Rice Hulls (or alternative) in NZ?

[Llew Bardecki]

I've done a search, and pretty much all of the posts dealing with rice hulls say "you can't get them here."

But a few days ago I brewed a weizenbock and had a helluva time sparging it.  It's unlikely I'll make it again, but just in case I do (or something similar) it'd be cool to know where to find SOME sort of sparging aid in NZ.

Any ideas?

[denimglen]

Sorry can't help you too much with hulls or an alternative product but you could try malt conditioning if you have your own mill.

I've had great results. A 0.028" gap on my mill, and it's a textbook crush - all the hulls split open, none torn and then starchy goodness just falls out of the husk.

[Doublehoppy]

Interesting. Do you do this for all your brews, or just for wheat beers to ensure smooth lautering?

[warra48]

That works great with barley, but the issue with wheat is that it has no husk. Hence the need to artificially add rice hulls to make up for it.

I don't know whether they are available in NZ, but they are readily obtainable in Aus, just bought 2 kg last Tuesday.

The other thing you can do, in the absence of rice hulls, is to drain and sparge slower to prevent the mash setting itself too solid.

[denimglen]

Doublehoppy - I'm doing this with all my beers, for the next batch I will go down to about 0.024" to try and squeeze another couple percentage out of my conversion efficiency.

Warra - You're correct, wheat doesn't have a husk but it does have a pericarp which is kept intact more by conditioning than straight dry milling. While I wouldn't trust it to give a perfect lauter in a very high percentage wheat beer it will help until at least 60%.

I'd be interested to know if rice hulls helped at all in a BIAB set up, I could imagine that lifting the grain bag would still disturb the grain bed too much even with the hulls. Would it be worth looking at a coarser mesh bag for high percentage wheat beers? I'm not too familiar with the BIAB method so I don't know how well that would work.

On a side note while flicking through the Yate's Gardening Guide they mention using rice hulls as mulch - so there may be a source in NZ somewhere?

[Soren]

Oat husks is the only thing I've found. I haven't used them yet but if you're near blenheim I can get you a sack of them. Otherwise you can get them from Harraways in Dunedin but you have to buy 2 cubic meters... Someone here put me that direction a few months back, can't remember who on top of my mind but thank you:)

[Llew Bardecki]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

I do a BIAB type method and generally have no trouble sparging my all barley beers, and even smaller wheat beers.

But if I'm ever making something like this beast again I'll definitely look into getting some oat husks. I'd be interested to hear how they work out for you Soren :)

[Mike Neilson]

Oat hulls have loads of oils in them so be carefull with them as the head retention could be killed!! My drystout I brewed with them and I had no head!!

[Chris Mills]

If I were to get a bulk load of rice hulls is there anyone who might want some, and if so how much?

[Liam Callaghan]

I would take a few kilos Chris (2-5kg).

[Llew Bardecki]

I've moved out of NZ for the foreseeable future, so none for me I'm afraid :(

[Houli]

I've used Oat hulls / husks from a porridge factory in Dunedin ( Harraways). These work very well and are cheap. About $12 for a big sack.

When I make wheat beers now, I just increase the gap on my mill.