Steeping Wheat grain

[The Carbonator]

Hey dudes,

I did an extract brew with some left over ingredients last week, and I steeped the cracked wheat grain........I forgot that there is no enzyme in wheat for the conversion.

My question is, will it make any difference to the flavour of the beer if I didnt mini-mash the wheat?
I know there will not be any added fermentables, but thats ok. I just wanted the flavour anyway.

Here she is:

3kg LDME
500g Wheat grain, steeped 68*C 25mins
20g Amarillo 20mins 8.7%
20g Amarillo 10mins
10g Amarillo Flame Out
2 packs of TCB dry Wheat yeast
23L 24*C, down to 18*C within 10 hours
fermenting at 20*C
OG - 1052

thanks guys.

[rwh]

I thought wheat malt could self-convert...

[Kevnlis]

All wheat malt will self convert except dark wheat malt.

[drsmurto]

But probably not (completely) in 25 mins........

[Kevnlis]

But probably not (completely) in 25 mins........

No, the majority of the enzyme activity is in the first 30 minutes or so, but it would take twice that to fully convert the malt.

It will have added flavour, and fermentables, but probably lipids, proteins and unconverted starches as well. Since it is a wheat beer, and you are using a wheat yeast, the cloudiness will not be an issue but may cause some off flavours and poor head retention.

[rwh]

So what's with all the hoo-hah these days about short mashes with fully modified malt? Lots of ppl do 30 minute mashes with full conversion these days. Not sure if this applies to wheat, but I reckon you'd be pretty right.

[Trough Lolly]

Carbonator - your 500g of malted wheat should have converted happily at that temp. Malted wheat converts like a freight train and is an excellent base malt that also has sufficient diastatic power to help lesser powerful malts (eg, amber malt) to convert as well.

Next time you do this, steep the grain as you described and grab a clean teaspoon and taste the mash - if it's sweet, then it converted! If it didn't, then you were sold unmalted wheat...which is fine for Belgian Wits and Lambics. It helps head retention but does add haze. Unmalted wheat obviously has no diastatic power.

Cheers,
TL

[The Carbonator]

Cheers TL.
Yep, it was malted wheat, so no worries.

What the hell was I thinking of?