Brewing with unmalted wheat

[mosto]

I'm going to brew this weekend and am pretty much out of base malt except for 4kg of Pilsner. I brew 20-25L batches so this will almost enough for a batch, but I only have some dark specialty grains other than the Pilsner. The compressor on my ferment fridge is on the blink at the moment, so i can't really brew a lager, but could get away with a Kolsch and have some 2565 on hand, but the dark grains aren't really going to work in a Kolsch. I work at a large flour mill and can easily get my hands on some Flaked Wheat, but I've never brewed with unmalted grain before.

So, firstly, is the 4kg of Pilsner going to have enough diastatic power to convert the starches in the wheat? I've done some reading here, which would suggest the Pilsner should have plenty of diastatic power, but just wanted to check with those of you that have some experience with this.

Secondly, are there any other tips or tricks I need to know when using unmalted grain?

Here is the recipe I've come up with:

Krazy Kolsch (Kolsch)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.045 (°P): 11.2
Final Gravity (FG): 1.011 (°P): 2.8
Alcohol (ABV): 4.42 %
Colour (SRM): 3.0 (EBC): 5.9
Bitterness (IBU): 21.9 (Average - No Chill Adjusted)

88.89% Pilsner
11.11% Flaked Wheat

1.7 g/L Saaz (3.6% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
0.9 g/L Saaz (3.6% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil)


Single step Infusion at 65°C for 90 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes

Fermented at 15°C with Wyeast 2565 - Kölsch


Recipe Generated with BrewMate

 

[klangers]

There should be plenty of diastatic power. There's not too much wheat in your bill so hopefully the mash doesn't get too sticky.

 

[Bribie G]

Both Weyermann and domestic Pilsner malts have enough diastatic power to convert at least 30% starch adjuncts.
Old UK beers produced during malt shortages would often contain "brewers flour".
I believe that Coopers used to use some unmalted wheat at their original brewery.

With wheat, a couple of things to watch out for:

If the flaked wheat has been produced by steam rolling at the mill, the starches should be already gelatinised so they will be available to the enzymes in the malt.
Otherwise you will need to boil the wheat to a porridge before adding to mashtun.

You may get a stuck sparge, if you are doing 3V or other sparging systems, keep fingers crossed

edit: as Klangers sez.

 

[mosto]

Cheers guys. I'm doing full volume BIAB so stuck sparge is not an issue.

 

[mosto]

If the flaked wheat has been produced by steam rolling at the mill, the starches should be already gelatinised so they will be available to the enzymes in the malt.
Otherwise you will need to boil the wheat to a porridge before adding to mashtun.

So one of the guys has just dropped 500g of flaked wheat on my desk. Double checked the process with him and he said the grain is heated with steam to 100c then put through the flaking roller. I assume this would be enough to gelatinise the starches?

 

[Bribie G]