Vodka Mash?

[beerbugger]

I have AG brewed several successful batches of wheat beers using a combination of malted wheat and barley.
How could I successfully mash using only unmalted wheat such as is used for vodka?
What mash temperatures would I have to use to get proper conversion?
Would I have to use special yeast?

[billvelek]

I don't know whether or not unmalted wheat is used to make vodka, but if it is I'd bet money that something else is still used to cleave starches into sugars; as far as I know, this can only be done with natural amylase (mashing with other malted grains), or adding either amylase or possibly koji or some equivalent that can be used on flour. Koji is the mold that is grown on rice to produce enzymes to cleave the starch, and I suppose there are probably other molds that do something similar.

Cheers.

Bill Velek

[slothrob]

Malted Wheat has the enzymes needed to convert, so you can do a 100% Malted Wheat mash. The same wouldn't be true of Flaked or Raw Wheat.

The problem with wheat over about 50% is that it is huskless and you'll get a stuck sparge. To compensate and allow runoff you'll need to add Rice Hulls. I'd guess about 5%, but maybe CJ will chime in as I think he makes a nearly 100% Wheat Beer.

[billd220]

as far as I know, this can only be done with natural amylase (mashing with other malted grains), or adding either amylase or possibly koji or some equivalent that can be used on flour. Koji is the mold that is grown on rice to produce enzymes to cleave the starch, and I suppose there are probably other molds that do something similar.

Bill, How do you know all of this? I wish I knew a tenth of what you know about brewing.

[billvelek]

I hope I haven't been coming across as some arrogant 'know it all'; I've been brewing for over ten years, and have been doing extensive reading during that time. I belong to a LOT of brewing groups; mostly I lurk due to a lack of time for all of them, but am active on several of them. However, there are a number of brewers on this forum who I consider to be MUCH more knowledgeable than I am. But if you keep reading as much as I have, picking up some knowledge along the way is inevitable. If I didn't drink so much homebrew while reading, I'd probably remember a lot more.

Cheers.

Bill Velek