The torrefied, the malted and the flaked

Which wheat is right for your NEIPA?

Every brewer knows that to brew a proper NEIPA, you need to use cereals with high protein content to get the mouthfeel and haze you want. Oats are a must, but using wheat in conjunction with oats is a good way to obtain the perfect result.

The question is: What wheat?

Three main options come to mind: flaked wheat, malted wheat, and, less commonly known, torrefied wheat.

Let’s have a look at those. Malted wheat is, contrary to the other solutions, malted. This means the grain has been through the whole process of malting. This process gives the malt functioning enzymes: it can convert starch to sugar. This is why you can go up to 70% wheat malt in the grist (or even more), if you brew a Wit beer, for example. The malting process also breaks down the core of the protein, making the proteins smaller. Smaller proteins make them drop slower and create more permanent haze, but less hazy than with un-malted grains like flakes and torrefied wheat. For flavors, malted wheat brings a creamy, bready, and refreshing flavor typical of the grain.

Flaked wheat is raw grain that has been through a process where the grain is pressed through rolls and steamed. This process gelatinizes the starch and makes it easier to use in the mash. The main issue with flakes is the potential to create a stuck mash.

Torrefied wheat is raw wheat that passes through a bed of hot air at a temperature of 400 to 415°C for less than a minute. The cell of the grain is broken, it expands, and becomes a small round ball of wheat. This process should not be confused with roasting, which darkens the grain and gives the grain a specific taste. Torrefied wheat has an EBC color of 2 to 5, making it very little effect. Torrefied wheat has to be milled to be mashed.

You can order it pre-milled from us. The process of torrefying makes the grain much easier to mill than raw wheat. Both flaked and torrefied wheat have bigger protein cells, giving the beer a more impactful haze, but with less stability over time, as it settles better. On the flavor side, flaked and torrefied wheat have less taste, making them perfect to express the flavors of the other ingredients. Torrefied wheat is usually cheaper than malted wheat and can also be an interesting advantage.

So, what is best for my NEIPA?

It depends.

Flaked wheat has the advantage over torrefied wheat as it does not require milling. Torrefied wheat is less prone to a stuck mash and can be bought pre-milled. For bigger breweries, it can be used with automated grain processing, making it less work-intensive. Wheat malt has more taste than the other two, good or bad, we let you do your own opinion. If you use well-modified base malt in your grist, the enzymatic capacity of the malted wheat will make little to no difference. Assuming you will use somewhere between 10 to 15% of wheat together with the same ratio of oats, your best option could be to blend torrefied wheat and wheat malt with oats to get the best of both worlds.

Now, what oats are best? Naked, flaked, malted? This will be the topic of our next article, watch for it.

If you want specific advice on your grain bill and cereal sourcing, drop us a line: info@goodbeer.solutions

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