Resurrection brewday

[ray m]

If you recall my lengthy post from last week (brew day from HELL), I was obviously in need of a brewday where I could redeem myself. Today was that day. Decided to get a nice Scotch Ale going for the chillier autumn months, which are just around the corner. You know, compadres, it's amazing how much better (smoother) everything goes when one is not working against a deadline. Everything went without so much as a hiccup. OG was 1.078 on the Scotch Ale.

As for my "from hell" brew, it is turning out very, very nicely. I was going to do a rye beer, but it ended up being a Belgian Wit, to which I will add some peach extract at bottling. OG was 1.052, FG was 1.010. Tasted awesome when I racked over to secondary yesterday! I am starting to wonder if my stuck sparge on this brew was from the 1/2 lb. of flaked wheat in the recipe (other that the fact I angered the beer gods by rushing things). I recall a grayish, pasty-looking substance on the very top of the grain bed in my lauter tun when I was sparging). Anyone have experience with flaked adjuncts? This was my "1st time".:D

[sallad]

i used flaked oats in an oatmeal stout, but i only steeped them in a grain bag. i can tell you that after steeping 1.2lbs of oats for 30 min, it had the consistency of, well, overdone oatmeal...

[BREWERDLUX]

Wheat in any shape or form can be a gummy mess. I have not used flaked wheat but, I am assuming it does the same thing. I have made an all-wheat dunkelweizen. I even used chocolate wheat!! Only other thing in it was several pounds of oat hulls and I had an easy sparge.
I have at times noticed a greyish silt on the top of my mash. Im not sure what caused it, but I (knock on wood) have not had a problem.....

[Fast_Eddy]

I think most of the greyish stuff is hot break type materials.

[beerman1001001]

I've used flaked grains (rye, oats, wheat) in a few of my batches, but never more than 1 or 2 pounds. I find that it helps to mix the flaked grains really well with the rest of the grains before adding water to the mash. The flaked grains really seem to do well for head retention.

[quantum24]

i remember reading somewhere (maybe byo) that the grey "stuff" is made up of mostly proteins that are extracted from the grains

[ray m]

Hmmmmmmm........That is very interesting. I do not recall this gray matter being on any of my other mashes during lauter. It may be the flaked wheat, I don't know. This stuff was solid darkish-gray goop...with no evidence of grain husk particles mixed therein. It looked to be at least 1/4" to 1/2" thick on top. I am attributing my difficulty to two possible suspects: either the flaked wheat, which I did nothing to before mashing---just threw it into the mash tun with all other crushed grain, or angry beer gods because I was playing beat the clock.

[quantum24]

ill try to find my source to see exactly what it said, it may help.