Beer Forum

I found a recipe from Northern Brewer that I want to make, and it calls for 50% 2 row and 50% white wheat malt. I've heard wheat can be difficult to mash with, and I know UNmalted wheat needs to go through a cereal mash before getting tossed in with the barley (still not sure how that works, but HTB has instructions that I'll look over more closely if I need to).

My question is: do I need to cereal mash wheat malt? And will I need rice hulls? I'm assuming my water to grist ratio should be higher to accommodate a better sparge (I batch sparge and don't have any real way to fly sparge right now).

No need for a cereal mash with malted wheat. Whether or not you need rice hulls will depend on your setup, but if you're unsure it's much easier to throw in a half pound of rice hulls than to deal with a stuck mash. Doing a mashout will also help with the lautering.

+1. Mash as normal. Any time I'm over 25% wheat, I always throw in rice hulls. Better to have them in there & not need them, than to find out the hard way that you should have.

Ozwald wrote:+1. Mash as normal. Any time I'm over 25% wheat, I always throw in rice hulls. Better to have them in there & not need them, than to find out the hard way that you should have.

I've read places that I should rinse the rice hulls before use. Is this something I need to worry about? And what would be the best way to do that?

If you plan on adding rice hulls you do not need to rinse them first. Just be sure to account for them in your strike water amounts as they will absorb some water and heat. They will get "rinsed" when you stir them into your strike water.

brewinhard wrote:If you plan on adding rice hulls you do not need to rinse them first. Just be sure to account for them in your strike water amounts as they will absorb some water and heat. They will get "rinsed" when you stir them into your strike water.

That's kinda what I thought. I just could remember if I'd read it from the palmer or my LHBS owner. They guy who makes my brewing harder than it needs to be.

I'm only using 2.76lbs each of wheat and barley, would half a pound of hulls be overboard? I'm almost tempted to drop down to .3 of a pound.

GilesTH wrote:I'm only using 2.76lbs each of wheat and barley, would half a pound of hulls be overboard? I'm almost tempted to drop down to .3 of a pound.

It really doesn't matter all that much. Does .3 make you feel better? Then go for it