Wheat/grain question

[Steve B]

A store we do business with is a kitchen supply store. Whatever you need,
commercial stainless stuff, ranges, kitchen doodads, whatever, they have it.

They also sell 50# bags of wheat for $25, which sounds like a decent price.
Are there brands or species of wheat that are better for brewing than
others? I didn't get the name of this particular one, but can go and write
them down.

I live in Mormon country, and here, most people lay in stores of food,
grains being one of them. They may have other grains related to brewing.
What's the best site to read up and learn about the best types of grains to
brew with? I will probably be going with extracts here at first, but I have
the tendency to obsess if it is anything I am really interested in. I've
been interested in beer ever since I can remember, so I think I know where
this is heading.

TIA

Steve

[Bart Goddard]

Post by Steve B
They also sell 50# bags of wheat for $25, which sounds like a decent
price. Are there brands or species of wheat that are better for
brewing than others?

Wheat used for brewing is generally _malted_. Plain wheat
(ready to be ground into flour) will only make a mess.
(Unmalted wheat and other grains might be used in small
amounts for flavor, but you won't get any alcohol out of
them.)

[Paul Arthur]

Post by Bart Goddard

Post by Steve B
They also sell 50# bags of wheat for $25, which sounds like a decent
price. Are there brands or species of wheat that are better for
brewing than others?

Wheat used for brewing is generally _malted_. Plain wheat
(ready to be ground into flour) will only make a mess.
(Unmalted wheat and other grains might be used in small
amounts for flavor, but you won't get any alcohol out of
them.)

That's somewhat misleading. Sure, unmalted wheat doesn't have the
necessary enzymes for self-conversion, but used in conjunction with a
suitable proportion of malted grain it will convert just fine, and
you'll "get alcohol out of" it.

Using six-row base malt, you can do a mash with up to about 60%
unmalted adjuncts (disregarding things like the increased possibility
of a stuck sparge). Two-row would drop you down to ~35% max.

[Doug Freyburger]

Post by Bart Goddard

Post by Steve B
They also sell 50# bags of wheat for $25, which sounds like a decent
price. Are there brands or species of wheat that are better for
brewing than others?

Not that it answers your question as phrased, but I like the one called
barley.

Post by Bart Goddard
Wheat used for brewing is generally _malted_. Plain wheat
(ready to be ground into flour) will only make a mess.

I figured Steve wants to start malting his own grain. He lives out in
the wilds and he has plenty of room to do stuff like that. I've seen
shows on malting and it sure looks easier with barley than with wheat.