OG not Hitting target on All Grain Heffeweissen

Ingredients
1

Have tried 2 heffeweissens now. OG is not hitting anywhere near target. Am I missing something? Mash for 60 mins at 152 F, fly sparge at 170 F. Biol for 1 hr.  Twice now OG has hit 1.052. The first was supposed to hit 1.063 to achieve abv of 7%. In last try supposed to by calculator, hit 1.087 to achieve an abv of 8.3% just in case OG was a little low again, and yes I prefer high abv beers. Only thing i can think of is all of the grain isnt getting cracked during mill? All other types ive brewed besides wheats are hitting spot on.

2

I found that my efficiency goes up if I stir my mash every 10 minutes or so. What is your crush? A finer milling might help. If you do grind finer, be sure to use rice hulls so ensure sparge flow.

3

What % of wheat malt? Rice halls make a big difference when using a large % of wheat. I also find the stir mentioned above helps as well as a bit longer Nash rest.

4

I think you nailed it with “not sure all grain is getting cracked in mill”. Wheat malt can often be a smaller size than barley malt. Depends on the variety but my guess is you will need to adjust the gap on your mill for you wheat.

5

This.  Wheat kernels are smaller.  Who is crushing your grains?  LHBS’s notoriously have the mill gaps set too wide to crush very well, and might not crush wheat kernels at all.

6

I agree with both of these brewers.  I typically make two grinds with my Barley Crusher.  The first is for the Barley Malt and the second is for the Wheat Malt.  Then I blend them together with a hefty amount of rice hills.  My mash efficiency for my Hefe is in the low 90’s.

Something else you can do is measure your Pre-Boil gravity.  This will tell you if you have a mash issue.

Edit: I will reduce the gap in the rollers of my Barley Crusher when milling wheat.

7

52% wheat malt. .75 # rice hulls… i used to let the distributor mill but this time i tried. I did the barley twice and wheat once but defunitely noticed the need to adjest the gap as thwre is definately a difference. From the replies, next time im going to mill seoerately and ensure a good wheat mill happens in attemot to alleviate this issue. Thanks to all for the reply’s. I also wanted to make sure there wasnt something special as far as mash temps and times when wheat grains were used vs only barleys that i was missing…