Home Brew Forum

I've brewed 2 previous batches of dave-o's Hoegaarden-ish wheat beer and was very pleased with the results.
See topic: Cheap'n'Easy Light Wit (Hoegaarden-ish)

On Sunday, as brew was AG40, I thought I'd try an experiment and replace some of the unmalted wheat with
Weetabix / Wheat Biscuits.
Looking at ingredient list on Tesco's wheat biscuits, they seemed to contain just wheat and a bit of malt to bind them
Wheat Biscuit ingredients: Wholegrain Wheat (95%), Malted Barley Extract, Sugar, Salt
(Salt not ideal I know, but I thought why not)

I modified previous recipe I'd used further to use what I had.

Wheat #3 - 23L
W3 / AG40 - grain bill
Recipe Wt.
Weyermann Pilsner 2500
Wheat Malt 260
Oat Flakes (Porridge Oats) 250
Tesco Wheat Biscuits 4 boxes of 24 1728
Torrified Wheat 762

Hop Type Mins from end boil Hops Recipe Wt.
Hallertauer Hersbrucker (3.1%) (bal) 90 Bittering 44
Bobek - 4.4%AA (80C 20 mins) 0 Aroma 20
Coriander 10 Flavour 10
Grains of Paradise 10 Flavour 8
Orange Zest 5 Flavour 20



96 Wheat Biscuits:



Unusual grain shot



All scrunched up



Underlet


As using Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner malt, I did a 2 stage mash. Aiming for 50C (Protein rest 15 mins)


and 65C main mash.


2nd stage extended to 2.5 hours as I had to pop out and pick up an eBay FV purchase. Got to be done


Things then started to go wrong.
Over nearly 3 hours, the wheat biscuits had dissolved to a fine paste which clogged everything.

I've been lucky and never had a stuck mash before, so this came as a bit of a shock.
It did not want to shift.
Blowing back on the mashtun outlet tube seemed to make it worse.
I ended up jugging mash tun contents into strainer over boiler. I kept strainer contents for 2nd batch sparge.
Emptied mash tun, cleaned manifold (copper with slits) and replaced manifold wrong way around (with slits on top) to help it avoid sludge. Sorry no pics of this stage as I was othersise occupied
Luckily 2nd stage batch sparge ran Ok. Out of the woods now..

Pic of mash tun at end of sparge



Boiler contents were very muddy, but it tasted good and great sugar conversion


Chopped up peeled orange segments added 15 mins to end of boil and orange zest and spice (coriander & grains of paradise) at 5 mins


Cool to 80C, 80C aroma hop rest, then cool to 25C
Started to pour off boiler into FV ( via hop filter copper pipe with2 mm holes) and after ~ 4L it stopped.

I ended up jugging via a strainer into FV.




I ended up with 24L at 1051

This has been a Jonah of a brew and true to form the Franziskaner starter was going nowhere after 24 hours.
As plan B I made a WB06 starter from washed yeast-cake in yeast fridge, which after 12 hours was going strong.
Still no activity from Franziskaner yeast in brew after 36 hours so I added WB06 starter and I'm glad to see activity tonight.

Not sure what I'll end up with, but one thing is sure. I'm not using bloody Weetabix again.

You win some, you lose some.

Law of sod means when you finally get round to drinking it, it will taste wonderful.

I can't help but think you got what you deserved!
But, yes, the beer will most likely turn out fine.

It is slightly worrying that weetabix appears to be made of cement....

its all that garysmiffs fault

glad you got through a very challenging brew day!

Shredded Wheat doesn't contain any cement

ha ha, cool.
The tiny bit of salt that is in there will just enhance the flavours and give you a better mouth-feel

I too would blame GarySmiff, he is obviously a bad influence!!

And as for a 'Wheatabix Blow-Back' up your Mash tun, that sounds all wrong

critch wrote:its all that garysmiffs fault

glad you got through a very challenging brew day!

I must admit I got the idea from him...

Glad to say fermenting very well now & smells lovely.
A mixture of oranges, spices and esters from WB06

Disaster, when I saw the "grain bill" I lolled, from a father of weetabix eating kids I knew what would happen.
Leave the stuff in the bowl for 1/2 hour and you'd need a jack hammer to get it out.

Good luck with the brew

You get the same result if you mill your wheat into flour and pour that in!