Mashing with A LOT of flaked wheat

[Mutt98]

I'm wanting to brew a Belgian wit this weekend and thought I'd try brad smith's recipe from beersmith. That recipe calls for 4.5 lbs of 2 row and 4.5 lbs of flaked wheat. I've been doing a little more reading and I'm worrying about the mash with the flaked wheat. Should I adjust the recipe or will this work out ok? I don't have a lhbs so I'll have to order new stuff if I need anything extra/different.

 

[buzbey]

Are you sure it calls for flaked wheat and not regular wheat? That's a ton of flaked wheat! If it really does call for that much flaked wheat you might wanna add rice hulls to improve your efficiency or maybe try a mash out if you don't wanna order more stuff. But I really can't see why you would use so much flaked wheat

 

[Face Eater]

It's doable but like they posted above you may have issues with sparging (stuck sparge). Depending on your setup, either add rice hulls or definitely do a mash out to help with lautering.

 

[Mutt98]

The recipe does call for a mash out. I didn't realize the mash out would make that much of a difference.

 

[LovesIPA]

The higher temperatures will definitely help thin the mash out enough to where you will have better success sparging. Try not to get the mash any hotter than 170* though.

 

[Mutt98]

Got it. I was just reading some tales of mash meal that created problems. We shall see

 

[diS]

50% of flaked wheat sounds a bit too much.
I usually use aprox. 10%, high amounts of flaked anything can lead to stuck sparge, as said you can use rice hulls to prevent it.

 

[Mutt98]

Can a guy pick up rice hulls anywhere except at a hbs?

 

[buzbey]

I can't think of another use for them, So I would guess no. What are you using for your mashtun? False bottom, stainless steal braid Or something other? My understanding is a stainless steal braid has less of a chance of having a stuck sparge for the grain bed does not compact evenly. Or you could try the BIAB style where you can't really have a stuck sparge

 

[Mutt98]

I have a manifold in the bottom of a rubbermaid picnich cooler. I've been doing some more reading and people tend to think that the mash out will help quite a bit. It doesn't look like my ingredients will arrive in time to brew this weekend anyways so I will probably be able to pick up some rice hulls just to be safe.

 

[Mutt98]

Brewed this batch today. No problems whatsoever with sparge. Actually ended up with a higher volume than expected. Dropped my og down. But should be a great session wit.

 

[W0rthog]

I just finished brewing this recipe and I'm scratching my head. I followed the schedule by the numbers and started with a 1.030 pre-boil (1.041 excepted). Since it was so low, I boiled for about 1:45 total to get the OG up to 1.045. As a result, I came out with about 3.5-3.8 gallons. The flaked wheat wasn't milled. Could that explain the low gravity.
Thanks in advance.
BTW, I use a braided loop in my mash tun with no issues.

 

[Mutt98]

The flaked wheat doesn't have to be milled. Otherwise, a variety of mash varibles may have affected your eventual gravity reading. My numbers turned out ok considering I used too much water.