Rice Hulks and Efficiency?

[davidkrau]

I just finished brewing a Hefweizen. I ground the grains with a new Barley Crusher that I just purchased. When I pluged the numbers into promash I was elated when it showed a 78% efficiency. This was a far cry from my last brew which was 50%. I used 1 pound of rice hulks which was supposed to aid sparging. When I pluged the grain bill into promash I ignored the rice hulks. Is this correct or did the rice hulks do something to do with the yield.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

You are correct...the rice hulls have no effect on efficiency in the sense that they do not contribute anything to the mash gravity. They do, however, increase yield in the sense that they help with the lautering process. In other words, had you not used them you may have had a lower efficiency due to a stuck sparge, but they didn't actually add any sugars so you can leave them out of your calculations in Promash.

 

[cweston]

Did your wort have a greenish color to it?

 

[sonvolt]

Did your wort have a greenish color to it?

lol lol :rockin:

 

[Kaiser]

but they didn't actually add any sugars so you can leave them out of your calculations in Promash.

ProMash should already do this since the extract potential of rice hulls is 0.

Kai

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

ProMash should already do this since the extract potential of rice hulls is 0.

Kai

Correct...I was thinking calculations in general. I think I'm going to start putting rice hulls in the 'extras' location in the recipes (where I'll never see them), as they then will not afflict the grain percentages in the grist.

 

[user 574]

This thread had me thinking on my other posts saturday on crappy efficiency with wheats. I haven't used hulls with any of my 4 amer wheats but did with my belgium (and got good efficiency). Could that contribute to poorer eff? Still plan on stepping next time but thought I'd ask.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

This thread had me thinking on my other posts saturday on crappy efficiency with wheats. I haven't used hulls with any of my 4 amer wheats but did with my belgium (and got good efficiency). Could that contribute to poorer eff? Still plan on stepping next time but thought I'd ask.

It can. As far as to what extent, I'm not really sure. But rice hulls do help with the lautering which would then improve efficiency of the lauter. I recently used 9# of wheat in a recipe and even with 1/2# of rice hulls it set up like a bucket of concrete and I had a slow sparge (batch!) with 68% efficiency. Next time I'll up that recipe to a full pound of rice hulls which hopefully will break up the mash a bit and allow more goodies to escape.

 

[user 574]

It can. As far as to what extent, I'm not really sure. But rice hulls do help with the lautering which would then improve efficiency of the lauter. I recently used 9# of wheat in a recipe and even with 1/2# of rice hulls it set up like a bucket of concrete and I had a slow sparge (batch!) with 68% efficiency. Next time I'll up that recipe to a full pound of rice hulls which hopefully will break up the mash a bit and allow more goodies to escape.

I'll give that a go next time. I wasn't stuck with my fly sparge but it does make sense. However the BassTurd at my HBS charges $1.49 for friggen rice hulls?!?!

 

[davidkrau]

In answer to questions 1- no the wort was not green. 2- I used the resipe posted by billisam 4/12/06 under the thread"My First AG (Picture) I had never heard of using rise hulks but I like them and I'll probably continue to use them.

 

[cweston]

In answer to questions 1- no the wort was not green.

Well, you see...

...there was this show...

...Lou Ferrigno...

...hulls/hulks...

Oh, nevermind.

 

[david_42]

Any time you use a lot of wheat or rye, rice hulls will help the sparging process. Doesn't seem to matter with corn and I've never used enough oat flakes to clog up the mash.