Brewed a wit with flaked wheat, turned out very dark

[ido50]

I brewed a witbier yesterday (Hoegaarden clone), a 2.5 gallon batch, using 2.8 lbs of Pilsen Malt and 2.8 lbs of flaked wheat. Mashed at 154F for 60 minutes. The wort post mash was very dark, much darker than a wit should ever be (see pic below). Basically looks like a Dunkel I would say. The fault was with the flaked wheat, which is something I've never used before as it's hard to find here.

Anyone ever had the same experience with flaked wheat? The guy at the brew store says the flaked wheat isn't malted or toasted.

I wonder what kind of flavor to expect from this batch. I was planning on culturing yeast from Hoegaarden bottles to ferment this batch, but now I'm not so sure (I no-chill so I haven't started fermentation yet).

Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[LLBeanJ]

Flaked wheat will not turn your wort dark. I think you will find that it is much lighter once fermentation is done and it is in your glass.

 

[ido50]

Flaked wheat will not turn your wort dark. I think you will find that it is much lighter once fermentation is done and it is in your glass.

I hope so, though from experience I doubt it will be much lighter. Plus, I've brewed a lot of light colored beers before and they were all light and yellowish post mash. This one took my by surprise. I hope you're right.

 

[LLBeanJ]

I do admit that it appears to be quite a bit darker than it should. When I brew a witbier, I usually do an acid rest @ 112°, followed by a protein rest @ 122° before ramping up to the sacch rest temp, but I really don't see how doing just a sacch rest would cause flaked wheat to turn your wort dark. I'd harvest your yeast as planned and let it ride.

Please post back when it's done and let us know how it turned out.

 

[Horseshoot]

I always use flaked wheat for my wheat ales. And have never had a dark one.

 

[slarkin712]

Wort does not magically become dark. I can think of a few reasons why it came out darker.
1. You did not actually use pilsen malt. Maybe it was a crystal malt or maybe some other malt got mixed in with it.
2. You wort picked up color from something in the kettle. i.e. burned on malt, etc.
3. Your water had something in it which caused a darkening of the wort.

Probably is #1, as flaked wheat is distinct in shape, and anything mixed in should have been noticed.

 

[ido50]

Wort does not magically become dark. I can think of a few reasons why it came out darker.
1. You did not actually use pilsen malt. Maybe it was a crystal malt or maybe some other malt got mixed in with it.
2. You wort picked up color from something in the kettle. i.e. burned on malt, etc.
3. Your water had something in it which caused a darkening of the wort.

Probably is #1, as flaked wheat is distinct in shape, and anything mixed in should have been noticed.

Interesting options. #2 and #3 don't seem likely culprits, as I actually cleaned any burned on malt from the kettle with vinegar a few days before and it was squeaky clean. I always use the same water, I won't bore you with the profile but it has a pH of 6.8 and I always treat it with gypsum, and never had a problem (I had color problems with beer before I started using this water, so I know your suggestion is valid).

Perhaps the LHBS screwed-up the grain bill and gave me something other than Pilsen Malt. Anyway, I guess I'm gonna ride it out and see.

 

[joshesmusica]

Does hoegaarden actually use their main yeast for bottling as well? I know many of the bigger breweries (and probably a lot of micros as well?) ferment, then filter, then put a different, tasteless, cheap yeast in for bottling.

 

[ido50]

Does hoegaarden actually use their main yeast for bottling as well? I know many of the bigger breweries (and probably a lot of micros as well?) ferment, then filter, then put a different, tasteless, cheap yeast in for bottling.

This has been discussed a lot in this forum, you can find several topics using the search function. It has been done by members here before, and the general concensus is that they use the same yeast.

 

[joshesmusica]

This has been discussed a lot in this forum, you can find several topics using the search function. It has been done by members here before, and the general concensus is that they use the same yeast.

Nice! Not that I don't trust the consensus of the users of this forum, but has anybody ever actually emailed them to get a final verdict? I'm wondering because my next batch is actually going to be a hoegaarden clone.