Wheat Flour

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Bribie G

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I'm brewing a Coopers style Australian Sparkling Ale for a forthcoming comp. Most recipes call for a small wheat addition, and rather than wheat malt I have used Semolina in the past to good effect, used exactly like polenta with a short boil to a mushy porridge. However the latest attempt has produced a haze and I reckon that Semolina is probably not all starch but must have some proteins etc that don't get digested in the mash. EDIT: and that while some work well, other batches from various manufacturers could be hit or miss.

Last year a guy who posts irregularly and claims to be a former employee of Coopers said that they historically used a bit of just good old plain flour in the mash. Makes sense as UK brewers did this extensively during the 20th century. You can't put too much in as it gums up the sparge horribly, AFAIK, but for BIAB that's not such a serious concern, so I'm going to try it out.

< as you all know nothing in my pantry is sacred if it can be turned into C2H5OH - polenta, cornflakes, oatmeal, rice, semolina, sardines........ :icon_cheers: >

Now, has anyone done this and should I just mix the flour into the grain bill before dough in, or gently cook the flour to a runny "wallpaper paste" consistency? I guess that as with all adjuncts a bit of gelatinisation is required?
 
C'mon Michael, dont be puttin flour in an aussie sparkling. Although if you would like to put some wheat grain thats been turned into flour into an aussie sparkling ; my mill, wheat grain and time is readily available. Much like milling simpsons golden oats to a flour for a ........../

Cheers Brad
 
Can't imagine wheat flour will be any less likely to give you starch haze than polenta will. I also can't imagine it will be the same as wheat malt.

I have heard of people adding wheat flour to hefeweizens to make them cloudy for competitions - seems counterintuitive to me as the cloudiness is caused by the yeast but whatever makes your beer happy.
 
I doubt if the haze is starch, as it would have been eaten by the BB ale malt - more likely some horrid wheat protein - maybe the gluten. I was more interested in the gelatinisation of the flour. Actually I could use weeties ..... :icon_cheers:
 
Can't imagine wheat flour will be any less likely to give you starch haze than polenta will. I also can't imagine it will be the same as wheat malt.

I have heard of people adding wheat flour to hefeweizens to make them cloudy for competitions - seems counterintuitive to me as the cloudiness is caused by the yeast but whatever makes your beer happy.


The great man Mr Sanders (don't mention chinese hops) - still regarded by "old timers" as one of the great homebrewers in Aussie history, anyway he was a great advocate of wheat flour in brews. I did it early in some beers without any haze problems. Haven't used it recently as I have wheat grain. Suggest if you need further, search the old craftbrewer radio shows archives (where I did find it yonks ago). Memory (and lets face it, my (all) crushes have some level of flour anyway) says no need for anything other than a straight addition. Vorlauf heaps if you must. As a BIABer M, if it looks cloudy, strain again!
 
As far as could tell Old GLS was/is full of knowledge on everything HB/CB related.

Just a pity he was/is a bit of an arrogant cocknocker in personal communications but I'd never question his level of expertise (in brewing, not in English).

I remember a year or so ago when I was researching an extract tsingtsao clone and I whacked some rice flour in, people told me I'd get haze and potential infection. Definitely got haze - infection free though.

Having not actually tried it with wheat flour, I probably shouldn't have commented at all. Forgetting haze potential what does the flour actually bring to the brew (ie why did GLS actually recommend it?)
 
FWIW, I regularly add 100gms of wheat flour to the mash to help with head retention. It's too small an amount to cause haze issues and it does work.
 
Wheat = head retention and foaming etc - makes the beer more 'sticky'. I'm looking for these properties without the sometimes sharp twang I have got from using wheat malt.
 
I used wheat flour in a wit since I was out of flaked wheat, seemed to work fine.
 
I used wheat flour in a wit since I was out of flaked wheat, seemed to work fine.

Yes Winkle, you've latched onto what I'm talking about. The flaked wheat would have been gelatinised during steaming and pressing, as are cornflakes, flaked maize, flaked rice etc.
Flour is not gelatinised, but I take it that it got mashed out ok just adding 'raw' without boiling to a mush first?
 
Pretty sure Semolina is made from the endosperm of the wheat kernel so would be high in protien, not the sort of thing I'd be adding to my beer. Have used flour previously and always use Spelt flour in my Klsch, without a problem. For Wits have mixed some flour with water to make a paste and added this to the boil for 15 min for a good cloudy Witbier.

Screwy
 
Yes Winkle, you've latched onto what I'm talking about. The flaked wheat would have been gelatinised during steaming and pressing, as are cornflakes, flaked maize, flaked rice etc.
Flour is not gelatinised, but I take it that it got mashed out ok just adding 'raw' without boiling to a mush first?
Nor is malted barley.
As you know, the starches in grain, be that rice, corn, raw barley, malted barley, wheat or malted wheat need to be gelatinized before the enzymes (in our case most likely from amalyse from malted barley) convert the starches to sugars.
Flour, whether from wheat or the malt you just cracked must be gelatinised before the conversion from starch to sugar ocours, happily wheat and barley starches will gelatinize within the normal mashing temp regime.

K
 
Thanks doc, yes I was forgetting that flour from cracked malt is basically in the same condition and doesn't get converted till the enzymes get to work :icon_cheers:
 
Thanks doc, yes I was forgetting that flour from cracked malt is basically in the same condition and doesn't get converted till the enzymes get to work :icon_cheers:

Which begs the question ... why can't we add rice flour?
 
I would have thought you'd still need to gelatinise the flour as you would normal white rice? Might be wrong though (has been known to happen on rare occasions :ph34r:)

Personally I would have thought that unless you're getting your rice flour for basically free, el cheapo white rice from ALDI or any other 'home' brand would be cheaper. Shouldn't gunk up your mash either as flour very well may.

Cheers

EDIT: Beat ya, Felten :p
 
You probably could use rice flour if you gelatinised it beforehand, going off http://www.braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?t...arch_Conversion rice has a high gelatinisation point. BSP talks about adding flours and such as adjuncts too.

"Mash tun adjuncts fall into three classes, those that can be mixed into the grist without pre-cooking, such as wheat flours, those that are pre-cooked before mashing begins (e.g. flaked maize, torrefied wheat) and those that are cooked in the brewery as part of the mashing programme, such as maize-, rice- and sorghum-grits"

from brewing science and practice

edit: damn you NickB!
 
I made a Hefe some time ago and used 500g of Aldi Weetbix straight in the mash... it got sticky but sparged ok. End result was a tasty brew.
 
You trying to make a cake? Next thing you will be putting beers in the oven at 180 for 60min. :D
 

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