Happiness is: Home malting

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Hector, are you certain you are getting full modification of the barley in your initial malting process? If so, how do you know this? I think this is possibly the root of your problem, even crappy barley should yield more gravity points than you are getting.

Also, its kindof hard to measure such small amounts of product consistently, you may try a larger sample.

Also, a big part of the "malty" flavor of crystal comes from the kilning process which caramelizes the sugars within the grain. Your stewed malt should be sweet but it will not be very malty until it is kilned.
 
Hector, are you certain you are getting full modification of the barley in your initial malting process? If so, how do you know this? ....

To see if the seeds are fully modified , I check out small samples of them from different regions on the pan .

When I see most of the Acrospires are 75-100% the length of the kernel , I take them for stewing .

I do not cut the seeds . I can see them growing underneath the husk .

I can make 1.5-2 Ounces each time according to the pan's dimensions .

Besides , I thought that the amount of specialty malt should not be more than 20% of the grain bill .

However , I don't know if that should also be so by steeping grains .

Is it wisely to use for example 3.5 Oz. of crystal malt as steeping grains in a 1-liter-batch ( O.G. = 1.050 ) ?!

After stewing I tasted some of them and noticed the sweetness , then I steeped them ( 1.5 Oz. ) in 1 liter of water at 160F for 30 minutes and then boiled it to reduce the Volume to 500 ml . After cooling , I checked the Gravity and tasted some . It was not so sweet as the seeds and there were just a slight malty flavor . Although , it was not so bitter as the previous batch .

Hector
 
O.K. BUT it would be difficult for me to keep the kiln temperature constant at 176-185 °F for 3-5 Hours .

Besides , then I should rehydrate the pale malt and stew it again !

Or do you mean mashing by that ?!

Hector

Yeah I meant to mash the home made pale malt alone to get an idea of the extract potential of the grain itself. It is an attempt to eliminate the stewing process itself as the culprit of your extract loss. I think you can kiln the green malt in an oven with just the light on, or perhaps two lights (run a cord of another lamp in through the door) You really only need to get to about 90-100f to kiln to pale malt level. If you do 4 oz to a one quart batch you get one pound per gallon and end up with a standard points per pound per gallon(PPG) measure used by maltsters to measure the extract potential of the grain.

Pale malt should be somewhere in the vicinty of 1.038 I believe. and it looks like crystal 60 should have about 34 ppg. course it's not that simple because you have to know the average efficiency of your method. So to determine that you would start by mashing 4 oz of commercial pale a couple of times and getting your average efficiency (save that wort and can it or freeze it for starters).

So If store pale malt gets an average of 1.028 at the 4oz per quart test size you have 73% efficiency in your system.

Then test your home malted 'pale' malt and any difference between your average OG and that of the commercial stuff is attributable to either the grain you are using or your malting technique.

Then mash 4 oz of your home stewed crystal all by itself (I know it won't convert but the OG should be more or less accurate still as the mash process has already happened in the stewing step) and the difference between that average and the average of your home kilned 'pale' malt is attributable directly to the stewing process (when the different PPG is taken into account)

Whew that was long winded.:drunk:
 
Yeah I meant to mash the home made pale malt alone to get an idea of the extract potential of the grain itself....

Thanks a lot that you show me a way to analyze the grain and my technique .

In fact , I've also thought about making pale malt but I found it more difficult and complicated than crystal malt .

Besides , dealing with mash water is not so easy for me , as it needs adjusting the profile , the pH and so on .

That's why I intended to make and use steeping grains .

As far as I know , making pale malt is not just kilning at about 100F . The green malt should be dried in two stages , first at

about 100-125F until the moisture of the grain gets down to 10% and then at 140-160F until the moisture is at or below 6% .

Then it is kilned at 176-185F for 3-5 Hours to produce standard pale malt .

According to an article titled "Malting Your Own" from "BYO" magazine , it can also be kilned at higher temperatures ( 220-400F ) .

It recommends kilning at 220F for 4 Hours to produce Munich malt . It's also mentioned in the article that more highly kilned malts will

have little or no enzymatic power .

So , for example , is 400F too high for kilning ?!

I would rather kiln at 250F , as it's much easier for me to keep it at this temperature constantly in the Oven .

What do you think about that ?!

By the way , I talked recently to another grain seller and he said that he has gotten some grains with a relatively good quality , but the problem is that he works and lives in another city . He promised to bring some sample for me as soon as he comes to our city for any reason ( may be next Week ) .

I'll try to make some crystal malt using that sample to see if there would be any difference .

Hector
 
I am working on rekilning commercial pale to get 'mild' malt right now, hence my somewhat scientific method oriented thinking right now. I kilned pale malt at 230f for 45 minutes to get roughly 5-6 SRM color. Still awaiting results on enzyme activity. My extract was fine, even a little higher than with the control pale malt but I suspect that is do to inconsistant milling.

You are right about the kilning temp for pale malt. still I imagine you could just dry, mill and mash some of your green malt to get a feel for extract potential related to the malting process v. the stewing process.

The low temp drying process it so ensure that while the enzymes are active in the green malt the are not denatured. then once moisture levels are low enough you can safely go up to 200-250f without losing to much enzymatic activity.
 
I am working on rekilning commercial pale to get 'mild' malt right now, hence my somewhat scientific method oriented thinking right now.

Imagine I'm going to make pale malt using 2 Oz. of 2-row Barley .

After obtaining the green malt and starting the drying process , how can I determine the moisture% ?

I know that it's done by weighing the seeds , and the article gives some reference , but it says for each pound !

How can I do that in a smaller scale ( Ounces ) ?!

Hector
 
I would start by weighing in metric. You would have to the pre malting weight in grams (maybe even miligrams) that is assumed to be around 10-14% (Check me on that) So 2 oz if ~56 grams so 5.6 grams water steep to 35-45% (let's stick with low end for ease) adding 14 grams water total sample weight is 70 grams, malt, dry to about 4% (call it 5% cause it's easier on my head) so we are down to 2.8 grams water for a total sample weight of 53.2 grams. At this scale it is pretty hard to figure these small numbers cause the margin of error is enough to throw things off a lot. but 100 grams starting weight is just about .25 pounds or 4 oz so that might be a little easier to handle then it's just

100 g at 10% = 10 g water
125 g at 35% = 35 g water
94 g at 4% = 4 g water

still you have to work in a margin of error for sampling loss, chaff loss, oops I dropped some down the drain loss etc.
 
I just filled a ziplock bag with 2 Oz. of crystal malt ( not milled ) which I recently made and pushed the air out of the bag and

put it in a Pot , but it stays on the surface of water .

Is it because the seeds are dried ?

Would it be the same with the green malt ?!

Are you sure that I can keep this bag for 1-2 Hours at 160F and no undesired thing will happen to the plastic ?!

Or for example , giving plastic flavor to the seeds ?!

Hector

If you're planning to use plastic bags, I'd highly recommend the "freezer" bags...they generally have a better seal and the plastic is both thicker and a different formula that has more resistance to temps (high and low), less oxygen permeability (to reduce freezer burn"), and more chemical resistance (to store harsh things like acidic tomato sauce). You can actually feel the difference in materials - just rub it between your fingers and you'll notice a remarkably different friction coefficient. Ziploc brand seem to have better seals than the Glad brand, in my experience. If you're concerned about leakage, you can always double-bag....it may take a tiny bit longer to get to temp inside, but not by much.

Any plastic bag full of grain that is not vaccuum-sealed is going to float...you simply cannot squeeze all of the air out that is between the grains. Drop something into the pot to act as a buffer between the bag and the pot bottom (a small plate, a few rocks, whatever) so that any burner heat isn't going to melt the bag, toss the bag in and drop something heavy on top to hold it down.
 
Hey everyone I'm a home malter too so I thought I'd let you know how I go about it. I use feed barley because that is all I have access too and after malting my grain yields about 80% the sugars the commercial stuff does for the same weight. I do a soak for 24 hours at 15 degrees and I use an air pump to aerate the water the whole time, I use 2 big air stones. After this I drain the water off and let sit in the bucket for another 24 hours at 15 degrees. I then put my grain which is now chitting into trays about 10-15cm deep and keep this at you guessed it 15 degrees for 3 or 4 days until its ready (acrospire on average 75-100% length of grain). I will give the malt a turn every day sometimes twice and make sure it doesn't dry out, I just give it a little spray if needed.

I then dry my malt in the sun, its the hard way to do it because of the birds and weather conditions but it works well, takes about 2 days in the sun to dry hard. Anyway I make my beer from it and make my own crystal too - its good beer and I'm happy. I hope this helps. By the way I do all my malting in a fridge with a temp controller, a few kilograms at a time.

Enjoy your malting - it makes for cheap beer and is satisfying!
 
For those of you interested in home malting (And every minute detail of malting) I found a link to the quintessential malting book on google books, there is also quite a bit of brewing history and methods referenced in the book, a ton of reading: http://books.google.com/books?id=s9...&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
Its only $120 for the ebook.
Now all you need are a few free months of reading time:mug:
 
For those of you interested in home malting (And every minute detail of malting) I found a link to the quintessential malting book on google books, there is also quite a bit of brewing history and methods referenced in the book, a ton of reading: http://books.google.com/books?id=s9...&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
Its only $120 for the ebook.
Now all you need are a few free months of reading time:mug:

Hope it doesn't hurt to bump this epic thread, as I wanted to reference some things. Seems there is an amazing range of protocols people are using, especially to kiln their malt (it doesn't seem like the germination part is THAT hard to get wrong). I haven't managed to wade through the above book yet (though I sneakily managed to download it for offline consumption) but I am sure it will cast a little more light on the subject. Just to chip in what I have learned from reading around and from my own practice:

At the beginning of kilning, I believe the temperature is not the main point, rather you are trying to get rid of as much surface moisture as possible in order to halt germination and start the drying (to murder the little barley sprouts in their infancy, if you like). To that end, pointing a floor fan at it (with perhaps a desk lamp or something shining on it for extra effect), and turning it over every now and then, seems to me to be more effective. You don't have to worry about damaging rootlets any more, right? So you can do it fairly often and vigorously. However, I have a fan-assisted oven, so I put it to blow, and just have the pilot light on, but, importantly, I prop the door open a little. It doesn't get very warm inside that way, but it definitely dries a whole lot quicker than when I had it closed - with the door closed, it was nice and warm (about 35C/95F) but very moist and taking forever to dry (like, days, which drove the missus crazy obviously!)

BTW, the rest of my protocol was (for my latest batch), after I reached hand dryness to then gradually raise the temp to about 50C (about 120F), still with the door open, and get the moisture down to a few percentage (though I didn't weigh or anything, just nibbled a few to determine that they were soft, but pretty dry). I then closed the door and gradually stepped up to about 100C (212F) in small increments over about 2 hours and then stopped, as I was concerned about overdoing it and getting something that wasn't pale malt anymore. At the end I had something that was VERY crunchy (though not crystallised, I am glad to say, that wasn't the plan) and very light, comparable I think to the original grain weight.

Does this sound like a reasonable approach - is there any potential problem with that protocol?

I brewed up a batch of my FIRST home malt attempt the other day, done in a similar way, and got, yes, beer, but an appalling efficiency of something like 32%, so I am keen to figure out where I might have gone wrong as there MUST be room for improvement there, surely...
 
. . . . . . . You don't have to worry about damaging rootlets any more, right? So you can do it fairly often and vigorously. . . . . ....
I never have worried about damaging the rootlets, they are resilient and tough, the most you can do to improve the consistency during the growing phase is move them around, continuous would not be too much providing you also have consistent temperature, moisture and oxygen. You are trying to grow a plant and these are essiential ingredients during this phase of growth.

. . . . . I have a fan-assisted oven, so I put it to blow, and just have the pilot light on, but, importantly, I prop the door open a little. It doesn't get very warm inside that way, but it definitely dries a whole lot quicker than when I had it closed - with the door closed, it was nice and warm (about 35C/95F) but very moist and taking forever to dry (like, days, which drove the missus crazy obviously!) . . . ...
This is correct you must have air flow to carry away the moisture, otherwise you are just "stewing" more. This is a critical part, you must stop the growth of the barley quickly at the correct time, otherwise modification proceeds, even though the acrospire may seem to halt, the kernel is still using its reserves to "try and grow". The temperature is fine, I would suggest movement/stirring of the grains in this phase helps tremendously.


. . . . Does this sound like a reasonable approach - is there any potential problem with that protocol?...
You seem to have the basics as far as temperature, moisture etc. If the barley will grow you can make malt. CONSISTENT temperature and moisture during the growing phase from couching through initial drying should get you consistent product. Movement of the grain/malt during this time IMO is critical to consistency as well. Do you see a theme here? As I found, the best thing you can do during ALL phases of malting (Soaking, couching, drying, kilning, stewing, curing, high temp kilning, smoking, etc) to improve consistency is movement, it aids in keeping all the grains at the same temperature, moisture and amount of aeration throughout.

I brewed up a batch of my FIRST home malt attempt the other day, done in a similar way, and got, yes, beer, but an appalling efficiency of something like 32%, so I am keen to figure out where I might have gone wrong as there MUST be room for improvement there, surely...
You've said nothing about the crush of your malt, how is the crush? What are you using to crush/grind it?
 
Thanks for the comments, sounds like I am at least on the right track. I think one of my problems, consistency-wise, is that the oven heats from above and below, and so the bottom and top racks can potentially get a higher temperature treatment than the middle shelf (I crammed 3 shelves in). I have tried shuffling around, but it's still a concern, though I am not too bothered for these test batches as I imagine it might even make the flavour more interesting having a mixture of malts. Not good for long-term consistency though, of course.

Yes, milling is something I haven't got to grips with, I was only doing little test batches of like a litre, just to see what sort of efficiency ballpark I can get. So I tried to break them up in the food processor to a similar structure to what you see in premilled malt. I know it's not possible though, so I erred on the excessive side, as my understanding is that the main problem with overmilling is astringecy from the husk and a possible stuck sparge. But I figured generally that ought to give me a better efficiency, no? I was not bothered about astringency, as this is just to measure efficiency, and a stuck sparge wasn't an issue - and anyway, with such a small batch I think you can poke things around a bit if anything gets stuck (which it didn't)?

There could definitely still be problems with my brewing process though - it is hard to regulate the temperature in such a small batch. But I felt I had pretty much wrung everything out of the grain that there was to wring - I do not have a standard AG setup yet though, this whole malting thing is hopefully my way to get into AG as speciality brewing malts aren't available in my part of the world.
 
. . . . . .There could definitely still be problems with my brewing process though - it is hard to regulate the temperature in such a small batch. But I felt I had pretty much wrung everything out of the grain that there was to wring - I do not have a standard AG setup yet though, this whole malting thing is hopefully my way to get into AG as speciality brewing malts aren't available in my part of the world.

I've never tried such a small mash but what temperature was your mash and for how long did it rest? did you sparge?:mug:
 
I've never tried such a small mash but what temperature was your mash and for how long did it rest? did you sparge?:mug:

I mashed at about 170F (77C), might that have been a bit high? That wouldn't affect the OG, though, would it? I sparged at about 200F (93C) until I had a total of a litre, by which time the collected wort was looking very thin - but I did it anyway because a litre was my test volume. Again, those temps were a little hard to regulate for such a small quantity, so I guess something could've gone wrong there...

Instead of the OG of 1.038 I should've got for regular pale malt at a 70% efficiency, I got 1.017 :eek:. Which again, I guess is a success of sorts, as I do appear to have SOME sort of beer now (leaving it to finish fermenting, but a sniff test seems positive). But obviously I would like to hugely improve efficiency as it's just not going to be economical to malt up 20 pounds of barley just for a 5 gallon batch!

All comments/suggestions appreciated.
 
I mashed at about 170F (77C), might that have been a bit high? That wouldn't affect the OG, though, would it? . . . . .

Most definately, the enzymes that convert the starches in malt to fermentable sugar are created from appx. 95F to 162F, if you brought your mash up to 170F you did not create any of those enzymes, my guess is that you were at the very high limit and created a small amount of alpha amylase.

This may help your next all grain brewing: http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/index.html

:mug:
 
Most definately, the enzymes that convert the starches in malt to fermentable sugar are created from appx. 95F to 162F, if you brought your mash up to 170F you did not create any of those enzymes, my guess is that you were at the very high limit and created a small amount of alpha amylase.

This may help your next all grain brewing: http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/index.html

:mug:

There you go, that could be the case - as I say, it was very hard to stabilise the temperature with such a small quantity, though I was more concerned about getting too LOW a temperature, so maybe I overdid it.

Yes, I am working my way through How to Brew at the moment, great read at a great price! Though it's only after some of these experiments that I have been able to understand the basic principles better. Now I am basically rereading and it all makes much more sense :) I am sure I can get my process working better. I mentioned in another thread that what I am using is feed barley so it MIGHT not be quite up to par, but I still think the yield should be a heck of a lot better.
 
HI Everybody
I'm a journalist working on a story about the micro-malting movement, and have already talked to, or are planning on talking to, small commercial outfits like Valley Malt and Riverbend, but was interested in talking to homebrewers who've attempted DIY malting. If anybody has, and would be open to talking before my deadline on Wednesday, pls email me at [email protected]. Thanks!
Lessley Anderson
 
HI Everybody
I'm a journalist working on a story about the micro-malting movement, and have already talked to, or are planning on talking to, small commercial outfits like Valley Malt and Riverbend, but was interested in talking to homebrewers who've attempted DIY malting. If anybody has, and would be open to talking before my deadline on Wednesday, pls email me at [email protected]. Thanks!
Lessley Anderson

Micro-malting movement? I seriously doubt it. But good luck with the story. I'd love read more about this.
 
So, it's been a couple years since this thread was started, where is everybody at with their equipment? Any pics of your equipment would be nice.
 
COLObrewer, what do you think about using a lumber kiln to for the drying stage of the barley? I have found some really good ideas for them, some as simple as a well insulated room with plenty of ventilation, a dehumidifier and a space heater.
http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/ForestBusinesses/kiln.html

Looks promising, as I've said before however, I'd want to devise some way to automatically "turn" the grains. I believe this to be the single most important aspect of any (and all) of the malting phases if one wants a consistent product throughout, should be do-able. Prost! :mug:
 
Hello COLObrewer, you seem to be THE authority on home malting here, and maybe you can help me. I'm trying to do some home malting myself and it seems I'm doing OK so far with the germinating stage. The problem is that mu kiln/drying oats is not finished yet, and even then it will only be able to kiln only a small part of my 150 pounds of barley (it's an old freezer project).

The whole thing is kinda rushed, my untreated barley started having a weevil infestation, so I had to do something with it.
Now I have a 150 pounds of germinating barley, and seemingly only one way to stop the germination. The solar way.
I completed another round of malting (50lbs), this batch took alot less time due to the higher ambient temperatures, 7days total start to finish and all should be modified correctly since I was able to use "solar" drying to initially stop the growing process on all the malt at the same time. I simply stopped watering them when they were fully modified and moved them to the sun while still in the malting "floor"
Which brings me to you. Can you share the specifics, what was the ambient temp. and how much time it was needed to stop the growing process?
Here it's peaking around 95 degree Fahrenheit atm, and it's sunny the whole day this last few weeks. Seems ideal for this. Since you posted in May, I guess it couldn't be warmer than 95 in Colorado than.
Sprouting seems fine so far and it looks like grains should be fully modified soon. I was thinking about bringing the barley on my flat roof tomorrow and spreading it on the sun, if the acrospires are grown big enough.

The main thing I'd like to know is, will I be able to postpone curing the barley for a month after stopping the germination? Or I should cure it in the kiln straight away?


EDIT: First post! I'm lurking here for so long I forgot I never posted here. I never had chance to brew beer since you couldn't find malted barley in my country if your life depended on it. Hence the need for malting my own malt. :)
 
Vann, I believe it was right around 90F during my sun drying. If you can get it halted and dried sufficiently with the sun I believe you can probably wait to further kiln the malt. Personally I would get a large airtight receptacle such as a plastic barrel with the large mouth lid and store the sundried malt there until you need a batch of malt. You can further kiln them as you need them, this is not ideal but we use what we can.

My only other thoughts are maybe some rigid foil sides or "reflectors" to direct sunlight onto the malts, I would imagine with a little effort you can get the desired temperature steps to create some finished pale malt.

This is going to depend greatly on your humidity where you are at.

Malt on my friend.
 
Humidity is 52% ATM, would that do?
That's as low as it gets here.

Letting it dry at 90-100F for longer time, will that make for sufficient sugar conversion?
I don't aim strictly for authentic pale malt, anything malt(ish) is success at this time. :)

Nice idea about the reflectors, I might use some aluminium foil rolls it it's not too windy. I plan to spread the barley as thin as possible, got some very wide plastic sheets ready. That should speed the drying.
The curing for pale malt requires the last couple of hours at 210F, I won't be able to do that without the freezer kiln. That will have to wait, since I'll have to go for a trip.

Why store dried seeds in closed barrel though? To avoid attracting moisture?
But wouldn't the lack of air movement, itself be a cause for molding?
I was planing to use some plastic knitted bags since in those the seeds can aerate.


Looks promising, as I've said before however, I'd want to devise some way to automatically "turn" the grains. I believe this to be the single most important aspect of any (and all) of the malting phases if one wants a consistent product throughout, should be do-able. Prost! :mug:
You could check this guy HomeDistiller's solution. This is what I plan to replicate, already have the barrel and the DC windscreen wiper motor (but I'm stuck on the construction atm):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-41wQHHi0o
 
Humidity is 52% . . . . . . . .
Why store dried seeds in closed barrel though? To avoid attracting moisture?
But wouldn't the lack of air movement, itself be a cause for molding?
I was planing to use some plastic knitted bags since in those the seeds can aerate. . . . . . .

This may be too much humidity for sun drying and storing in airtight containers, (If the malts are sufficiently dry and the containers are air tight you will have no mold) I suggested the container as a means to keep the malts fresh and also keep out bugs, you may HAVE to use a kiln to dry them sufficiently. Is this the humidity year-round? I am in a high desert here and humidity is usually not a problem.

Use whatever means you can and proceed with your plan, you seem to have a logical mind and the means to test your theories. Good luck my friend. :tank:
 
I could postpone/cancel the trip but I'd rather not to. If the dried barley can survive a month.

Meanwhile the germination continues.
This is the third day since I've put the barley in it's germination bed. Before that I soaked the seeds for two intervals of 8 hours with 8 hours breathing rest in between.
Rootlets doesn't seem to grow long, acrospire seems to be around 60% of the length of the seed.

Here are some photos of the germination bed (I just used whatever I had handy), some of the germinating seeds and a bad macro of the current growth of the acrospire.

9543110011_669de3c676_o.jpg


9545901620_1c0869af0c_o.jpg


9543106597_6b5c533a73_o.jpg
 
Some of the seeds are over-modified, but overall most of them seem OK. I hauled the whole thing upstairs and spread it all on some plastic sheet to dry on the sun.

It's 11am here, sun shining and no clouds on the horizon. :)
Temperature is 83F, humidity 34%... I wonder if I should point some fans to blow on the seeds.
Here are some photos.


9554344104_059e6680d1_c.jpg


9554345036_eb49789955_o.jpg
 
Outside temperature is 95 degree Fahrenheit ATM, 4:30pm. Ambient humidity is down to 15%.
So far, so good . I had to move the drying bed a bit, to follow the sun (the terrace looks north).

Seeds look quite dried up, with rootlets all gone dry and brown. There's some residual wetness on the plastic sheet, even though I was mixing the seeds few times while drying.

I'm gonna risk the weather tonight (the prognosis says it shouldn't rain), and leave the malting barley as it is overnight. It seems one more day on the sun should finish the job (if it's not finished already).


9553718865_105ea88149_o.jpg
 
Some of the seeds are over-modified, but overall most of them seem OK. I hauled the whole thing upstairs and spread it all on some plastic sheet to dry on the sun.

It's 11am here, sun shining and no clouds on the horizon. :)
Temperature is 83F, humidity 34%... I wonder if I should point some fans to blow on the seeds.
. . . . .

Looking good, the acrospire inconsistency I believe will be the single most challenging problem with home malting. Rotation along with consistent moisture and temperature throughout from soaking to the end of "couching" phases should fix the problem.:mug: Then on to more challenges within the kilning and finishing, etc. (rotation is needed here as well I believe).
 
Rotation along with consistent moisture and temperature throughout from soaking to the end of "couching" phases should fix the problem.:mug: Then on to more challenges within the kilning and finishing, etc. (rotation is needed here as well I believe).
Rotation both ways than. I misunderstood it back there, when I suggested that rolling barrel DIY malting.


COLObrewer, I will be going for some camping the day after tomorrow. I would like very much to brew myself some small batch of homebrew while there. I think I will try to smuggle some brew gear, when my girlfriend is not looking. ;)
Can you suggest some very simple reciepe? Should I go for SMASH? Or something even simpler?

I guess I will kiln small amount of the malt in my oven tonight. :)
 
Second day of sun-drying going fine, day is warm and sunny, the ambient humidity is 39%.

I have a important question for you malters here. Can I freeze the malt?
Will the low temps destroy/denature the enzymes?

COLObrewer, any thoughts on freezing the malt idea?
 
I apologize if this has been asked but didn't see it. I am in the germination stage and most of the grain seems to be progressing nicely but out of every handful I look at I have quite a bit that hasn't sprouted at all what kind of germination rate are you guys getting. The barley I bought from the feed store is just a plain brown bag that says barley so no idea what I got. I went three rounds of two hour soak to 8-10 hr air rest as per the beersmith instructions, appreciate any advice.
 
Mine sprouts pretty evenly, as with all steps in malting it's imperative to keep the moisture content and temperature consistent throughout the grain bed, the easiest way I've found to accomplish this is my moving the grains, mixing them in the soaking receptacle, mixing them in the couching phase, etc. This carries through after the germination process into the drying/kilning phases as well. It's labor intensive but necessary for consistent product.

Any other speculation on my part would have to come after a description of your processes, if completely manual or any automation is used, etc.

Malt on my friend!
 
Appreciate answering back. During my soak/air rest phases I didn't really stir it around to much. Had a bucket with holes drilled inside a bottling bucket that I would fill for two hours then leave drained for 8-10 hrs. Wondering if the grains at the bottom maybe suffocated without being stirred enough. Makes sense now that I think about it try it different for round two. I guess the moral of the story is keep em moving throughout the whole process you may have mentioned that once or a hundred times guess I should've listened. Awesome thread thank you been wanting to do this for a while.
 
Back
Top