.

Is well-conditioned malt just malt that is a little moist? Or maybe I don't know what well-conditioned malt is.

 

[erikpete18]

Is well-conditioned malt just malt that is a little moist? Or maybe I don't know what well-conditioned malt is.

Definitely do a search for malt conditioning, it will make your sparging so much easier! Basically you're right in that you moisten the malt. All I do is spread it out flat somewhere and spritz it lightly with a water bottle, then stir/fold it a little and repeat to get all the grains very slightly moist. Let that soak in for about 15 min., and you can crush away. It keeps the husks intact better so you can tighten up your mill a little more than usual too. I also find it keeps some of the grain dust down, which is also kinda nice.

 

[yournotpeter]

Definitely do a search for malt conditioning, it will make your sparging so much easier! Basically you're right in that you moisten the malt. All I do is spread it out flat somewhere and spritz it lightly with a water bottle, then stir/fold it a little and repeat to get all the grains very slightly moist. Let that soak in for about 15 min., and you can crush away. It keeps the husks intact better so you can tighten up your mill a little more than usual too. I also find it keeps some of the grain dust down, which is also kinda nice.

Awesome advice...thanks so much!!

 

[heckels]

I was able to successfully grind 7 lbs of white wheat this weekend using a setting of .038". Got 79% efficiency according to brew target.

 

[headfullahops]

I gotta get me a mill.

 

[erikpete18]

I gotta get me a mill.

Careful, once you do you'll find yourself saying things like "Well, if I need 4oz of Special B, why not get 3 lbs?" and before you know it you've got a whole stock of assorted grains stored in random containers stashed around your brew stuff. (Or maybe that's just me? ).

 

[headfullahops]

Careful, once you do you'll find yourself saying things like "Well, if I need 4oz of Special B, why not get 3 lbs?" and before you know it you've got a whole stock of assorted grains stored in random containers stashed around your brew stuff. (Or maybe that's just me? ).

See, that wouldn't bother me a bit. SWMBO might have a better use for the basement, tho!
:cross:

 

[RobbyBeers]

Seems like a lot of the advice centers on separating the grains. I've always been told the opposite: If you are going to mill hard grains (e.g., wheat), make sure to keep them together with the base grains. The logic being that the hard grains can ride on the backs of the other grains without disrupting the momentum of the rollers (stuttering rollers = bad crush).