Lambic / pLambic with malted wheat; or, Do I need to do a turbid mash?

Beer Recipes
1

Hello,

If made a lambic with the following grain bill:

60% Pilsner
40% White Wheat Malt
Single Infusion @ 155F

Do you think I would regret the decision come drinking time? I am using a cooler for a mash tun and have plenty of wheat malt on hand. But, I don’t want to be overly regretful concerning this brew a few years from now. Is raw wheat turbid mash, or the Wyeast lambic mash necessary for reasonable success?

Cheers,
Michael

2

The brewers use unmalted wheat for lambics.  This, along with the turbid mash gives more starch for the bugs and critters to eat.  Randy Mosher has a short cut, use wheat flour in the boil before knockout.

3

Thanks, yeah I’ve read that in Radical Brewing.  I guess I don’t the difference in flavor, if any, from using malted versus unmalted wheat.

Cheers,
Mike

4

Historically, Belgian brewers were also taxed based on the capacity of their mash tun, so they crammed it full and also added sugar and other stuff to the boil in order to increase gravity in an untaxed fashion. That partially explains some of the funky traditional mashing regimes for Belgian beers.

Practically, flour and turbid mash provides complex starches which bugs in the lambic break down slowly over a period of weeks or months.

5

What type of wheat flour is appropriate for this purpose? Not enriched, but should it be whole wheat?

Thanks,
Mike