# Rice Hull Substitute



## coeliacsurvivor (16/10/09)

Hi guys,

I am about to start my first AG gluten free brew, exciting.

However, after reading a lot of the posts here it seems likely that sparging/lautering will be a problem and I should add rice hulls to the mash.

My problem is that I can't find anywhere in NZ that sells rice hulls. 

Can anyone recommend a substitute that is also gluten free. Can I use rice, or perhaps an unmalted unground grain like millet to help in the lautering process?

Cheers

Colm


----------



## Rod (16/10/09)

coeliacsurvivor said:


> My problem is that I can't find anywhere in NZ that sells rice hulls.



I am across the channel , nut got my rice hulls in a produce store 

used them to make a rice pillow

they are stocked in the produce store and used as bedding for horses

I could get a small quantity


----------



## JonnyAnchovy (16/10/09)

h34r: gravel?


----------



## TidalPete (16/10/09)

JonnyAnchovy said:


> h34r: gravel?



:icon_offtopic: 
Forget it if you want to avoid a lawsuit from Pumpy? :lol: 
TTBOMM it worked ok when Pumpy tried it around the time of the first grain bags around 2002.
Happy to be corrected from a hysterical  historical viewpoint.

TP


----------



## coeliacsurvivor (16/10/09)

Rod said:


> I am across the channel , nut got my rice hulls in a produce store
> 
> used them to make a rice pillow
> 
> ...




Hi Rod, thanks for that but importing into NZ is a big no-no with the border guards. I'll try a few of the local horse traders and see what I can come up with.

Cheers

Colm


----------



## Millet Man (19/10/09)

Hi Colm,

What malted grain are you using?

Cheers, Andrew.
\


coeliacsurvivor said:


> Hi guys,
> 
> I am about to start my first AG gluten free brew, exciting.
> 
> ...


----------



## Tony (19/10/09)

What about Rice Gulls?


----------



## Thirsty Boy (20/10/09)

Tony said:


> What about Rice Gulls?



feathers (whether from a Gull or not) would probably actually work.......


As would straw (broken into short pieces) - all you would need to do is make sure it was straw from a GF plant (although I doubt there is gluten in any straw) and that it was basically flavour neutral. All you are doing is "fluffing up" the grain bed a little so that wort can flow through it better - and perhaps at the bottom of the mash, giving an initial course layer and some depth and surface area in the filter bed.

Anything that would "mix" into the mash and neither fall straight to the bottom or float to the top would do. As long as it gave the mash porosity. You could run a length of muslin through a cross cut shredder and use handsfull of the pieces - a pile of little tiny lengths of butchers string - a bag or two of cotton balls - hell, maybe even chopped up plastic drinking straws. As long as it wasn't contributing flavour or anything but physical structure there are probably dozens of things that could do the same thing as rice hulls.


----------



## coeliacsurvivor (21/10/09)

Thirsty Boy said:


> feathers (whether from a Gull or not) would probably actually work.......
> 
> 
> As would straw (broken into short pieces) - all you would need to do is make sure it was straw from a GF plant (although I doubt there is gluten in any straw) and that it was basically flavour neutral. All you are doing is "fluffing up" the grain bed a little so that wort can flow through it better - and perhaps at the bottom of the mash, giving an initial course layer and some depth and surface area in the filter bed.
> ...



Thanks for that, I was thinking of piling up different layers of sand and small gravel after reading a post on another site. I'll put my thinking cap on and see what I come up.

Andrew I am using Buckwheat as my malt - I can't get unhulled millet in NZ either so I'm a bit short on options. I will be adding some roasted unmalted millet as a steeping grain to add a bit of colour and hopefully flavour.

Any other tips are much appreciated.

Colm


----------



## Millet Man (23/10/09)

coeliacsurvivor said:


> Thanks for that, I was thinking of piling up different layers of sand and small gravel after reading a post on another site. I'll put my thinking cap on and see what I come up.
> 
> Andrew I am using Buckwheat as my malt - I can't get unhulled millet in NZ either so I'm a bit short on options. I will be adding some roasted unmalted millet as a steeping grain to add a bit of colour and hopefully flavour.
> 
> ...


Hi Colm,

I thought you'd get raw unhulled millet at a pet food store for sure - birds love it. Probably too cold in most of NZ to grow millet though.

The hulls on the buckwheat will help with lautering but I have found that the buckwheat can be very gummy so be sure to have a good rest at 40C when you mash in. If the gummy stuff (beta-glucans) gets into the boiler it will tend to scorch. If the sparge gets stuck then I would suggest draining through fabric as per the BIAB method.

Hope it all goes well.

Cheers, Andrew.


----------



## Bribie G (23/10/09)

As a BIAB brewer I note that when I use rice in a mash, even though it's white rice, the mash drains far more freely than an all malt mash and squeezes out much drier. Around 10 percent rice dry weight then cooked (edit: then put into) the mash would suit a wide variety of beer styles. You could maybe try brown rice which would need to be cooked a lot longer.


----------



## Millet Man (23/10/09)

BribieG said:


> As a BIAB brewer I note that when I use rice in a mash, even though it's white rice, the mash drains far more freely than an all malt mash and squeezes out much drier. Around 10 percent rice dry weight then cooked (edit: then put into) the mash would suit a wide variety of beer styles. You could maybe try brown rice which would need to be cooked a lot longer.


Don't talk to me about malting brown rice...baby vomit mmmmm

Brown rice would add more flavour but and would be worth a try, also a mash of malted corn lauters very well without any rice hulls so that is also worth looking at.

Cheers, Andrew.


----------

