I have read many articles n malting grain and have a pretty good grasp of the process. In fact I have successful malted a few pound. The one thing that I have read that troubles me is the soaking of the grain. One article says soak for up to 48 hours another one says no more that 8 hours at a time or you will drowned the grain. So how has everyone else here been doing it.
Thanks
I don't know about malting grains, but as far as buckwheat goes it's going to be your "speciality grain", so you will add it to malted base malt? In this case I would treat buckwheat similarly to rice in the mash. Simply boil the heck out of it till it becomes a gelatin-like goo and then simply add it to your base malt in the mash-tun. This way enzymes from your base malt will take care of starches from the buckwheat.
There's some good info in here and there's two guys in there who have experience with buckwheat. Over a 48 hour period I think I did an air rest every 8 hours for...maybe 4 hours...? I can't remember actually
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I found that soaking for 48 hours killed my buckwheat.
I've always done about 1 day of soak, then drain/strain the grain. After that just rinse about 2x daily to wash off any mold/bacteria and wait until the roots/acrospires are long enough for your liking.
By the way, I malted and roasted some buckwheat over the last couple weeks. I soaked it overnight, and then rinsed it repeatedly over the next new days. There was one batch that I soaked for like 24 hours, because I forgot about it. I'd say the same % of the buckwheat sprouted in all 4 mini batches I did (I was soaking half a pound or a pound at a time in an ice cream bucket on the counter).
I'm guessing fresher buckwheat would have worked even better, but it certainly can be done!
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That's bread yeast. Look at it sitting there, all depressed. Listless. Beer yeast doesn't look like that. It has hopes. Dreams. Something to look forward to...
I found that soaking for 48 hours killed my buckwheat.
I've always done about 1 day of soak, then drain/strain the grain. After that just rinse about 2x daily to wash off any mold/bacteria and wait until the roots/acrospires are long enough for your liking.
I follow the do not exceed 8 hours of soaking rule. I do 8 hour soaks with 2-4 hour air breaks and I rinse the grains several times a day to keep mold/bacteria under control. Unfortionately, work tends to get in the way and I can't wash the grains as often as I'd like or kiln them when I want. I tossed the grains in the fridge once because I thought I was close to kilning time and I knew I wouldn't be home for 10 hours.
Soak it for a solid 8 hours, then let it sit out of the water and rinse it every so often until it sprouts? Or do you just take it out of the water for a few hours, then back in for another 8, then out, etc until it sprouts?
I've never malted grain before, but my wife is becoming more gluten intolerant, and if I didn't love beer so much I would also give up the gluten, so I'd love to be able to do a beer with a malted buckwheat base... (since sorghum sucks and quinoa is difficult to malt. I hear millet is about the same as buckwheat to malt, though)
Soak it for a solid 8 hours, then let it sit out of the water and rinse it every so often until it sprouts? Or do you just take it out of the water for a few hours, then back in for another 8, then out, etc until it sprouts?
I've never malted grain before, but my wife is becoming more gluten intolerant, and if I didn't love beer so much I would also give up the gluten, so I'd love to be able to do a beer with a malted buckwheat base... (since sorghum sucks and quinoa is difficult to malt. I hear millet is about the same as buckwheat to malt, though)
cheers
It depends on the amount of oxygen in the water (among other things), you don't want to drown them, you also don't want them to dry out. When I have malted (barley) after the initial soaks I would simply fill and drain numerous times per day, but there are alot of other variables like ambient temperature, water temperature, ambient moisture content, type of grain you're malting, etc.
Theoretically if you had an air stone in the bottom and consistent mixing of the grains/water/air you would not have to drain until modification is complete (unless the water got too hot, malting grain creates it's own heat). Everything I've found during malting suggests that the grains need to move during every phase of the process for consistent results
Disclaimer, I have no experience with buckwheat, that's why I asked for an update.
i'm just malting ten pounds of barley now, I put it in my mash tun with false bottom and soaked for two hours and let rest for 8. I repeated this three more times each time I let it rest dry I tossed the grains. they are germinating in my malt roller now.
Malting Buckwheat
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