Spelt grain

[googoomuck]

Hi lads, just got a bag of spelt grain here in work. Can it be used for brewing?

[Chris]

I think spelt is wheat. I've heard of it being used in saisons. It needs to be mashed with another base grain for enzymes

[Cambrinus]

Spelt is a variant of wheat. Popular in Saisons.
If it is unmated it quite possibly needs a cereal mash like other 'Raw' ,not rolled, grain.

-F

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

You could make a Belgian wit with it. A wit is typically 50:50 malted barley and unmalted wheat.

Do grains like this need any other processing though? I am thinking gelatinisation ?

[Tom]

Spelt is a wheat with hulls, AFAIK. Gelatinisation should happen at mash temps.

"Organic and conventional spelt was planted in six replicated plots, and the extracted starch was analyzed for their gelatinization properties. DSC showed that the gelatinization temperature ranged from 56.7 to 68.8 °C with an average peak of 62.4 °C, [...]"

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22909423

Give it a lash!

[googoomuck]

Cheers for the reply's lads, going to give a wit beer a lash. It will be my first extract so please correct me if needs be!! It will be a one gallon batch so would a lb of wheat DME and a lb of spelt seem right?!
Cheers again,
Lee

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

You doing a partial mash? Or all extract? You will need base malt to mash the spelt

[googoomuck]

I was going to steep the grains and then use that water to boil the wheat DME,hops etc.

[cruiscinlan]

Just on spelt, should malted spelt taste sweet?  I got a bag of out of date Brewferm whole spelt malt there to see and ground it up in a coffee grinder.  Not much aroma off it other than a general cereal smell, and although it doesn't taste off I don't get much taste when munching the whole grains either.

Just wondering if I should bother using it, it was in an airtight bag so it shouldnt have spoiled.

[Qs]

You can't steep wheat sop I doubt you can steep the spelt either.

[cruiscinlan]

Does it not make up 30% of the mash in some saisons and Belgian farmhouse ales?