For those that use rice hulls and prefer to soak them before adding them to the mash, is there any reason why you couldn’t just rinse/soak them ahead of time and then add them to your strike water as it’s heating? I guess my thinking is then they’d already be soaked and they’d also be at the right temperature. Plus you wouldn’t have to remember to add them in as your mashing in. I’m curious more than anything. Thanks!
I don’t see why that wouldn’t work.
never used em and never had a problem with runoff, despite making numerouse weizens, wits, etc.
I use them sometimes as a precaution when I’m making a beer with lots of wheat or rye. I’ve done it both ways (pre-soaked and dry) and concluded that it wasn’t worth the extra step to pre-soak them. Just mix them in with your grains and adjust your strike water volume to account for the extra absorption.
I guess the collection of them would be key. If you are just dumping the whole water bucket into the mash, then yes, it would work. But I use a 2 tier system, draining the sparge water into the mash tun after running the first batch sparge off the MLT. Getting into the hot liquor tun before runoff is impractical for me. YMMV, of course.
Thanks for the advice–I’ll give it a try.
Soak a handful by themselves, then look closely at the resultant gray water. That’s why you may want to rinse them first, otherwise all that stuff will end up in your beer.
[quote=“rebuiltcellars”]
Soak a handful by themselves, then look closely at the resultant gray water. That’s why you may want to rinse them first, otherwise all that stuff will end up in your beer.[/quote]
I noticed that when I used to presoak. It used to bother me in principle, but it has no affect on the beer in practice–so I don’t worry about it.
Rice hulls are dusty/dirty. I like to at least rinse them before use.
Pre-soaking the hulls will absorb water instead of sweet wort.
[quote=“wallybeer”]Rice hulls are dusty/dirty. I like to at least rinse them before use.
Pre-soaking the hulls will absorb water instead of sweet wort.[/quote]
Yes, yes and yes.
[quote=“wallybeer”]Rice hulls are dusty/dirty. I like to at least rinse them before use.
Pre-soaking the hulls will absorb water instead of sweet wort.[/quote]
OK for washing, but presoaking does nothing for how much wort they soak up. The water they are presoaked in will quickly equilibrate with the wort so they’ll have as much sugar as if they weren’t presoaked.
I’ve never presoaked hulls, this is the first I’ve heard of it. Even if they are a bit dusty, don’t you think the malt is the same? So as a practical matter I don’t think it is a causing a problem, nor is it fixing anything significant by presoaking/rinsing.
I side with Tom on this. I haven’t ever considered rinsing, nor pre-soaking. I might adjust an extra splash of strike if using tons which is rare. I suspected dust etc… But as Tom stated this is the same contaminants present on malts and all is negated by boiling, so you cant be adding alot of substance/s that would add ill effect, flavor, taste, purity etc… As it all is held back in MLT or dropped out with trub most likely when breaks occur and/or kettle finings are used is my thought anyways.
Yeah, I just mash my rice hulls with the grain without rinsing or soaking. Never had an issue.
Rice Hulls seem to be a lot dirtier than any grain that I’ve used. Who knows where the hulls came from. It only takes a few seconds to rinse off any dust/dirt.
Take a small handful of Hulls and put them a bowl of water and see how much they absorb.
The mass almost triples in size. As far as the wort displacing the water in the hulls, I think It’s possible but how much? At least pre-soaking will help with final wort volume.
Brewers, do as you wish. I don’t always pre-soak but I do always rinse the hulls.
If I don’t soak then I have to consider for some wort loss. No big deal really.
At least the dirt is rinsed off and who knows what else.
