[1vertical]

One more question for the conditioning gurus.
I plan to use 30-40% unmalted wheat berries in a bio-hazard lambic.
Yes, I am taking the solera to uncharted territory.
The grain is rock hard dry and should be crushed prior to the mash.
there is no husk on the wheat so .....If I were to mist spray the
4 lbs of wheat berries a day prior to the grist mill, Would this yield
a better end result? I am inclined to think it will be easier to mill when
slightly moistened. 

[kramerog]

Check Nateo's blog http://nateobrew.blogspot.com/ for an alternative idea

[1vertical]

Check Nateo's blog http://nateobrew.blogspot.com/ for an alternative idea

wow thanks so much even tho i have a 2 roller mill, i may give it a try.

[nateo]

Just getting them moist won't help much. The pericarp is really tough. For a 2-roller mill, I'd boil them, let them dry or towel them off, then run them through the mill. As long as you get rid of excess water, you should be fine.

[1vertical]

Ok update. I got through the process and i am sure it was better than trying to do them
rock hard.

I did the 15 min simmer thing and then drained them off in a colander they would barely
cling to your hand.  I then weighed out the barley for the grist and mixed that with
the par cooked wheat i mean really mixed the wheat in there....thinking that the moisture
from the wheat would also condition the barley.

Next morning I set up the grain mill and tried to mill the grist.  A good way to burn out
the motor in your half inch drill methinks.  It was almost not able to turn the rollers.
I had to reverse the drill often to clear the buildup. And speaking of that, the buildup
was very clingon...hard to clean off the rollers after the crush.

I noticed that the grain was not very well broken and wondered if it would make poor efficiency.
8 lbs of barley and 3# of wheat berries about 11 gallons of water and boil the runnings off
to 5.5 gallons of wert yeilded about a 1.040 O.G.....not the best result.

Since It is going into the solera with a mix of some prolly 9+%ABV beer, a little mellowing out
will be ok....

[guido]

I boiled the wheat berries for my Witbier yesterday.  I'm letting them dry and will try to mill them after work this afternoon.  Wish me luck.

[tygo]

I boiled the wheat berries for my Witbier yesterday.  I'm letting them dry and will try to mill them after work this afternoon.  Wish me luck.

Let us know how this goes.  I've got five pounds of wheat berries to crush next weekend.

[guido]

Apparently the berries need to dry more.  They just gummed their way through the mill without crushing them.  I think it would be pointless to adjust the rollers closer.  At least the mill didn't jam.

[nateo]

I haven't tried the technique with my roller mill. I found a Corona mill on amazon for $20 shipped, and boy does that thing tear the wheat berries up. If you want to use a lot of raw wheat, that's what I'd suggest. For occasional usage, I'd probably just get flaked wheat. I put raw wheat in maybe half the beers I make, so it made sense to invest in the mill.

I have tried wetting barley malt and running it through the mill. That worked OK on one pass, but I tried to run it through a second time and it got all gummed to hell.

My LHBS sells flaked wheat for $1.25/lb, the Mennonite store near me sells it for about $0.50/lbs. So after ~27lbs ($20/$0.75) of raw wheat, it paid for itself. YMMV. It's also great for grinding up corn and rice for lagers.

[guido]

It's not happening with boiled wheat berries and the roller mill.  The mill just schmooshes 'em through like gummi bears.  I picked up a Corona Mill on Amazon to grind them.  Hopefully I'll be able to grind raw wheat and dabble with some Lambics and Flanders Red.

[guido]

The Corona Mill rocks for the boiled wheat.  My grind might be a little finer than the photos.  I'm going to add lots of rice hulls, just to be sure.

[reverseapachemaster]

Definitely no problem using a corona mill but it is a workout for sure.

[nateo]

Definitely no problem using a corona mill but it is a workout for sure.

If you boil them first, they go through like buddah.

[tygo]

I just ran 5 lbs of soft white wheat berries through my barley crusher.  Had to run them through three times to get the crush I wanted.

First time through it was hard going but I just added a quarter pound at a time to the hopper which seemed to help.  Second time through was easier and the third through was a breeze.  Everything is crushed up nicely with no intact kernels. 

Harder than crushing malted barley but still only took me about 15 minutes.

[1vertical]

Ok, I am going to try to revisit the lambic side of things again I got some bug farm ECY in starter now.

I am going to do several pounds of hard wheat berries in my coffee grinder and see where that takes
this process to....will get back to you about the results.  This is for a turbid mash forthcoming and a
stab in the dark at an AMbic  bier.  (thats American Lambic F.Y.I.)  5 lbs pils and 3 lbs of wheat.

Fingers crossed