Problems with Wheat Beer Efficiency

[Nztayls]

I seem to be having some issues with doing allgrain wheat beers. I have made several batches of Belgian witbiers, and I never seem to come close with what the OG should be, according to beer smith. This results in most my end results being around the 3-4% ABV, as opposed to being around the 5.5% upwards that they are meant to be.

This only appears to be happening when I use wheat. My allgrain beers - such as stouts, porters and lagers all seem to come out in the range of what they should be. I am aware that you need to mash wheat with something else to help the conversion, and I am (at least 40% pilsner malt, or higher).

Any ideas?, am I missing something obvious here??

[Peter Smith]

the wheat is smaller and may not be being crushed as it goes through the mill?   some say change the crush size for wheat OR put the wheat through twice then crush the rest once.

[MrC]

I always crush my wheat twice.  I crush the wheat first then pour it back into the hopper and crush again before crushing the malt.

I still get lower efficiency with wheat beers so I adjust my recipes base on a lower efficiency, 10% less efficiency for me when brewing with 40-50% wheat even with a double crush.

[Grant R Baker]

+1.. wheat is a shet for slipping through the rollers.

[Peter Smith]

I am just at the point of being able to understand my efficiency numbers using beer smith, and now I am just commissioning my own mill so thats going to through the numbers out again as the current mash is not floury at all.  I must say that the last 50/50 pale/wheat i did I only got about  1.040 OG and expected way higher, I put that down to not being in control of my own grist milling.  If you find out what it is post on here,  I have a 25kg bag of Gladfields wheat and intend to fill my boat with hefe and light wheat beers over the summer months.   My last mash temp was  67degrees for 75 mins, I BIAB though so my numbers will always be lower, I normally just push up the grain bill, my last was 3kg pale NZ and 3kg wheat.   that would normally give mid 50's if all barley malt.

[Peter Smith]

Just did a 66% wheat  33% pale , put the wheat through the mill 3 times,  and did a very long mash,  had 6kg total grist hit OG 1.064   so both the mill and the mash time (also mashed  a lot lower started at 64% and dropped to 60) made  a big difference to the last 1.040 effort.....   thanks for the long and low mash temp advice Scarrfie

[Scarrfie]

Use around a 1:2 wheat/malt ratio and to a mini mash at 60°C as that is the peak conversion temperature for the wheat. You could even leave that overnight to convert but go for 3-4 hours at least. Once that is done add it into the main mash and you should get 75%. That is on top of the crush advice already given, although I have generally used plain flour with the technique outlined.

[Hamish Jones]

I am having the opposite problem was aiming for 1.048 and got 1.058 and bang on the correct final volume, used 61% Gladfield wheat 33% Gladfield Pilsener and acidulated malt to make up the rest, I am starting to think my scales are off randomly, other than that can't explain what the heck happened to get such a high OG, may we could start a SG trading scheme,

[Nztayls]

Thanks all. I can see I am going to have to get my own mill. I am currently buying my grains cracked, and I am picking that my issues are from not getting a fine enough grind on the wheat.

Now to convince the wife that I REALLY need to buy a grain mill.......

[Peter Smith]

and then a motor to motorise it, its probably a $600 + project... if you in akl you welcome to use mine

[Robert McLeod]

You can use a drill instead of a motor. El cheapo wired hammer drill works well for me. Just not on full speed. Cordless drill didn't work at all.

Picked up a mill with an 8lb hopper from trade-me for $200 and a drill from mitre 10 for about $60? ... just added a 20L container underneath and a 10L one for measuring out grain (had those lying around).

[Mark]

I had the same problem with wheat efficiency, used to do my head in as all the text I read said you should get higher efficiency than barely. It does have a tendency to clump and channel during the sparge which I think is where I was going wrong. Most of my brews have been BIAB lately so I don't have that problem. Incidentally I'm getting way better efficiencies across the board with BIAB, was quite a shock (especially considering how much I spent on a 3 tier system!)