Removing all husks?

[Pennine]

I always condition my malt before milling as it seems to create better flow through the grain basket with my Braumeister. Basically condition is a fancy way of saying I use a spray bottle to lightly moisten my grain bill. I also double mill it with the largest opening first and the the smallest on the second pass. This keeps the husk intact. The pics below are after each of those steps.

Anyway this got me to thinking with modern brewers and screened grain baskets would removing all husks result in a better tasting beer?

Usually the husks have harsh flavor characteristics and I wonder how impactful this is on the final product. Is this crazy to even think about?

 

[doug293cz]

If you don't have husks, your mash is likely to end up like oatmeal, and separating the wort from the grain will be "painful."

Brew on

 

[fluketamer]

If you don't have husks, your mash is likely to end up like oatmeal, and separating the wort from the grain will be "painful."

Brew on

palmer agrees on this. the husks are what makes malt the perfect starch to make beer with as the husk provides the filter bed to extract the wort from the mash.

however :

rite brew sells maltgems made by removing most of the husk.


https://www.ritebrew.com/product-p/803426.htm

and trumer pils my favorite pilsner uses dehusked malt apparently

"With Trumer Pils we apply precision milling techniques to our barley malt, remove the husks to eliminate astringent bitterness and maximize smoothness"

so you may be onto something

 

[Pennine]

Trumer Pils is delicious. Interesting I guess I shouldnt be surprised it's a product already. Thanks for pointing that out.

I wonder if even reducing husks by 50% would make a difference. I could also get more malt into my grain basket I would imagine.

@doug293cz my brewer has screens on the top and bottom and I am not sure what would happen. Using rye and wheat has never been an issue though.

 

[fluketamer]

you could replace wiht some rice hulls to make sure the filter bed is good. i dont think rice hulls have astringency (but idk) .

trumer is the best. its the only real pilsner in a bottle that i can taste the hops.

i have heard jever is also a good HOPPY pilsner but havent tried it yet.

i tried making a hop forward lager recently but i think its not bitter enough.

let us know how it turns out if you decide to try.

 

[Bramling Cross]

That's a beautiful looking crush, Pennine.

 

[fluketamer]

That's a beautiful looking crush, Pennine.

yes it is. i forgot to mention.

i have been super dissapointed with morebeers milling lately. it looks like almost half of there kernels arent really crushed .

 

[doug293cz]

palmer agrees on this. the husks are what makes malt the perfect starch to make beer with as the husk provides the filter bed to extract the wort from the mash.

however :

rite brew sells maltgems made by removing most of the husk.


https://www.ritebrew.com/product-p/803426.htm

and trumer pils my favorite pilsner uses dehusked malt apparently

"With Trumer Pils we apply precision milling techniques to our barley malt, remove the husks to eliminate astringent bitterness and maximize smoothness"

so you may be onto something

Maltgems not only has the husks removed, but also the fines and flour. "Crafted by removing the majority of husk, fine grit, and flour from milled Synergy Select Pilsen Malt" (from Rite Brew link in quoted post.) Removing the fines & flour goes a long way towards mitigating stuck lauters.

Trumer's "precision milling techniques" may be doing pretty much the same thing. They may also be using a malt press for lautering (but I could not find any info on that one way or the other) which would also eliminate stuck lauters.

Brew on

 

[Pennine]

Yeah honestly this is one of my dumber ideas as trying to separate the chaff is going to be a pain in the ass and complicate the brew day. I wonder if the Brulosphy crew would be interested in doing this one...

 

[Bramling Cross]

Maltgems not only has the husks removed, but also the fines and flour. "Crafted by removing the majority of husk, fine grit, and flour from milled Synergy Select Pilsen Malt" (from Rite Brew link in quoted post.) Removing the fines & flour goes a long way towards mitigating stuck lauters.

View attachment 876451

Trumer's "precision milling techniques" may be doing pretty much the same thing. They may also be using a malt press for lautering (but I could not find any info on that one way or the other) which would also eliminate stuck lauters.

Brew on

I never tried that stuff because (wretchedly cheap SOB that I am) I immediately thought, "Hold on! There's gravity points in them fines and flours and I want them!"

 

[MaxStout]

You might get more mileage by keeping the husks and instead, adjust your mill gap to get the best balance between good crush and not shredding the husks too much. You might have to experiment a little with mill gaps.

You're already ahead of the game by conditioning the malt.

 

[fluketamer]

Yeah honestly this is one of my dumber ideas as trying to separate the chaff is going to be a pain in the ass and complicate the brew day. I wonder if the Brulosphy crew would be interested in doing this one...

it wouldnt matter because they wouldnt get enough tasters to distinguish between the two variables. ( they almost never do)

I never tried that stuff because (wretchedly cheap SOB that I am) I immediately thought, "Hold on! There's gravity points in them fines and flours and I want them!"

a friend in highschool always insisted on smoking the seeds and stems for similar reasons.

 

[Pennine]

I never tried that stuff because (wretchedly cheap SOB that I am) I immediately thought, "Hold on! There's gravity points in them fines and flours and I want them!"

Well I bought 10 pounds to give it a shot. I have a sack of Weyerman for comparison.

 

[fluketamer]

i was going to buy it when i was planning on a trumer pils clone but i convinced myself that the hop component would be more important than the dehusked grain.

 

[Pennine]

i was going to buy it when i was planning on a trumer pils clone but i convinced myself that the hop component would be more important than the dehusked grain.

Trumer reminds me more of a Pilsner Urquell than a German Pils, I guess it must be the Saaz. I have never really been able to make a good version of PU either, mainly lacking on the hops side of things.

 

[fluketamer]

i find that the hops in urquell are hidden behind a slightly skunky aftertaste compared to trumer . i think i saw somewhere that theres a ton of saaz in trumer.

 

[Pennine]

Brewing up a German Pils today with the Maltgems. A couple of very interesting initial observations.

The flow through the malt basket of my Braumeister is far superior with Maltgems than a full normal malt bill. This was quite surprising.

Overall malt volume is also much lower which is helpful with my limited space in the malt basket.

Clarity does suffer a bit. And it is very pale.

I am cooling a sample down to measure pH.

 

[Pennine]

Ok just finished up, ended up with 82% efficiency. The difference between regular pilsner and Maltgems is 0.003 SG higher.
pH trended low 5.15 vs an expected 5.6.

Final product ended up quite clear with some boil finings.

Edit decimal places...

 

[doug293cz]

Ok just finished up, ended up with 82% efficiency. The difference between regular pilsner and Maltgems is 0.03 SG higher.
pH trended low 5.15 vs an expected 5.6.

Final product ended up quite clear with some boil finings.

Really 0.030? 0.003 would be more believable.

Brew on

 

[Pennine]

Really 0.030? 0.003 would be more believable.

Brew on

Yes per beersmith. 0.003 not 0.03.