Rice Hulls

[TheBeerGuy]

I am making an all grain Pumpkin this weekend and a friend of mine suggested using rice hulls to prevent a stuck sparge. I get the reasoning behind this as it will help prevent clumping. I have also read that I should use 8 oz per pound of grains! That seems like a lot of added "stuff" that does not add flavor or color to my beer. I am looking at adding them since I will be adding 64oz pumpkin puree to the mash and I don't want that sludge to stick my sparge.

So my question becomes, how much rice hulls should I use in a grain bill consisting of a total 11# of various malts and the addition of pumpkin puree? That would be like 5.5# rice hulls.

 

[hunter_le five]

8oz per lb? That's insane. Rice hulls weigh very little, so half a pound of them is actually a lot in terms of volume. I buy 1 lb bags that last me for many batches. I wouldn't use 8oz per batch, let alone per pound.

Perhaps they meant 8oz by volume (1 cup) per lb, but even that figure seems quite excessive.

Pumpkin puree does lend itself to stuck sparges though, so you would definitely benefit from adding a few cups of rice hulls to the mash. Be sure to take the extra volume into account for your mash water calculations

 

[Sammy86]

On my recent wheat beer I used 1 pound of rice hulls and had no problems for an 11.5 grist bill...what was recommended to you sounds like an awful lot.... .5-1 pound should be plenty

 

[Yooper]

For most of my 10 gallon recipes, I use two handfuls of rice hulls. For something that has a ton of sticky stuff (30% wheat or rye, pumpkin, etc), I'd use a lot more.

I would just go by eyeballing- 3 pounds of rice hulls is what I normally have on hand, and it's a LOT. I mean, the volume is more than a king size pillow. So, maybe add it to your grain until it looks right I guess. I'd have to make a wild guess and say 8 ounces total would be plenty.

The thing is, rice hulls absorb a ton of water. That's not a problem at all for me, using a handful or two in 10 gallons, but if you're going to use a lot more than that, I'd suggest soaking them in some water first (your brewing water) because otherwise you'll be adding a lot more water to your grist once you try to mix all that in.

You can always add more, too. I mean, dough in and stir and if it looks like you need more "space" from keeping the pumpkin from clogging your system, you can toss more handfuls in and stir some more.

 

[porterpounder]

Just did a pumpkin with 3.5 lbs of canned and 3 hansdfuls of rice hulls in a 6 gallon batch with 10 lbs of grain. Sparge took about 1.5 hours. The pumpkin doesn't clump, it gums up everything. a lb or two of hulls would not be a bad idea. May save a lot of frustration.

 

[RM-MN]

Have you thought about using a fine mesh bag (paint strainer bag) for this batch. Pumpkin puree is easy to use with one of them because of the larger filter area (the whole bag is a filter) and if the wort doesn't want to come out (like a stuck sparge) you can squeeze it out.

 

[DrunkleJon]

I have put half a pound to a pound in pumpkin beers. Otherwise if i have a kinda sticky recipe a handfull or two should be enough. Think of them as supplementing the barley hulls.

 

[rokfreek]

I used 1 pound of rice hulls in a 5 gallon batch with almost 4 lbs of pumpkin. Sparge was a little slower than normal but worked fine.

 

[Spyk'd]

I put 6-15oz cans of pure pumpkin puree in my mash for a 5 gallon batch and have never had a stuck sparge. I do, however, sparge pretty slowly at ~120mins.


A little rice hull wouldn't hurt, but I'm not sure you need it. The pumpkin mostly dissolves.

 

[brettg20]

Literally brewing a pumpkin ale now...4lbs purée in the mash with 1 lb of rice hulls, no problem at all