Wheat beer and stuck sparges

[Darren Wood]

Anyone made any good american style wheat beers using batch sparge method? Did you have any issues?

I wanna give one a go but have heard the stuck spagre thing can be a pain. Maybe I should pull out my old BIAB bag...?

Thoughts?

[Ray]

I love all styles of wheat beers defiantly my fav, I have had some good brews with wheat malt, flaked wheat and mix of both

Was originally going to use rice hulls in fear of a stuck sparge but nothing stuck as yet, even with recirculating.

All I could recommend is a step mash and mash out Really Hot, still have efficiency issues compared with say a dark beer.

What sort of yeast are you thinking of using?

[Darren Wood]

Thanks for that, Ray. Can't really step mash with my setup... I can't find rice hulls anywhere so will just just chance it.

I'm thinking using US05, Wyeast American Wheat or Wyeast Kolsh... Something nice and crisp. 

[Cain Harland]

I've done 3 or 4 and haven't had any stuck sparge issues. The only one I liked was going to be a Gumball head clone but when I couldn't get the Amarillo I used a combo of Nelson Sav and Zythos kind of like a hop rocker with us05. My other wheat attempts have all suffered badly from under pitching (before I got my stirplate and started with starters) so I'm guessing the wheat beer yeasts should really have a decent starter.

[Darren Wood]

Great! Sounds promising. What's your grain bill? 50/50 wheat to pale malt?

[Cain Harland]

Here it is. Around 50/50.

Size: 40.0 L @ 20 °C
Efficiency: 75.0%

Original Gravity: 1.053 (1.040 - 1.055)
Terminal Gravity: 1.013 (1.008 - 1.013)
Color: 7.02 (5.91 - 11.82)
Alcohol: 5.23% (4.0% - 5.5%)
Bitterness: 33.7 (15.0 - 30.0)

Ingredients:
5 kg (51.5%) Pale Wheat Malt - added during mash
4 kg (41.2%) Malteurop Pale Ale - added during mash
.70 kg (7.2%) Carared® - added during mash
13 g (6.5%) zythos (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 m
9 g (4.5%) Nelson Sauvin (14.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 m
13.0 g (6.5%) zythos (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled 15 m
9 g (4.5%) Nelson Sauvin (14.0%) - added during boil, boiled 9.0 m
47.0 g (23.6%) zythos (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 m
22.0 g (11.1%) Nelson Sauvin (14.0%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 m
26 g (13.1%) zythos (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled 1.0 m
18 g (9.0%) Nelson Sauvin (14.0%) - added during boil, boiled 1.0 m
42 g (21.1%) Nelson Sauvin (14.0%) - added dry to primary fermenter
2 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05

[Richard Jack]

You can always do a mashout decoction. 

[Ray]

Just mashout for 10min nice and hot

US05 and 1056 are great for American wheats, I have a great book "Brewing with Wheat" and theres a brewery over in the states that use an American ale yeast and reckons by the third generation is right on the money for wheat beers.

Alot of people say step mash ie low rest temps are very important for wheats but you will still be happy I bet

[Darren Wood]

This is my recipe... Thoughts?

Recipe: Wheat Jane
Brewer: Darren Wood
Style: American Wheat or Rye Beer
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size (fermenter): 25.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.046 SG
Estimated Color: 7.9 EBC
Estimated IBU: 22.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name
2.82 kg Gladfield Ale Malt (6.0 EBC)
2.82 kg Gladfield Wheat Malt (4.2 EBC)
40.31 g NZ Willamette [5.50 %] - 60.0 min
15.00 g Motueka [7.00 %] - 0.0 min
15.00 g NZ Willamette [5.50 %] - 0.0 min
1.0 pkg American Wheat Ale (Wyeast Labs #1010)

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge

[Dave]

Have done a wheat beer 50/50 a few weeks back and another this weekend coming, no problems with stuck sparges using a 3L to 1kilo ratio, no mash out and batch sparging. You could look into wet milling if you have a mill, youtube's a good source for this, yeast I used was wlp 320. Wheat beers are all good for summer, sit back and enjoy, good luck.