Witbier grainbill critique

In regards to the hulls, I'd say use the whole pound. I'm sure someone will say something about the malted wheat, but I say give it a go!

 

Malted Wheat is not traditional in a (Belgian) Witbier. Someone had to say it.

OP: If you're not going for a traditional Witbier, my other comment would be that that's a lot of (total) wheat (percentage-wise), and I would probably use a whole pound (at least) of rice hulls, depending on how big this beer is.

 

I'm curious, is the malted wheat in there to cut the wheat bite you might get if all of that was unmalted?

I only ask because I think you could get away with one or the other and maybe some flaked oats (up to 10%). With that in mind, if you wanted to be traditional, you could go 45% Pils, 45% Unmalted Wheat and 10% Flaked Oats.

 

I dig 50% pils, 40% unmalted wheat, 10% flaked oats myself. For a 5 gallon batch, I'd say 1/2# of rice hulls will work.

 

^^this

 

But how can you know how much rice hulls to recommend without knowing the OP's OG and mash efficiency (and thus the amount of grains)?

ETA: for example, a 1.044 OG and 85% efficiency vs. a 1.052 OG and 65% efficiency would be a fairly significant difference in the grain bill.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thumb

A rule of thumb is a principle with broad application that is not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable for every situation. It is an easily learned and easily applied procedure for approximately calculating or recalling some value, or for making some determination.

 

LOL. I know what a rule of thumb is. I guess my Rule of Thumb would take the form 'x' pounds of rice hulls per 'y' pounds of wheat.

 

I had a feeling you did, just felt like being silly since you were being so serious!

Formulas are more accurate/distilled of course and your desire to answer the OP's question by using one is a reflection of your intelligence. My rule of thumb is handy, based on my past experience, and a reflection of my laziness.

My wheat beers (standard wheats in the say 1.040 - 1.054 OG range) always tend to have 40-50% wheat in them. When I started, my batch sizes were always in the 5.5 - 5.75 gallon range and I would use 10 - 14 grams of rice hulls in them (respectively based on the wheat percentage). Never got a stuck sparge with that approach. When I increased my brewing capacity, I started brewing 11.25 gallon batches and doubled my rice hull additions. Still no stuck sparges. I could review the exact number of pounds of wheat used in each of those batches and derive a formula such as the one you suggested. It would save me time and rice hulls moving forward, but again I'm lazy!

 

I suspect Rules of Thumb will eventually be illegal, given the term's association (true or not) with medieval England's rules regarding the beating of women. #BanBossy

 

Rule of rice hulls.

 

*insert boondock saints intro here*

Back on track, I like 5% sauer malt in my wit to add some tartness, or a partial sour mash. I feel a wit is a little flat without it, but this is just personal pref and not a rule of thumb.

 

I base much of my life on this, and will go out of my way to convenience myself.

 

Necessity might have been the mother of invention, but laziness was the son who really ran with it!!!!

 

And don't put off till tomorrow what you can plan to put off till the day after that.

Best part about brewing is that it's a procrastinator's dream hobby. There are few things that are ever on a critical time scale, and even when timing counts, you can still wing it most of the time.

 

35% Pls
35% Malt Wheat
15% Flaked Wheat
4% Flaked Corn
6% Flaked Oats
4% Unmalted wheat
1% Acid Malt
0 rice hulls

The Flaked Oats will do the same as the rice hulls. If you get stuck sparge remix your grist and restart sparging.

 

In what way?

 

Wow that is a complicated recipe, and isnt even close to a traditional wit grain bill of ~50/50 unmalted wheat to barley, with oats occasionally thrown in. I'm assuming you've brewed this before, so Im curious what is it that you get out of the malted wheat and corn in your grain bill?

 

I tend to question any recipe with more than four items on the grain bill. Not that 5 or more items = automatically bad, of course not. But simplicity --> tasty beer is a pretty rock solid principle, and I'd have to think about why I wanted something to be complicated, and what I hoped to gain by those complications. I'd then have to decide whether a simpler plan would in fact be superior after all.

I am interested to see some of the thoughts on this thread.