Will malted barley sprout?

If mixed into soil as if composting directly in the ground?

Or if placed in the composter before it has enough materials and bugs to heat up?

I have poor heavy clay soil. Barley has a lot of fiber. I have some malted barley nearly 2 years old. Too old to brew with. I was thinking of turning it into a plot that I will be cultivating for other plantings.

Malted barley should not sprout.

The enzymes are still in there to convert the starches, and I guess a few of the individual grains -might- but in general, no, the barley was sprouted and then baked to death in the malting process.

That is what I am thinking too. That while there still is enzymatic viability that there is not enough left to re-sprout the seed.

I feed my exhausted mash to my chickens - it is nothing but malted barley that has been raised to 68 degrees (Celsius) for over an hour, and then sparged with water at 80 degrees.

Every fortnight or so I muck out the coop, and spread it out over my gardens. And every time I do this, about 2-3 weeks later I get a crop of barley.

Some of those grains manage to survive the malting process, the mill, the hot sparge water, the chicken's gut and the weather. Got to hand it to nature, it made barley tough.

GilaMinumBeer said:

If mixed into soil as if composting directly in the ground?

Or if placed in the composter before it has enough materials and bugs to heat up?

I have poor heavy clay soil. Barley has a lot of fiber. I have some malted barley nearly 2 years old. Too old to brew with. I was thinking of turning it into a plot that I will be cultivating for other plantings.

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Are you trolling Gila?

"Malted barley is barley that has been allowed to germinate (sprout) to a degree and is then dried. This is accomplished industrially by increasing the water content of the seed to 40-45% by soaking it for a period close to 40 hours. The seed is then drained and held at a constant temperature (60 F) for close to 5 days until it starts to sprout. The barley is slowly dried in a kiln at temperatures gradually rising to 122 F for lighter malts and 220 F for darker malts. This kiln drying takes about 30 hours. Finally, the rootlets from the partially germinated seeds are removed."

Nope, malted barely will not & cannot sprout because it already has; but it will compost just fine.
If you have heavy clay soil & want to ammend it, you might try applying humic acid.
http://www.naturalenviro.com/Article.php?ArticleSKU=humic-acid-role

I use this:
https://rasahydroponics.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1355

Combined with plenty of organic matter like manure, spent grains, unused malt & compost, you'll have great soil in no time.
Regards, GF.

well, they did not re-sprout when layed down like a mulch BUT they did mold. Badly.

Ergot anyone?

Your spent grain must be infected.

IXVolt said:

Your spent grain must be infected.

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He needs to post pics so we can verify!

Don't throw it out, eat some first just to make sure it's not bad!

IXVolt said:

Your spent grain must be infected.

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Sadly, it was not spent grain. Just 2 year old malted grain.

Won;t say for certain it was Ergot but damn it smelled nasty!

Sounds you need to brew MOAR

GilaMinumBeer said:

Sadly, it was not spent grain. Just 2 year old malted grain.

Won;t say for certain it was Ergot but damn it smelled nasty!

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So, two years ago you had two year old grain; so you haven't brewed in four years?

IXVolt said:

Sounds you need to brew MOAR

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This. Just haven't had time. I usually take a day off work but I burned off a LOT time due to childrens illnesses, a long vacation, and being generally lazy.

I hope to break out of my brewing siesta soon.

AZ_IPA said:

So, two years ago you had two year old grain; so you haven't brewed in four years?

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