"malted" or "roasted" barley
 

I am trying to find a domestic source of barley for brewing (I live in Taiwan) and so far all I have found is "roasted" barley, like the kind used in barley tea. I don't think it is malted, if I understand what that mean, but when steeped like tea it does make a sweet almost wort like substance, so I wonder if this could be beer worthy. Thoughts?

Also, do you guys think it would be possible to malt roasted barley. My first thoughts are no, but then I am not so experienced.

Roasted Barley is not necessarily malted. It might make a fermantable beverage, but not great beer.

I don't think you can malt roasted barley, because malting entails germinating the barley, and the roasting process kills it.

Order from A brewing supplier in quantity to try and justify the shipping costs.

Even in quantity, $5 per kilo is about as low as things go, which is a hefty bill.

How about supplies from Japan? I had a decent beer or two last time I was there.

Just a thought,
Matt

What is really strange; Taiwan has several large malting companies.

Have you tried talking to the brew masters at local breweries? Some times (at least in the US), they will order a few extra bags for a homebrewer.

Yeah, Taiwan imports an ass ton of barley, something like 130,000 metric tons of barley for feed and a full 80,000 metric tons of malted barley for the brewing industry. However, so far I have found no local distribution of malt.

At this stage I am going to go talk with the dudes at the breweries. But, those old Taiwanese "bentu" (lower class very LOCAL people) either love you or hate you if you have a white face. We shall see how that goes.

Otherwise, if I could find raw barley for feed, and malt it myself, could that work? I have been able to find a ton of sources for barley malt based pure maltose sugar, called simply "barley sugar" in Chinese. Could that be used for anything?

Thanks so much for the input guys.

Yes, you could malt your own barley. I have never done it, but it seems easy if you have to do it. Here is an article from BYO: http://www.byo.com/feature/284.html

Now that is something I think you have to check out. It sounds suspiciously like 'Malt Extract' to me, and if so you should be able to use it. A possible problem would be if it has been purified to be REALLY pure maltose and not have any of the longer-chain sugars and proteins needed for body and residual sweetness. But even then you could probably use it along with steeping grains and maybe adding some other sugars (honey? molasses? syrup?) to make up for it.

I thought it was odd when you said there were malting companies there, but no malt available. That might be where it all goes!

Try THIS LINK and get read up on the different types of grains and their uses.

You’ll be wanting to get your hands on “base malts”. The foundation for brewing. Specialty malts like roasted barley, are used to adjust color and flavor and have lower potential sugars.

2-row, pale malt, pilsner malt, 6-row…are all examples of base grains that would usually make up 60-95% of your grain bill.

I feel like interjecting since roasted barley will not make a fermentable beverage, since it has no enzymes to break down starch. I like the idea of malting your own barley. I think it's a pretty tough process, but if that's what necessity dictates... :rockin: