Suggestions For Small Experiemtnal Batch With Raw Wheat In Biab

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Dazza88

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Hi all,

Been ages since i last posted. Have successfully brewed two grain beers by BIAB in that time (a belgian strong ale and a wheat beer). Wondering if anyone could suggest or comment on this idea i am having to brew a small batch with remaining ingredients i have at home.

Ingredients to be going in the pot.

500 g raw wheat
800 Light DME
Saaz Hops

Other stuff on hand:


Various dark specialty grains (but want a lighter beer) and pale crystal malt. 500 g bags, crushed

Dextrose, Honey, and some crappy yeast (briglalow i think - BigW @$1)


So i understand that Raw wheat needs a cereal mash. I think i can handle this (40, 60, 70C steps with rests) by adding small volumes of boiling water which should be manageable for a small amount of grain. I have flaked oats on hand to add for that part. I also believe adding some of the pale crystal (or probably a base malt) would be beneficial to the cereal mash.

The following recipe idea is somewhat like a wit beer recipe or two i have found on the net. The pale crystal probably makes it too dark though.

So would this sound right?

Cereal Mash
Raw Wheat - 500g
Flaked Oats - 100g
Pale Crystal - 50g

Mash - 1.3 L of water heated to 40C; 0.7 L of boiling to 60C; 0.8L of boiling water added to 70C. 30 minute rests each step in sleeping bags and Styrofoam box.

Add for boil
Water to 12.5 L.
LDME - 800g

Hops
Saaz - 20g at 60 minutes
Saaz - 10g at 15 minutes
Saaz - 10g at 5 minutes

Final volume 8L . Target OG - 1.053; Target FG - 1.012; Target EBU- 23 (calculations by Beer Engine)


The one thing i am willing to buy for this is some better yeast, but i think i would prefer to get a dry yeast. Not so sure what my options are beyond a dried wheat yeast.

I suppose i would buy coriander (seeds?) and dried orange peel if i could get in cheaply in a local supermarket. Do the coriander seeds need to be freshly ground (I have found it hard to find whole seeds)

So,

Any suggestions for yeast or other improvements on the recipe?

Any glaring errors that need to be addressed?

Thanks for your input.

Daz
 
Mate I don't know much but...
You're gonna need some base malt to convert the raw wheat. The LDME has no enzymes .
wyeast 3944 is awesome.
Cheers
 
A cereal mash requires a base malt with eznymatic power. e.g. pilsner, ale, maris otter, golden promise etc

So if you want to use the raw wheat it looks like you will need to use some base malt for this beer. i'd go 1kg of pilsner for the raw wheat and you can easily get away with a standard infusion mash at that ratio, no need for a complicated cereal mash.
 
My Wit was about half pale malt/ half raw wheat, with about 10% oats. Converted great using biab.

I do not have a gain mill but do have a meat grinder. I put the wheat in a soup pot and added enough boiling water to cover. Let set till cool enough to put in the fridge and ran it through the meat grinder the next day while the water was heating up for the mash. I used a course blade in the grinder. Did a standard mash and produced a nice cloudy straw colored Wit just like it is supposed to be.

If you have a grain grinder or the wheat has been cracked already then I guess a form of cereal mash may help you out. My guess is that is what I did with my method. Regardless you will need to at least match the raw wheat with an equal or greater amount of malted grain for proper conversion.

Sorry I can not help with a recipe. At this moment I am not able to do the conversions from our far superior system of weights and measures used in the USA to your confusing metric system.

Did you get that a beer made with raw wheat will not be a clear beer but cloudy? It also has a different taste. Kind of a citrus bite, on the lemon side and not the grapefruit you get from hops. I used 2 ounces of Fuggels and Goldings in different recipes. I liked the Goldings and the wife liked the Fuggles. I split the 2 ounces as 1 at 60 minutes and 1 at 5. I also used US-05 with the Goldings and S-04 with the Fuggles. Both were standard 5+ gallon batches.
 
Brigalow yeast for a wheat beer... seriously not!?

WB-06 for dry and take your pick of the liquids - the old fave 3068 or any of the wits

I guess you could use US-05 or S-04... but you will be in pale ale territory of sorts with none of the unique wheat beer flavours (mostly yeast driven)

to keep it simple try a simple 50/50 pils/wheat mash (single infusion) and use wheat extract to make up the rest, saaz up to 20IBU and WB-06
 
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