Terrorized by Torrified Wheat

[fishops]

I brewed up EdWort's Bavarian Wheat recipe on Saturday for a party I'm having in about a month. My LHBS had a big bin, right with the 2-row that said "WHEAT" on it, so I went with that. 7 pounds "WHEAT", 4 pounds pils and some rice hulls to keep it from turning to cement.

I have to admit I rushed the brew day a little. I did the requisite 90 minute mash, but I really raced through the sparge, not draining slowly and making sure the grain bed settled. So when I go back to ProMash and put in my numbers, I figure that's why my efficiency dropped 10 points to 63%.

Oh well, I figure, it's still beer.

Today I go back to my LHBS and I notice the friendly owner refilling the "WHEAT" bin.

"Oh ****" he exclaims.

"Uh, what's the matter?"

"Well, I thought this was malted wheat but it turns out it's torrified wheat. Oops."

"Yeah. Uh. ****."

He was very nice about it, and didn't even charge me for my grain bill today (Randy, if you're reading this you rock) Also on the plus side, it restored my trust in my brew system.

My question is, what should I expect? It's been in the fermenter for three days and so far it looks and smells like a normal bavarian wheat. Am I going to have a starchy mess? I didn't do the iodine test, but I'd be amazed if 4 pounds of pils had enough enzyme to chew through 7 pounds of wheat starch.

I have a bunch of wheat DME lying around, should I boil up a pound and throw it in?

 

[Germey]

Definitely don't worry.
According to "brewing with Breiss"

Torrified Wheat has been heat treated to break the cellular structure, allowing more rapid hydration and malt enzymes to more
completely attack the starches and protein. Torrified Wheat can be used in place of raw wheat when making Belgian-style
White and Wit beers. Advantages over raw wheat include normal conversion time and higher yield.

I can't imagine that throwing yet more wheat into the fermenter would do anything good... probably the opposite.
I think you will have to tell us how it comes out.

Edit: Oh, you said DME...to shift the balance to the barley side of things. My gut says leave it. If there is starch, adding DME won't fix it, and the balance will probably not be too far shifted from the original. It will probably be fine.

 

[fishops]

Awesome. I am currently Relaxing, Not Worrying and Having a HomeBrew.

 

[fishops]

Well, I kegged and crash cooled this batch yesterday. Checked in on it today and HOLY GOD there is starch in there.

I mean, this beer is paper white and opaque. It tastes pretty good, if green. The wyeast 3068 did its thing and got the FG down to 1.09.

It tastes a little... starchy. Gluey. Hopefully this will settle out some because the color is actually really remarkable, and the rest of the flavors are the usual nice spicy banana/clove. I'll take pictures in a bit once I can find my damned SD card.

 

[Boleslaus]

Sorry the resurrect a thread after 4 years. But shouldn't torrified wheat taste the same in the final beer as flaked wheat?

 

[BigEd]

Sorry the resurrect a thread after 4 years. But shouldn't torrified wheat taste the same in the final beer as flaked wheat?

No, not exactly. Torrified wheat has a little toastiness to it.

 

[Boleslaus]

But the OP said it was starchy??