Wheat Beer Low Efficiency Question

[Druman07]

I went to my LBHS this weekend to pickup ingredients for a small batch wheat beer. Simple recipe 50% Pilsner malt, 50% wheat malt, and some Saaz Hops. He asked
Red or White?, and not knowing the difference I took one of each, so I can compare between the two. They milled the grain as they usually do. I went with the 50/50 pilsner/ white wheat first and the efficiency was 50%, basically a 1.026 gravity for 7 quarts of wort.. Right from the beginning I knew something was different with this mash, the mash was very thin and soupy, and the initial batch sparging was quick until it slowed to a crawl after 3 times sparging. After sparging, I was so surprised with the low SG, I took a reading again, with the same result. I used 3qts of strike water for just over 2 pounds of grain, and sparged with 5 quarts and I can't get my head around this unless.... the wheat was not malted? The same recipe, made in the Fall, had an efficiency of 70% with the SG more than 10 points higher. There was also less loss in the grain this time, as I ended up with more wort than I needed for a gallon batch. Is it easy to tell whether the wheat is malted or not? Any comments on the difference between red and white wheat?

 

[Rev2010]

Wheat is smaller in kernel size than barley. I'm betting your LHBS didn't bother to tighten the mill gall for the wheat and you probably had poorly crushed wheat grains hence your low efficiency. While many people use a gap around .030 - .035 for barley they will use a tighter gap such as .025 or so for wheat.


Rev.

 

[Druman07]

That makes sense. I had them mill by recipe, so that makes sense as the grains were combined. They were very busy that day, and maybe the guy forgot to change the gap. Anyway, I'll run the next batch through my new mill before using.

 

[RM-MN]

With that amount of Pilsner malt the wheat would have converted even if it had not been malted. I'm betting on a poor crush.

 

[Druman07]

thanks for the info.

 

[RM-MN]

If you intend to make more wheat beers or rye beers, consider spending a bunch of money on a mill that works well for those grains. Here's one that you can use:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Zimtown-...ns-Shelled-Nuts-Commercial-Home-Use/707023671

I use one like this for all grains but i BIAB which works really well with finely crushed grains.

 

[Druman07]

Well today I did the same recipe again, but this time I milled the grains with my new cereal killer, set at .030 gap. I could see the difference in the crush vs when the store did it, and the smaller wheat grains are crushed vs no crush last time. And not suprisingly my efficiency jumped up to 67% vs 53% last time. A couple things also changed that I assume are related to the finer crush; the mash PH dropped .1 to 5.3, I had more water loss in the grain during sparging, and the wort was much cleaner with less debris.

 

[SoCal-Doug]

Many homebrew shops keep their mills a bit wider than we do at home. This is so their customers dont get stuck mashes and stuck sparges. Efficiency goes down a little but happy customers are better than bitchy ones.

If your supplier carries it, use Great Western White Wheat malt. The kernels are huge and you don't need to readjust your mill. I have a Bavarian wheat recipe that I consistently get 85% to 88% efficiency with using 50% weyermann german pilsner and 50% GW wheat (a half pound of rice hulls helps a bit too). My 2 roller monster mill is set at 0.034"

 

[RM-MN]

Many homebrew shops keep their mills a bit wider than we do at home. This is so their customers dont get stuck mashes and stuck sparges. Efficiency goes down a little but happy customers are better than bitchy ones.

If your supplier carries it, use Great Western White Wheat malt. The kernels are huge and you don't need to readjust your mill. I have a Bavarian wheat recipe that I consistently get 85% to 88% efficiency with using 50% weyermann german pilsner and 50% GW wheat (a half pound of rice hulls helps a bit too). My 2 roller monster mill is set at 0.034"

I've raised a bit of wheat on my farm and the kernel size depends on the year. Without irrigation, lack of rain at critical times make for small kernels. Where the wheat is raised that Great Western purchases may be irrigated so the size will be more consistent.

 

[IslandLizard]

new cereal killer, set at .030 gap

Still a bit wide for wheat.
I use 0.034" for Barley and 0.026" for wheat, rye and flaked goods. Batch sparge 2x. Efficiency 86%.
I milled Triticale once and the knurls were just not touching.

Yup, I readjust my mill's gap once, every time I mill. But I often do 2 batches back to back, or day to day, so that cuts it in half.

 

[SoCal-Doug]

I've raised a bit of wheat on my farm and the kernel size depends on the year. Without irrigation, lack of rain at critical times make for small kernels. Where the wheat is raised that Great Western purchases may be irrigated so the size will be more consistent.

Very true. I grew up on a Nebraska farm with corn, milo and wheat. I'm not sure where Great Western is, but their wheat is always big fatty kernels and has a really good flavor (which is not something I can normally say about U.S. malted grains). I buy it by the bag and use it for many different recipes.

 

[Lefou]

Unlike barley malt, malted wheat grains literally have no shell or hull.
You can turn these more highly diastatic grains into flour.
Doing so will gelatinize the mash more quickly and speed the conversion process. As the wheat converts you can achieve a higher mash efficiency, but using large amounts of wheat can be a PITA because in thicker mashes, it doesn't lauter well. My wheat beers are typically 50/50 barley wheat using 2-row, Pilsner, or Vienna. I do this because I like those base malts and prefer all malt beers with very little adjunct.