Looking at brewing an american wheat on friday with 40% wheat in the grain bill, do I need to use rice hulls or not with this percentage?
And if so, how much do you usually use in a five gallon batch?
I use a similar percentage in my am wheat. I don’t use rice hulls, but it does get stuck a bit towards the end. Not stuck enough for me to use rice hulls, though. It probably depends on your system.
Hate to answer you this way, but the reality is it depends on lots of factors. How fine is your crush? Do you condition the grain before crushing? What kind of mash system do you have? Do you batch sparge or fly sparge? How fast do you sparge?
I condition my grain and then crush it fine (about 0.030" gap), and batch sparge using cooler with a stainless braid as fast as I can drain it. My standard Am Wheat recipe uses about 45% wheat, and I don’t add any rice hulls. YRMV.
If you do get a stuck sparge, you can always stir in a few handfulls of rice hulls, recirculate again and try again. A bit of a pain, but it works.
Far from an expert wheat brewer but it may also depend on how you mash; Multistep or single infusion. I did my first beer with a large percentage of wheat (~40% unmalted wheat) and didn’t use any rice hulls but I followed this mash routine Palmer calls out in his Wiezen recipe. http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter19-3.html I am batch sparging and I had no issues.
Why not? What could it hurt?
I used 39% wheat in my American wheat a few months ago. Batch sparged, single infusion, bazooka screen. No problems.
I ended up changing the recipe up a tad. So ended up less than 40% wheat. Ended up adding 6oz of rice hulls, and will be mashing at lunch today. We will see how it goes. Went with 4oz of carared just for shits and giggles. Hoping to see a little bit of head retention and slight color from it.
fyi: I am using a ten gallon cooler with false bottom and I fly sparge. 1.25 qrts/lb mash, mashout, and 2.0 qrts/lb sparge.
Summer Wheat
American Wheat or Rye Beer
Recipe Specs
Batch Size (G): 5.3
Total Grain (lb): 9.625
Total Hops (oz): 2.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.049 (°P): 12.1
Final Gravity (FG): 1.012 (°P): 3.1
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 4.81 %
Colour (SRM): 4.1 (EBC): 8.1
Bitterness (IBU): 22.3 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 75
Boil Time (Minutes): 75
Grain Bill
5.500 lb American 2-Row (57.14%)
3.500 lb Wheat Malt (36.36%)
0.375 lb Rice Hulls (3.9%)
0.250 lb Carared (2.6%)
Hop Bill
0.25 oz Citra Pellet (11.1% Alpha) @ 20 Minutes (First Wort) (0 oz/Gal)
0.50 oz Tettnanger Pellet (4% Alpha) @ 20 Minutes (First Wort) (0.1 oz/Gal)
0.50 oz Tettnanger Pellet (4% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.1 oz/Gal)
0.75 oz Citra Pellet (11.1% Alpha) @ 2 Minutes (Boil) (0.1 oz/Gal)
Misc Bill
Single step Infusion at 152°F for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 65°F with Safale US-05
Whoops two mistakes from that recipe. I actually used pils not american 2- row, and will be doing a 90 minute boil due to the pils.
I’ve never used rice hulls with wheat or rye, but if you have them or can easily get them, why not. Conditioning wheat malt does help.
