Wheat Whiskey

[Thatch]

This will be our first attempt at a malted wheat mash.  Our normal mash is 100% malted barley.  We use a roller mill.  We lauter, sparge and vorlauf.  We mash 800 lbs at a time.  My questions are:

What temperature for the mash water?

Have many pounds of rice hulls do I need for 800 lbs of malted wheat?

In general what do we need to watch for as far a differences between mashing malted barley vs malted wheat?

All feedback is greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

Edited January 9, 2022 by Thatch
Added information

[Thatch]

Bump.  Input anyone?

[Stumpy's]

Hey Thatch,

We run grain in and raw wheat instead of malted so our process is quite a bit different. I thought I might be able to share a bit of insight though.

Wheat starch gels from about 125-155F. The enzymes from the malting process are going to want to live below 155. I'd say mashing around 150-152 would be ideal. For our raw wheat, we run 155. Staying under 155 will help you from getting tooo sticky but I would recommend adding a little Viscoferm or C2K to that mash to make sure viscosity doesn't become too big of a deal. 

Not sure how fine your grist is but the wheat is going to be a chore. Without the husk on the grain, wheat malt being highly friable, and the large starchy endosperm, you are probably going to need a dump truck or so of rice hulls. Seriously, likelihood of a stuck sparge is a real thing, as you know. I would say you are going to want a minimum of 10+%...probably more in that 20-ish range. Again, I don't have any specific experience trying to lauter wheat malt....just my best guess.

If you don't run a ton of head space in your fermenters, FermCap or whatever the antifoam of your choice is would not be a bad idea...maybe not as big of a deal since you won't be grain in but we've walked into wheat fermenters that partied a little too hard overnight and spent the ensuing hours with hoses, squeegees, and bleach! haha.

I know the info isn't 1:1 but hopefully there will be something that helps in my rambling.

Cheers!

Adam

 

[Thatch]

Thanks Adam.  Since we use a roller mill our grist is not going to be like flour.  Hopefully that and the rice hulls will save the day from a stuck mash.

[klattig]

I agree with all that Stumpy had to say, but will add this:  Don't even try to run this with a lauter screen!  Wheat does not filter well, no matter how many rice hulls you add.  Do a grain-in ferment & strip.  

[adamOVD]

My wheat whiskey is also an on grain ferment, but I've lautered hefeweizens with 50% wheat and no hulls or enzymes time after time. Not the easiest run off but certainly not impossible. Have you thought of using 25% malt in addition to rice hulls and enzyme? I find all wheat mashes to be bit one dimensional anyways.

[Thatch]

Thanks Guys,  sounds like we need to go to plan B If we do 100% wheat.  

Greatly appreciated!

[Silk City Distillers]

Second Viscoferm or similar beta-glucanase, especially if you aren’t step mashing this with a traditional glucan rest.  It’s cheap insurance.