wheat mash failed to fully convert

[Hammer Spring Distillers]

Just as an experiment, I tried a 100% wheat mash (100 gallons of it).  I milled 200 lbs of hard red wheat kernels and 50 lbs of malted wheat into the typical flour/grist (1:4 malt ratio. Malter said wheat had a DP of around 140'ish).  To the cold water I added 100 mL of bioglucanase, and 10 mL Fermcap-S, and 300 mL of Amylo-300, slowly brought it up to 150 as I added the grist <edit: forgot to mention I adjusted the pH to 5.2>, and held it there for an hour or so.  It looked, smelled great, tasted sweet, was plenty sticky when rubbed between fingers, etc - all the things were great. Even the specific gravity showed 1.085 (about 20 brix).  All signs pointed to a successful mash, but It failed the iodine/starch test ... so I let it sit (at 150F) for a while longer... still black.  I let it sit overnight at 150F (all the time slowly agitating to keep it consistent).  In the morning, still black.  Around noon the 2nd day I added 3.5 oz alpha amylase (dry), nothing, turned up the heat to 165F, still black iodine.  Any thoughts on why it might not fully convert?

JP.

[Skaalvenn]

It's likely fully converted. Any wheat particles will still have starch and will turn black. Trust your specific gravity.

[Hammer Spring Distillers]

26 minutes ago, Skaalvenn said:

It's likely fully converted. Any wheat particles will still have starch and will turn black. Trust your specific gravity.

Yea, not much else I can do at this point with it.  I pitched some yeast, we'll see how she does - thanks for the follow up!

[Roger]

Throw in some beta now that you have it cooled down. It will convert any unfermentable sugars over 3 days. 

[Hammer Spring Distillers]

9 minutes ago, Roger said:

Throw in some beta now that you have it cooled down. It will convert any unfermentable sugars over 3 days. 

I've never heard of putting bg in after fermentation starts... is that what you meant?  Or did you mean leave it at room temperature for 3 days before fermenting <yikes!>

[captnKB]

I would agree with @Roger throw in some beta once it is cool, aerate and pitch. The beta will chew up any remaining starch while the ferment gets going

[Hammer Spring Distillers]

3 minutes ago, captnKB said:

I would agree with @Roger throw in some beta once it is cool, aerate and pitch. The beta will chew up any remaining starch while the ferment gets going

I think I'm too far into the ferment on this round - but I'll try it on the next go

Thanks for the feedback!

[JonDistiller]

I'm curious how things went for you?   I do a 100% wheat whiskey.   Thus far I haven't had problems with initial conversion, but I find I'm not getting all the way down.   Mine has been finishing at around 1.03 at 12 days (ale yeast)  @ 70F except for one batch that did go down to 1.013.  Do you have that experience as well?   I'm still trying to sort out why on my end.    I checked my PH to make sure that I wasn't denaturing the beta glucanase, and I altered my process just a bit, putting in alpha at 149 and letting it work for 1/2 hour before putting in beta at 148.  That gave me the one that went down further, but then the next batch using the same process was back to 1.03 at 12 days.   If I let it go for 13-14, I start to see some signs of lacto, so I can't really let it go longer.