Roasted Wheat

[barney]

Hello, has anyone any experience using Roasted wheat, I was thinking of putting some in a bitter instead of roasted Barley.

What do you think?

[beer gut]

Hi i have used roasted wheat in a few of my brews.The experience i had with it was it had a softer flavour than the sharp acidic flavours that you get from roast barly.It was also paler in colour than RB so you will need more RW if want achive the colour in dark ales, it still had a Roasty/coffe mocha flavour you get from RB.The last thing is RW has no husk so if are planning on adding high ammount of RW in a brew you will need to have extra ruffage to avoid a stuck sparge i used malted Oat's and Flaked barly when i made stouts using RW. You could also try putting 5g of RW in a coffe cup pour some boiling water in the cup leave to stand 5-10mins then taste the liquor in the cup this will give you a ruff idea what you could expect in your brew.Well i hope this helps

[barney]

Hello Beer Gut, thanks for the comments.

I had good munch on a few grains and its far mellower than RB, Its almost Roasty Chocolate Wheat.

I ended up chucking 2 1/2 % in a bitter and see what that throws up. The colour was tremendous, deep coppery red.

The wort was the nicest I have produced so far and I am very hopeful for the brew.

[beer gut]

Iam very pleased for you that the brew turned out Fab.I like to experiment with new grains, i think if we stick to the same ingreadents things would get very boring.So well done with successfull brew Barney

[barney]

I cant wait for this one Beer Gut, I have used a lovely yeast that will really accentuate the malt characteristics.

I hope I hit my Spec.

"Want a copper coloured easy drinking bitter, with lots of body and a sweet roastey caramel flavour with firm bitterness and spicy fruity hop flavours with floral aroma."

[Rookie]

Hello Beer Gut, thanks for the comments.

I had good munch on a few grains and its far mellower than RB, Its almost Roasty Chocolate Wheat.

I ended up chucking 2 1/2 % in a bitter and see what that throws up. The colour was tremendous, deep coppery red.

The wort was the nicest I have produced so far and I am very hopeful for the brew.

'up chucking' and 'throws up' are two terms I personally would avoid, but what the hey?

[seymour]

I, too, have used roasted wheat many times. I usually make my own in the oven early on brewday or the night before. Somehow, miraculously, all the fresh-baked-bready aromas make it all the way through to bottling. By doing it this way, you save money and have total control over color and degree of roastiness. Within this context, it's somewhat meaningless to debate how roasted wheat compares to chocolate malt or roasted barley. You can manipulate it to resemble either, both, and so much more. It depends on moisture content, wheat cultivar, the temperature and duration of the roast, etc...

I got the same beautiful deep copper red color barney described. The resulting fruity special-B-ish esters completely transformed my last Munich Dunkel recipe. Mmmm!

Go for it!

[Befuddler]

I, too, have used roasted wheat many times. I usually make my own in the oven early on brewday or the night before. Somehow, miraculously, all the fresh-baked-bready aromas make it all the way through to bottling. By doing it this way, you save money and have total control over color and degree of roastiness. Within this context, it's somewhat meaningless to debate how roasted wheat compares to chocolate malt or roasted barley. You can manipulate it to resemble either, both, and so much more. It depends on moisture content, wheat cultivar, the temperature and duration of the roast, etc...

I got the same beautiful deep copper red color barney described. The resulting fruity special-B-ish esters completely transformed my last Munich Dunkel recipe. Mmmm!

Go for it!

Sounds like something interesting to try. Do you start with wheat malt or torrified wheat? What temp/time ranges do you use?

[seymour]

...Sounds like something interesting to try. Do you start with wheat malt or torrified wheat?...

Either. Wheat malt works of course, but costs more because of all the work put into it already. I've gotten great results from plain ol' cheap cracked wheat or bulgur from the grocery store.

...What temp/time ranges do you use?...

Just like malting, mashing, or baking bread, it all depends on what you're going for. Drying it out? Caramelizing it? Toasting it? Roasting it? How moist is it starting out? If it's already thoroughly air dried or kilned, I sometimes soak it in hot water first, then bake it.

I really just bring this up to expand the realm of homebrew experimentation. There are lots of good, free, online guides for malting and roasting your own grain, as well as some historical maltster texts. Dig in and make it yours!