Torrified wheat???

[firefly765]

I was told by someone from morebeer.com that it does not have to be crushed. I've read in some threads of people crushing it. Can someone help with accurate info.

Thanks.

 

[MrAverage]

I don't know for sure but here's a semi-educated guess -

Why crush grain? a) to separate husk from the grain thereby making the husk material available to use as a filter for lautering, b) to expose the malt grain so that the ezymes can work on the material contained therein, and c) to increase the exposure of the "good stuff" in the grain so that the enzymes can do their work more efficiently

Given that a) does not apply to torrified grains, I think you're left with b) and c) ...and those things DO apply. I've been advised to crush it, it makes sense to do so and that's the way I use it.

I suppose you do HAVE to, but I'd guess that you'll get much lower extraction from a given portion of it if it's not crushed than if it is.

 

[firefly765]

I don't know for sure but here's a semi-educated guess -

Why crush grain? a) to separate husk from the grain thereby making the husk material available to use as a filter for lautering, b) to expose the malt grain so that the ezymes can work on the material contained therein, and c) to increase the exposure of the "good stuff" in the grain so that the enzymes can do their work more efficiently

Given that a) does not apply to torrified grains, I think you're left with b) and c) ...and those things DO apply. I've been advised to crush it, it makes sense to do so and that's the way I use it.

I suppose you do HAVE to, but I'd guess that you'll get much lower extraction from a given portion of it if it's not crushed than if it is.

I may have worded it wrong. The rep said "NOT" to crush the torrified wheat. Before i got my mill i tried crushing some with a rolling pin & that stuff was like rocks. I then hit it with a food processor & barely touched it.

 

[MrAverage]

A typo in my previous post:

the last line should have read "I suppose you DON'T HAVE to, but I'd guess that you'll get much lower extraction from a given portion of it if it's not crushed than if it is."

Anyway, the advice I got from my LHBS and from this and other brewing forums was to crush it. That's what I do and, as I said above, if you think about why we crush grains in the first place it makes sense to me that you should also crush torrified wheat.

Edited to add: Briess says to crush it : http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Assets/PDFs/Briess_PISB_TorrifiedWheat.pdf

 

[BigEd]

Torrified wheat should be milled, just like any other whole kernel.