Author Topic: Wheat Beer from scratch  (Read 6359 times)

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Offline Bryan1

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Wheat Beer from scratch
« on: March 23, 2012, 06:41:17 am »
G'day Guy's,
                       Well with getting a heap of wheat from work for stock food this week I got 2 bags approx 45kg's of top grain wheat and thought about doing my own wheat beer. Now on research it calls for 'flaked wheat' and 'malted wheat', now anyone can go to a homebrew shop and buy all the ingredients but I thought why have to drive around 100k's and spend a small fortune where having some fun and using some grey matter between the ears one can make the machinery needed to produce the goods so the only cost of brewing will be yeast.

                    Now for 'flaked wheat' one only needs to steam the wheat then put it thru a set of rollers to flatten it out then whamo we got 'flaked wheat'. Tonight I set on the task of getting the flaking mill underway and spent ages looking for plastic gears to use then i remembered I had a box of small steel gears and found just what I wanted. The side plates and main frame will be made from 1/4" brass plate and the feed hopper and output shute from 1.5mm brass plate.

                   Tomorrow I'll take a few pic's as I'm making it as pictures are worth a thousand words when trying to describe something.

                For 'malting' it is bit more intense and that will mean even more grey matter needed to get the machine made. First one has soak the grains to around 48% water content then let them sprout. Then they need to be heated to around 55C and turned every 2-4 hours for about 3 days to fully cure them. The movement of the grains is important as when moist mold will soon develop and I do know off grain smells terrible as I have had sacks of it in my work car and had to have all windows open. Anyway first jobbie is getting the flaking mill finished then onto the malting box.

             I'll try the beer first and sometime I'll getthe reflux still finished then go for a 5 litre bash at making some rocket fuel too.

             One might ask why go to all this trouble, well one doesn't need a crystal ball to see the poop is going to hit the fan and by being able to make one's own beer etc and not be reliant on commercial mobs will mean this black duck won't go without his beer EVER.

More to come

Cheers Bryan

Offline tomw

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Re: Wheat Beer from scratch
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2012, 08:18:32 am »
Malting:

Sprout it, dry it, grind it and now its malted.

Or how we did the malt for corn likker in another life where it was, ahem,  legal.

Seems sprouting turns the starches in the seed into sugars for the yeast?

Good luck with it.

I would turn the wheat into bacon but thats just me ;=>.

Tom
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Offline Cornelius

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Re: Wheat Beer from scratch
« Reply #2 on: March 23, 2012, 11:08:03 am »
Welcome to the wonderful world of beer brewing, Bryan. ;)

You really want to get yourself an Hydrometer, to check the sugar content in your most... And Don't forget some quality hops... :)

Offline Bryan1

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Re: Wheat Beer from scratch
« Reply #3 on: March 23, 2012, 04:08:26 pm »
G'day Cornelius,
                               Last year I restarted my homebrewing after leaving it for over a decade and the first 2 batchs I did was true lager brewed at low temps in my old shed fridge. On average I get around 30-35 longnecks out of a batch but the main problem is it is just so nice none are left for tasting 6 months later. The first brew I did was apple cider using pure apple mush (just think apple sauce) and that brew was more than moreish too. I do have a 22kg sealed bag of that mush left and I am tempted to do it all in one hit so a 150 litre brew but I'll probably get another tub to store the mush and do it in several brews as bottling 400 stubbies in one hit aint my cup of tea.

                            Currently I have 2 fermenters, one I got off a work mate which is a 30 litre screw top one and the other is just a 23 litre plastic tub with a lid. For the 23 litre tub I use my old Consul gas fridge as the cupboard and just use one of those illegal light bulbs to provide the warmth.

Allo Tom,
                 Eh mate what you describe does sound interesting and it does sound a lot easier from what I researched the other night on making it. When I mentioned to the missus about making malt she said 'you are NOT making a malting house' too  :o


                      Anyway got a Coopers Real Ale kit here so tomorrow's jobbie is getting that started, basically the kit and 2kg of sugar but no hops as  used all my supply with the lager brews.

Cheers Bryan (powered by the mother of invention--- if you can't afford it go make it yourself....)

Offline Tritium

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Re: Wheat Beer from scratch
« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2012, 05:47:25 pm »
Malting grain causes it to create amylase enzyme which as Tom eluded to converts starches to simple sugars that yeast or a young seedling can utilize. By using this grain containing the enzyme to treat a larger amount of un-sprouted grain you are providing the amylase to convert the larger mass of starches to sugars that the yeast can feed upon. It has to be done at just the right temperature to allow the enzyme to act most efficiently on the grain substrate. You can almost see it work as the thick hot grain and water suddenly thins to a water like consistency when the enzyme kicks off.

Thurmond (fuel alcohol producer)

Offline Cornelius

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Re: Wheat Beer from scratch
« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2012, 01:03:00 am »
I have to admit that i've never malted the grain myself; mostly because of lack of equipment and a place to keep it. ;)
That said, those Coopers kits are my favourites; the Real Ale, Dark Ale and Stout. (And they're already hopped... ;) ) I use 3 of those '23 litres' plastic tubs ( with litres and gallons scale on the outside -27L/5G), and i have two 30 litres glass 'ballons' for secondary fermention/storage. But those are mainly used for maturing wine...)

For storage/serving, i have three 19 litres 'Cornelius' kegs that i store in a fridge, with tap mounted on the fridge door, and a small co2 bottle beside it. :)

And Yes; storing the beer for maturing ARE a problem... ;D

Offline Bryan1

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Re: Wheat Beer from scratch
« Reply #6 on: March 25, 2012, 04:23:40 am »
G'day Guy's,
                        Well got a bit more done on the flaking/grain mill this weekend and hopefully after tomorrows nights work I'll take some pic's. Anyway I ditched the idea of using ali rollers and used 1" brass where I put a straight knurl on and it is nice and coarse. After spending a heap of time doing the gearing after a beer or 3 I decided to get creative and get the main frame cut out and milled up. Going thru my gear I found a small 20:1 worm drive gearbox and I'll hook a 50 volt nom. DC motor to it and make a speed controller circuit as a hand crank idea went out the window soon after I started the design and I do have a seperate 24 volt battery bank hooked up to the house.

        Cheers Bryan

Offline bj

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Re: Wheat Beer from scratch
« Reply #7 on: March 25, 2012, 07:25:51 am »
Coming right along Bryan.  Don't blame you for ditching the hand crank method.   Waaaay too much like
work.
"Even a blind squirrel will find an acorn once in a while"
bj

Offline tomw

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Re: Wheat Beer from scratch
« Reply #8 on: March 25, 2012, 09:06:05 am »
Coming right along Bryan.  Don't blame you for ditching the hand crank method.   Waaaay too much like
work.

I agree, this is the use that electricity truly excels  at, turning things.

Tom
Do NOT mistake me for any kind of "expert".

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Offline Cornelius

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Re: Wheat Beer from scratch
« Reply #9 on: March 25, 2012, 10:43:57 am »
I DO feel that this is a significant step to elevate the expression, 'Free Beer!'...

;D