Rice Hulls

[Boots]

Hi everyone
I've got today and tomorrow off, and will be brewing my first wheat beer, but I'm having trouble sourcing Rice Hulls.

I've tried Grumpy's, Bill at Holden Hill Brewmaker / Goliath web, and a fodder store.

The biggest lead I got was from the Fodder store, and the guy there said that there had been a change recently in it's availability. It used to be available in 25Kg sacks, but now it is only available in 120KG pallets (from his supplier anyway).

Now that's a big bulk buy even in AHB standards, so I was wondering if anyone knows whether they're available?

It looks like I might be changing the grain bill of my brew, but to be honest I have no idea what percentage of wheat is safe to use without them (copper manifold with very fine slits).

Perhaps some muslin cloth?

Cheers
(BTW - what a supurb day to have off. Weather is quite nice at the moment - doing some chores around the house listening to my Brewing Network radio shows chugging down some APA B) )

 

[Doc]

Hey Boots,

If you are worried I'd just put a big hop bag over your manifold and go like that. I've done many many wheat beers and only used rice hulls twice (on my 100% wheat beer and my current heferyeizen (wheat + rye + pils)). The later because I found I still had some. I'm not convinced on my system that I needed them as I used a hop bag over my manifold.

Beers,
Doc

 

[Boots]

Thanks Doc. I don't have a hop bag, but I do have some muslin cloth baby wraps, I reckon I'll use one of them and see how I go.

I haven't had a brewing disaster in at least 3 brews so I'm sure it'll be fine

Cheers

 

[warrenlw63]

Boots.

I've managed to do a wheat beer with 60% wheat malt and get away with it.

Won't kid you and say the lauter was very quick, but it got there. :lol:

Just make sure you really thin the mash at mashout. You should be right.

Warren -

 

[Steve]

boots - dont forget to take the baby out

 

[Borret]

Boots,

Try a few stockfeed outlets. I just manages to get hold of some this very afternoon. At first he told me he only had the 120kg jobs too but when I mentioned I only wanted a couple of Kilo's for brewing with he said he had an older open bag he will sell me some out of. I will pick it up tommorow
Your luck may vary.

Cheerin

Borret

 

[Boots]

I was only looking at a 60% maybe 70% wheat bill anyway so I reckon with the muslin it'll be worth the risk. Not sure what your setup is Warren but if you can pull 60% wheat with no precautions i should be fine.

Steve - she's 2 and a half now so she wouldn't fit in the tun anyway

 

[warrenlw63]

Boots.

I just use a 10 gallon round Igloo with a Phils False Bottom. Rice hulls would have helped at the time, however I got by. Don't be afraid to rake the grainbed with a knife or something similar and keep the liquid level up and it will work.

Wheat runoffs always look crappy one way or another. :beer:

Warren -

 

[Snow]

Boots,

I regularly do 60% wheat malt mashes with a grain steeping bag over my manifold and have never had lautering problems. I made a 50% raw wheat mash the other day and it lautered perfectly. I think you'd do fine with muslin cloth in a 70% wheat malt mash.

Cheers - Snow

 

[user 384]

Hi Boots

I've made wheat beers with 50% wheat and no rice hulls. I had no problems with run-off and that was using a home-made Bazooka screen.

Cheers
MAH

 

[Darren]

Boots, sorry for the late reply. I can give you a couple of kilos of hulls if you think you need them.
give me a call 0439499605
cheers
darren

 

[Boots]

Thanks for the offer Darren, but I've probably left it too late now. Thanks anyway though.

And thanks for all the responses as well. Now that I know the amounts of wheat people are using and getting away with, I'm pretty sure I'll be ok.

I'll report back on how I go.

Thanks again.

Boots

 

[tdh]

I've done a 70% wheat malt beer and didn't have any trouble, I just made sure that I sparged as slow as possible.

At Grumpy's today I made another Honey Wheat using only 50% malted wheat, worked just as well as an all barley-malt mash.

tdh