I’m preparing to brew a Mexican Lager that calls for 1-1/2 lb Corn Maize. I’ve never used this ingredient before and looking at it, it seems rather fine. Should I include some rice hulls to help prevent stuck sparge?
In my experience you won’t need rice hulls. The maize will disappear in the mash.
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Copy that! Thanks!
It depends on your equipment and method, but my experience is that small amount won’t be any problem
It just so happens that I built a tool for this. It helps calculate if you do or don’t need rice hulls and how much you might need based on the type of mash tun and the recipe grist. I hope you find it useful.
As always, it is 100% free with no ads and no tracking.
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All great information. Thanks brewers!
The only time I consider using rice hulls in the mash is when I am using a significant amount of rye in the mash (like 20%) since rye is pretty sticky and can result in a stuck runoff.
That said, I made an 11 gallon batch of my black IPA last weekend with 2.5# of rye (about 10% of the grist) and used no rice hulls. To be safe, I added the rye in small amounts while milling the rest of the grain bill and did not have a stuck runoff.
I’ve gone up to 60% and not come close to needing hulls. But as I said, it depends on your system and process.
Good to know! I think my Brewmagic should be able to handle that much rye but I might tend to err on the side of caution with that much rye.
I found adding beta glucanase works far better than rice hulls. I brew with a lot of rice on a RIMS and it completely solves the problem of poor mash circulation. Other brewers find it works really well in mashes with high rye content.
Interesting thing that I learned about using rye. In the past I always had very poor efficiency using it. It turns out my grain mill could not be set tight enough to get a proper crush. Once I had the rye crushed the way it is supposed to be, I had a very slow recirculation and run-off problem. Rice hulls eliminated that issue and I made a rye pale ale last weekend with 45% rye, good efficiency and no lauter problems.