Rice Hulls (or alternative) in NZ?

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Permalink Reply by denimglen on February 12, 2010 at 5:57pm

Sorry can't help you too much with hulls or an alternative product but you could try malt conditioning if you have your own mill.

I've had great results. A 0.028" gap on my mill, and it's a textbook crush - all the hulls split open, none torn and then starchy goodness just falls out of the husk.

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Permalink Reply by Doublehoppy on February 12, 2010 at 6:33pm

Interesting. Do you do this for all your brews, or just for wheat beers to ensure smooth lautering?

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Permalink Reply by warra48 on February 12, 2010 at 11:29pm

That works great with barley, but the issue with wheat is that it has no husk. Hence the need to artificially add rice hulls to make up for it.

I don't know whether they are available in NZ, but they are readily obtainable in Aus, just bought 2 kg last Tuesday.

The other thing you can do, in the absence of rice hulls, is to drain and sparge slower to prevent the mash setting itself too solid.

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Permalink Reply by denimglen on February 16, 2010 at 6:26pm

Doublehoppy - I'm doing this with all my beers, for the next batch I will go down to about 0.024" to try and squeeze another couple percentage out of my conversion efficiency.

Warra - You're correct, wheat doesn't have a husk but it does have a pericarp which is kept intact more by conditioning than straight dry milling. While I wouldn't trust it to give a perfect lauter in a very high percentage wheat beer it will help until at least 60%.

I'd be interested to know if rice hulls helped at all in a BIAB set up, I could imagine that lifting the grain bag would still disturb the grain bed too much even with the hulls. Would it be worth looking at a coarser mesh bag for high percentage wheat beers? I'm not too familiar with the BIAB method so I don't know how well that would work.

On a side note while flicking through the Yate's Gardening Guide they mention using rice hulls as mulch - so there may be a source in NZ somewhere?

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Permalink Reply by Soren on February 12, 2010 at 9:33pm

Oat husks is the only thing I've found. I haven't used them yet but if you're near blenheim I can get you a sack of them. Otherwise you can get them from Harraways in Dunedin but you have to buy 2 cubic meters... Someone here put me that direction a few months back, can't remember who on top of my mind but thank you:)

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Permalink Reply by Llew Bardecki on February 16, 2010 at 5:48pm

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

I do a BIAB type method and generally have no trouble sparging my all barley beers, and even smaller wheat beers.

But if I'm ever making something like this beast again I'll definitely look into getting some oat husks. I'd be interested to hear how they work out for you Soren :)

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Permalink Reply by Mike Neilson on February 16, 2010 at 6:05pm

Oat hulls have loads of oils in them so be carefull with them as the head retention could be killed!! My drystout I brewed with them and I had no head!!

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Permalink Reply by Chris Mills on March 15, 2012 at 12:40pm

If I were to get a bulk load of rice hulls is there anyone who might want some, and if so how much?

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Permalink Reply by Liam Callaghan on March 16, 2012 at 7:44am

I would take a few kilos Chris (2-5kg).

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Permalink Reply by Llew Bardecki on March 16, 2012 at 3:13pm

I've moved out of NZ for the foreseeable future, so none for me I'm afraid :(

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Permalink Reply by Houli on March 16, 2012 at 5:13pm

I've used Oat hulls / husks from a porridge factory in Dunedin ( Harraways). These work very well and are cheap. About $12 for a big sack.

When I make wheat beers now, I just increase the gap on my mill.

 

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