to malt, or not to malt, that is the qu.

[mr.jay]

Unmalted wheat, and malted wheat. Making a wheat beer, is there a difference. I've heard that unmalted barley gives you a better product. I use a DME single mash infusion system, and don't really understand how unmalted wheat can give you a good extraction without decoction or step mashing. P.S. I've made several wheat beers, and have never stuck my mash, or felt like I was in danger of sticking it. I always throw a few rice hulls in, but when I spoke to another brewer, he didn't thing it was enough hulls for the amount of wheat I use, and thought perhaps I was doing something wrong during the mash. I find that the wheat always sinks to the bottom of the tun, and never balls up like the 2 row does. My O.G. seems o.k., but I'm pretty new to the industry, and was just wondering what some of you thought. Am I missing something here? (Watch, now that I said something, first thing Monday, I'll stick my mash!)

[tarmadilo]

I brewed four batches of wheat beer (GABF Gold medal winner, too!) every week for almost two years at a microbrewery out west, and never once had a stuck mash with it. Never used rice hulls or anything else, either. We used malted wheat, fwiw.

Cheers, Tim