Happiness is: Home malting - Page 2

COLObrewer · 03-08-2009, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baldy_Beer_Brewery

So this barley they sell to farmers to grow more barley? Or barley used for animal feed?

Interesting project BTW.

Yes and I presume, YES, however the animal feed may not be as clean? They run this through a series of sieves and fans to be "seed" quality.

Beerrific · 03-08-2009, 01:21 PM

Barley is definitely used for animal feed. I know there is big difference between feed-quality barley and malt-quality barley, has something to do with protein and carbohydrate levels.

Very interesting project, I am looking forward to pics from the process, and your results.

COLObrewer · 03-08-2009, 01:36 PM

OK, so, in the meantime I was working on converting the "smokehouse" to a dryer/kiln. The smokehouse is an old upright freezer (Amana I believe) with some guts removed and a 3" "smoke" inlet in the bottom and a 3" outlet at the top. Like so:

I added some ductwork to the top and connected it to a looong 6" flexible metal exhaust tube I had laying around (I think this tube was here when I bought the place, no idea what it was for, I used to use it to direct car exhaust out from the shop). This will be the vacuum line to pull heated air through the kiln.

Then to the other end I added a furnace type squirrel cage fan I found in the dumpster at work, can you say FREEEBIE.

To the inlet end of the smokehouse/kiln I added the heater (Previously posted)

I initially tried a small electric heater but it had no where near the output needed, so here's my 1st expense, Mr. heater = 50 bucks, ductwork = 25 bucks, look on my wifes face every time I go check my "malting" . . . priceless.
More to come.

COLObrewer · 03-08-2009, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beerrific

Barley is definitely used for animal feed. I know there is big difference between feed-quality barley and malt-quality barley, has something to do with protein and carbohydrate levels.

Very interesting project, I am looking forward to pics from the process, and your results.

The only difference I've learned of are between 6 row and 2 row, I presume this is 6 row, but I have some planted on the window sill in the kitchen to see for sure. It will make fine beer either way!

EDIT: I just learned there is also 4 row barley, the chinese site I saw it on says it is useless for malting.

**mysteryberto** · 03-08-2009, 01:58 PM

This is the coolest brewing thing I've seen in a while. I've always heard it dismissed as too much work and requiring a lot of skill. Look forward to how this goes.

COLObrewer · 03-08-2009, 02:01 PM

So, the morning of 03-07 I carted half the malt to the kiln, (The hoards I made will only hold half of it since it has "grown".

The other half will have to wait, then I went off to work a 12hr shift. Later I called the kids to check on my malting, they reported the fan was on but the burner was off and it was pumping 40F air through the kiln, so throughout the day they re-lit the burner a few times and I commenced to troubleshoot when I got home. It turned out the fan was pulling too much vacuum putting out the fire, maybe the temperature difference from now (40F) and when I tested it (70F) has something to do with it. So to fix it I simply made an incision in the flexible aluminum duct between the heater and the kiln to let it draw ambient air from the outside and not pull so much vacuum.

I placed another remote temperature sending unit in the kiln and went in the house, (since it 's snowing now) The heater ran all night, but the temp only got up to 87F, this will work fine but it will take longer, the initial drying of the malt needs to be below 112F. Then it should be stepped up to at least 176F to "cure" (for pale malt), I will have to find another way to introduce heat, maybe a bigger inlet tube.

In the meantime this morning (06:00 03-08) on my way to work again I checked all the temperatures, the kiln is at 87F, the couched half is at 39F(Which is good, this will slow down the modification(no more sprinkling, just turning trying to dry it out also)), ambient temp. is a crappy 27F. The malt in the kiln is drying nicely with growth stopped and the rootlets are drying up, it seems to be working, You are now up to date 03-08.
More to come in the future, P.S. my pictures seem to be getting smaller, probably something I'm doing/not doing?
Vern.

COLObrewer · 03-08-2009, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mysteryberto

This is the coolest brewing thing I've seen in a while. I've always heard it dismissed as too much work and requiring a lot of skill. Look forward to how this goes.

It does take some patience and the time off from work helps, but I found that if the ambient temperature is right, not much equipment is needed. If it were cold you could probably get a plant heater or water bed heater or other device to place under the malting floor and/or steeping bucket(s) or simply have someplace heated to do it in, if it were hot, you'd want to cool the process down as well, around 50F is ideal for growing the seeds.

I am currently optimistic as everything seems to be working so far, I may just have to do some "adjusting" to finish the process, but I will keep this updated through the final beer stages.

polecreek · 03-09-2009, 02:01 AM

Very cool Vern, looks like you have been worken your butt off. Are you going to kiln all of this into base malt? By the way, I may have an idea on a heater to try next time.

COLObrewer · 03-09-2009, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by polecreek

Very cool Vern, looks like you have been worken your butt off. Are you going to kiln all of this into base malt? By the way, I may have an idea on a heater to try next time.

Yes, it will all be base malt as I'm not set up to do any crystal yet (Need more heat, could do small amounts in an oven outside), most other specialty malts are made from base malt (except perhaps Rauchmalt which I'd like to try on the next batch along with Crystal, still studying the process on both these because there is conflicting information)

Here's an update, The burner ran good all day yesterday and the temp was perfect when I got home at 111F, perfect for drying that is. The first half of the batch is dried enough (growing is halted, roots dried up and falling off) to start on the second half, so the first half transferred to a bucket and the second half transferred to the kiln. Here's a pic of the first half, almost malt.

And a closer pic:

Looks almost like what I started with except some of the grains look darker than others like almost green, all are dry. It is tasting malty but I still need to perform a higher temperature curing kiln run, hopefully it will be fine until the second half is dry.

Observations to date:
1. Need more hoards for the dryer/kiln.
2. Hoards must be stiffer, they sag where not supported, maybe a frame of some sort.
3. Need capability for more heat and possibly more air flow through the kiln for better efficiency and ability to do crystal and other specialty malts/grains.
4. Need a valve to drain the steeping bucket easily.
5. Capacity at this point is possibly limited by Kiln size, may be able to do 100lbs. max.
6. Would need another (or larger) malting floor if doing more than 50lbs.
7. Rauchmalt should be easy enough, just re-connect the original smoker firebox. (Would have tried this but ran out of time).
8. Eventually it would be nice to have one or more rotating cages in the Kiln to slowly and automatically turn the malts as they dry, etc. Shouldn't be too hard to rig and would save alot of labor.
That's all for now, Vern.
Edited: PS Chad, what is your idea for a kiln heater, Thanx!

**kerklein2** · 03-09-2009, 02:25 PM

On the heater, what might help is getting a passive heater and putting it at the bottom of your kiln and putting a fan at the top. That ducting you are using is probably just too constricting for the fan on that heater. It can't handle the pressure drop you are putting on it. You could also shorten the ducting as much as possible. That would help as well.