Mashing Raw Wheat?

[hopcycle]

BJCP style guidelines suggest soft wheat i.e protein at 8 % or thereabouts.

I do remember an article about this very subject and a well known brew guru did advise to cook the grain. Gelatinisation is not the only change that is desirable in unmalted grains. The enzymes must have access to the starch. Try soaking some unmalted rolled wheat grains in 66C water for 60 mins.

You may find that they still retain their shape and form which does not encourage conversion of the starch.....there is a reason why brewers crush malted grain...to allow access to the starchy goodness

Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[Jimmeh]

According to the book "Brewing with Wheat" (great book):

- The Hoeggarden dudes use 60% barley, 40% unmalted wheat. To mash they start at 50C and gradually rise to 75C.
- The people that brew "Celis White" do a similar mash regime by starting at 50C and slowly raising to 65C.
- The "Allgash White" brewers do a single infusion between 67C - 68C. They use malted & unmalted wheat.
- Brewers of "Wittekerke" at Brouwerij Bavik use a 45c, 63c, 72c step mash.

Hope any of that helps

:beer:

 

[devo]

My understanding is that a long protien rest around 50C will suffice, some do a cereal mash but it sounds too much like work.

I would suggest that a short boil wouldn't be a great idea because of DMS.

I don't think DMS will be a concern when the raw wheat is 50% of the grist and plenty of classic wheat beers have short boils or so I've read.(Stan Hieronymus - brewing with wheat)

 

[Tony]

ok i have awsome flow through my HERMS with all the rice gulls (thank god) so im going with the slow raisof temp method and see what it does.

I mashed in at 2l/kg at 50 deg and i will slowly raise both the temp and water volume over the next hour or 2 to 75 deg.

wish me luck and thanks for the tips folks............ i love this place

 

[mje1980]

I used flour in a wit a while back. Had no flow issues at all.

 

[Tony]

one hour down and im up to 65 deg and its looking good.

Going to start checking the sg i think....... keep an eye on it.

 

[katzke]

As you may have already found out. Raw Wheat is not the problem some make it out to be. I BIAB and have never had any trouble with Raw Wheat. I do process it a bit different, as I do not have a grain mill. I guess it works out to about the same as a step mash.

Efficiency should be surprising.

Not sure what your beer will taste like, as I have never looked at that yeast. I do not like clove or banana beer so use either S-04 or US-05. They make a nice tart cloudy Wit.

 

[Tony]

i got about 67% efficiency...... tastes, smells and looks the part...... just about to put in the fermenter

cheers

 

[raven19]

Further to the above excellent posts and discussion, I understand once you get over 20% unmalted grain in your grain bill, a rest around the 50 - 55 degree mark as per Nige's post is right on the money.

I use raw wheat and unmalted barley in brews from time to time (grain was a freebie from FIL). Only ever add up to 1kg though thus far - except in lambics where its close to 50% (but I am looking for more complex sugars for the wild yeasts to breakdown slowly over time).

Keep us posted on this one Tony.

 

[dr K]

I would second the comment regarding boil times....less time at boiling temp would theoretically leave more protein and starch in the wort

Why?

K

 

[Tony]

Checked the gravity today......... it started at 1.042 (wanted 1.047) and its down to 1.012 and still fizzing really well. I think this is going to be Saison dry!

It wont be a true to style Wit...... but damn it tastes good and i like a dry beer.

And i learnt some from this.

Next time i think i may use infusion mashing as apposed to slowly raising the temp with the HERMS to better control the final outcome of the beer, i will use either an acid/hydration rest at 35 deg or add a bit of acidulated malt to get the pH down...... i think it may have been a bit high, and may try running that raw wheat through my mill 3 times instead of twice to get it nice and fine to try and aid conversion.

Will keep you informed on the results of this beer

cheers

 

[Bizier]

Grains like raw wheat are the only reason I have for keeping my old corona mill. It is the one task it is actually suited to.

 

[jakub76]

Tony - how long did you hold at 50C? Because of the low efficiency I would assume that it was the short rest time rather than the ramp through lower mash temps that is causing it to finish dry.

 

[Tony]

Well it didnt go as dry as i thought.

It actually finnished at about 1.010 which will give me a nice 4.2% abv.

I have had it down at 5 deg since it finnished and i had a taste this afternoon. its awsome! tart, light and fluffy in the mouth with a nice mix of fennels, fruit and spice but none are prominent. there is no "wow there's the orange" Its just all well blended.

Im thinking of taking the keg of Marzen out of the kegorator and putting it in a fridge to CC and dump the Wit in a keg and drink the bitch fresh

cheers

 

[MHB]

It's not so much an acid rest that you're looking for at 35-45⁰C as Beta-Glucanase, it breaks up the gums a bunch of other enzymes all kick in, protease, peptidase, and terminalase all work around the 32-50⁰C range. What they are in fact doing is making more starch available to be tackled by the Amylase later in the mash.

With a too longish cool mash in its possible to make beer that is too dry very light bodied and has problems holding a head, with a lot of raw wheat (barley or whatever) I tend to mash in around 35^oC then ramp at about 1^oC/Minute to first saccrification rest, seems to give a fair balance of all the desirable characters.

MHB

 

[Tony]

Ahhhhhhhh so thats what it does...... i never really understood it.

I will definately employ this rest step in my next one to see how it goes.

cant wait to get this baby in the glass

 

[Kai]

Absolutely no need for cooking the wheat, as I said previously the gelatinisation temp is in the low 50's C. We are not talking rice or corn here which have gelatinisation temps ABOVE normal mash temps.
Nige

Yeah, there's no requirement for cooking raw wheat, it's a topic that comes up quite often as sometimes people are unsure if wheat needs a cereal mash or not. Though I did thing the gelatinisation temp for wheat was actually fairly close to the lower end of sacch rest temperatures?

In terms of extract efficiency though what I do see is that in a single infusion mash a fine crush is essential to getting good efficiency from raw wheat. And of course, this does exacerbate lauter/runoff issues.

And compared to terrified wheat I am not sure as I've never really used it in amounts above 5% or so. I do know that a large amount of raw wheat can give a fantastic doughy / tart / sourdough character that is really ephemeral and hard to keep right there in the glass. It's beautiful when you get it though.