Unmalted wheat

[3rdto1st]

Hey all, a friend left the states for a few years recently, and decided to leave me his grain. Included was 1lb of unmalted wheat. I am brewing a saison this weekend, and thought the wheat would be great to use. However, given that this is my 4th brew, I have no idea how to use it. I know i need to do a small cereal mash with another malted grain to get the enzymes working, but am fuzzy on the specifics. Any clarification would be great.

The recipe also has pilsen, rye and munich, if that helps as to what i should mash with it.

[kevinham]

Unmalted wheat has no diastatic power (no enzymes), so you need to mash it with another malt with a higher DP. 6-Row has great DP and is usually used for stuff like that. In your case, Pilsner has pretty decent enzymatic power, but be sure to use more than 2-3 times as much of the Pils than you do wheat. Rye and Munich both have enough for themselves, but probably not enough to help convert the unmalted wheat.

Unmalted wheat is typically used in Belgian Witbiers and Lambics. I don't know how well it goes with Saison, but go for it. It will add a lot of protein haze and wheat flavor, and probably not convert all that well. Make sure you do a pretty long mash rest (protein rests are usually recommended, but if you are doing extract this isn't really an option or necessary).