Raw Wheat Supplies& Barley Seeds?

[chefeffect]

Just wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction for raw wheat other than a home brew store as the nearest is 2.5 hours away. I have seen on some american forums people have used wheat from stock feed stores, has anyone given this a crack?

Also I am wanting to grow some barley on my property, does anyone know where to get seed for 2 or 6 row?

 

[punkin]

Just wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction for raw wheat other than a home brew store as the nearest is 2.5 hours away. I have seen on some american forums people have used wheat from stock feed stores, has anyone given this a crack?

Also I am wanting to grow some barley on my property, does anyone know where to get seed for 2 or 6 row?

I buy lots of grain from feed stores or direct from the seed grader. Just make sure you ask for feed grade as a lot of seed grade stuff is sprayed with fungal inhibitors.



Don't use it if it's pink

 

[chefeffect]

Awesome cheers, I will be giving it ago then..

 

[chefeffect]

Awesome cheers, I will be giving it ago then..

Well if anyones interested I bought a 25kg bag of gograins feed wheat from Hunters for $12.50, did a bit more research and punkin your right the feed grain is not sprayed with fungicides which was a big concern for me. Turns out my wife has been cooking with wheat from pet food stores because you just can't get it anywhere except at health food stores which are super expensive. Just about to put on Tonys Bullshead Witbier!!

 

[brettprevans]

Well if anyones interested I bought a 25kg bag of gograins feed wheat from Hunters for $12.50, did a bit more research and punkin your right the feed grain is not sprayed with fungicides which was a big concern for me. Turns out my wife has been cooking with wheat from pet food stores because you just can't get it anywhere except at health food stores which are super expensive. Just about to put on Tonys Bullshead Witbier!!

thats good news for you, but just be aware that feed grain is a lesser quality than brewing grain. there are differant grades of grain that go to use for differant markets. im not saying your beer will be ****, im just saying that it may not be the best quality beer. kind of like using joe white instead of wyermann, except on a bigger scale.

also if your interested, keep an eye out for the grain bulk buys we do (generally 2 a year), then it would be worth your while coming into melb for a trip to pick up cheaper bulk grain

 

[chefeffect]

Thanks citymorgue2 good sound advice, yeah I need to get in on a bulk buy for sure its gets expensive getting grain shipped and I probably only goto Melbourne twice a year. It will be interesting to see how I go extracting the sugars from the wheat, and you response makes me think maybe I will get a lower yeild? Anyway's its a good experiment just hope my labour doesn't turn out crap, will let you know how it goes..

 

[brettprevans]

Thanks citymorgue2 good sound advice, yeah I need to get in on a bulk buy for sure its gets expensive getting grain shipped and I probably only goto Melbourne twice a year. It will be interesting to see how I go extracting the sugars from the wheat, and you response makes me think maybe I will get a lower yeild? Anyway's its a good experiment just hope my labour doesn't turn out crap, will let you know how it goes..

im not sure about whwther the yield will be less or not. i cant remember what i read on other similar threads. it could just be that the wort you get isnt as good a quality. it could mean 1/5th of **** all differance in quality, im not sure. I know the guys doing the professional brewing course and those involved in the grain industry will tell you that there is a differance in quality.

 

[seamad]

I have found( along with others) that effiency goes south with raw wheat in a wit anyway. When calculating your recipe lower your eff. by@10-15% to compensate. At that price it is sweet fa anyway.
Cheers

 

[chefeffect]

No worries thanks for that, the beer recipe was on the low end of the wit SG recommendation at 1.044 SG to start with so I added some more wheat to bring it up to 1.046 SG that way I lessen my chances of a Mid Strength.

 

[chefeffect]

Im also doing a 4 step cereal mash just over 2.5hrs so that should help.

 

[punkin]

I'd like to add that the grain could be a lower grade. It could also be exactly the same as food grade, brewers grade or export grade, depending on the market and a hundred and one other factors.

It could be that less effort went into grading (filtering and sorting wheat from chaff and weed seeds) although the amount of crap weed seeds, rocks and other stuff i've found in good quality malt is suprising.


For our purposes it will make **** all difference.


The one thing i will advise about is that feed grade WILL carry weevils, moths and other fauna, where malt seems to be 'treated' (fumigated with poison) to a much greater extent extending shelf life if kept sealed.


So us it quick, and don't store it with the exe stuff.

 

[brettprevans]

thread on feed grain if your interested chef
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...&hl=quality

 

[chefeffect]

Thanks for the link, I need to learn how to use the search function a bit better as this link was what I was after. Took sometime to read and quite a few laughs, man this forum can be full on sometimes....

All I can do is experiment I guess, I would like for the sake of it to grow and malt my own barley just to say hey, check this out, it might taste like horse piss though and after all the work is it worth it? It would be nice to add grain to my self sufficient list along with all my other wacky hobbies, cost it not really a major issue, but bragging that a beer cost 20 cents is lol Anyways not far off from boiling...

 

[ekul]

You could try malting the barley from the feedstore before growing it to see how you go with that. If the home malted grain makes a good beer then you could take the finla step and grow the barley yourself, malt it and make beer out of it.

I looked into malting my own barley for a little while. It was going great but then it got real humid (or rained?) and a bit of mould set in. So make sure you got some hot dry days ahead of you so that you can dry it (or dry it in the oven!)

The place i found the most info on it was at distiller forums. Spirit home brewers seem to get into it a fair bit more than beer homebrewers.

 

[hoppy2B]

I can send you some premium wheat seed if you like. Premium wheat is the right protein level for malting. Its the protein level which is most important. Funny thing how different varieties produce grain at specific protein levels.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, you can't thresh barley by hand. I've tried it and its impossible. You'll only regret growing barley.
On the question of quality, wheat should give you a higher yield. Pound for pound wheat provides higher levels of energy and contains less fibre. And surprise surprise better quality beers usually contain wheat. Wheat is a higher priced grain and the only reason barley is used for brewing beer is because it was 'relegated' to this task and also because the husks provide a filter. Modern BIAB eliminates the need for barley husks.
Its a pity people are so ready to accept the law of some fucken beer nazis. :lol:

 

[hoppy2B]

You could try malting the barley from the feedstore before growing it to see how you go with that. If the home malted grain makes a good beer then you could take the finla step and grow the barley yourself, malt it and make beer out of it.

I looked into malting my own barley for a little while. It was going great but then it got real humid (or rained?) and a bit of mould set in. So make sure you got some hot dry days ahead of you so that you can dry it (or dry it in the oven!)

The place i found the most info on it was at distiller forums. Spirit home brewers seem to get into it a fair bit more than beer homebrewers.

Wheat will germinate in half the number of days and if I recall correctly it will do it at around 20 degrees as appose to the 18 degrees used for malting barley.
Shorter malting time means less likelyhood of mold.

 

[chefeffect]

Its a pity people are so ready to accept the law of some fucken beer nazis. :lol:
[/quote]

Laughing with you. I BIAB as well so that might say something?

Wheat seed would be awesome mate, where did you get the barley from? I've got a book called 'The homebrewers garden' and it has some very basic ways of making beer from home grown ingredients, I love experimenting and you will find all Chefs do, it's the only practical way to get better at something reading a book is a good start. I guess I can understand the beer nazis because beer making has been around for so long who wants to reinvent the wheel.

 

[chefeffect]

Crap, not wrong about the efficiency going south, I have a mid strength beer for sure!!

 

[ekul]

Interesting, wheat from the feed store is pretty cheap as well. Will have to acquire a taste for wheat beer

Wheat will germinate in half the number of days and if I recall correctly it will do it at around 20 degrees as appose to the 18 degrees used for malting barley.
Shorter malting time means less likelyhood of mold.

 

[chefeffect]

I love wheat beers, must be the sweetness? Turns out if I had adjusted my efficiency by 15% as seamad mentioned I would have been right on the money!!