Hard Red Winter Wheat

[Lars]

I recently picked up a few lbs of this in a organic hippy health food store and was wondering if anyone else has used it before? I'm planning on using it in a Kolsch... thoughts?

No Justin, not that kind of hard.

[Bugeater]

Last Sunday I brewed a Saison using 20% hard red wheat. Not my first choice for wheat. White wheat would be much better IMO, but this was part of the ingredients given to me for the competition this is being brewed for. I will let you know in a couple of weeks how it turned out.

Just a hint, run it through your mill at least twice as the grains are much smaller than barley, consider tossing in a handfull of rice hulls and have a blowoff tube handy.

BrewBum is also brewing a belgian using 20% red wheat for the same comp. He may chime in too.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[BrewBum]

Mine went well. I didn't not grind it twice and my efficiency suffered a little for it. A MY GOD WHAT A FERMENT THOUGH!! It about blew the top off my bucket 3 times and fermented really hard for a week. I racked it last night and it tastes very good. Don't know if I will compete with your Saison Bug but it was fun brewing. The good news is the wife liked it and since we have to appeal to the masses that is good news as she usually doesn't like a lot of my beers.

[Bugeater]

BrewBum, by double milling my wheat I hit my gravity right on the button. I managed to avoid any blowoff by sticking the fermenter in the fermentation fridge for the first 24 hours at 64°, then brought it out and let it gradually warm up to 90°. This is a technique talked about in Brew Like a Monk. I will be racking it next weekend. I plan to rebrew the same recipe with white wheat this time and subbing some rye malt for some of the wheat and pitching onto the same yeast cake. This way I should be able to make a good comparison.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[BDogD]

Bugeater (relative of Cornhusker?)

Did you use the same mill gap for both crush runs? What mill gap?

The 1st (and only so far) time I milled my own wheat, I ended up 4 pts lower than my expected OG.

[Bugeater]

BDogD, same gap for both runs of wheat. I haven't the foggiest idea what the gap is. I use a single roller PhilMill I. Through trial and error I have adjusted it to what works best and I just leave it. That's why I don't readjust for wheat. Too much work to adjust it back for the rest of my grains. I just tweak the adjustment a little when I get a new batch of grain.

If you aren't busy Thursday night, come on down to Lincoln for the Lincoln Lagers Meeting. We are meeting on the loading dock of Empyrean Ales at 7:00. Pot luck dinner and Empyrean is providing a 5 gallon keg of beer to go along with our homebrew. This is down in the Haymarket at about 9th and Q.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[BDogD]

Bugeater,

Thanks for the invite. What should I bring? I haven't gotten involved with either the Lagers or Omahops so far.

Next time I'll crush the wheat twice. Do you crush it separately from the rest of the malt?

[Bugeater]

I crush the wheat separately so I don't overcrush the barley. I usually do the wheat first so I can then crush everything else into the same bucket after the 2nd run on the wheat.

As far as the Lager's Meeting goes, just show up with a couple bottles of homebrew and some contribution to the potluck if you plan to eat. The loading dock is at Empyrean's cellar building at 7th and Q street. Just look around and you will see a bunch of folks drinking and eating outside around 7:00. This will definitely NOT look like the usual outside dining you see at some of the restaurants in the Haymarket. Bring a friend if you want.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

P.S. Sorry about hijacking the thread folks, just want to get some fresh meat into our homebrew club. http://www.lincolnlagers.com:804/default.asp