Happiness is: Home malting

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Thanks for the info! I got several rinses in, and the last one yielded clear-ish water with a yellow tint and a nice smell. I didn't see any reddish color.

My third go at home malting is underway.

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Hour 36, I've been giving it a stir and spritzing it with water ever six hours or so. Last night it went almost 10 hour while I was asleep but it appears to still be growing. I think the moist paper towels (which I change every day) are helping, my last malt was uncovered and dried out on night two when I didn't water it for about the same amount of time.

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AFter 72 hours of germinating, a few percent of the barley had acrospires emerging. I began the drying process.

Half the barley (now puffed out with all the rootlets, maybe twice the original volume) could fit in my dehydrator, so the other half went in the oven on 170 F with the doors open. 170 is way too hot since the water in in germinating barley can denature the enzymes at that heat (they should be dried before heating past 110 or 120), but the oven doesn't really get that hot.

Heating gradually from 95 F to 125 F over several hour, and rotating the position of the trays, was done to try and get an even and gradual drying. It took part of last night and tonight. I'll have nice brittle-dry barley tomorrow that will loose its rootlets easy, so I can sift it and roast it in the next few days.

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I roasted my malts this week. Four of the ten pounds went in the dehydrator set to 165 F for two hours (the highest it will go), while the other ~5 lbs went in the oven at 200 F. I took all the grain out of their respective heat-treatments after two hours. The 200 F grain had a nice smell to it.

Later, I hooked up my grill and set 1/2 pound of barley to roast. I set the burners up high and the grill's thermometer read ~400 F. I stirred the grain every 5 mins or so, and pulled it off after 40 mins. This is about what I did last time, and that yielded a nice dark beer. The barley smoked a fair amount, and some of the grains were burned to a crisp, but I figure I'm working on averages. Here's a photo right before I took it off the grill:

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I brew on Tuesday. I'll let you know on Christmas Eve how this all turns out.
 
Brew day was a success. We got the whole process down to less than four hours, and were able to develop a technique of squeezing our grain bag into the kettle between a pair of ceramic plates, which turned out to be very simple and effective.

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Since this was a fully homemade batch I didn't use any oats or flaked barley like I usually do. My dried hops smelled super delicious, and we added them with only five minutes left in the boil. I had a little shy of the 2 oz I usually put in.

We ended up with a shorter boil than we usually use, and unfortunately had to dump about three pints of wort because we couldn't fit it all in the fermentor.

Our original gravity was 1.40, which was a little lower than previously (due to too much water and less than usual bill of grain). The color is a little lighter due to dark malt not being roasted enough. Here is our wort versus a stout from the store:

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We'll see how this tastes at the Christmas party!
 
It's beer o'clock!

After two weeks in the fermentor, bubbling had almost ceased and I decided to put it in the keg. I ran some sanitizer through the keg and tap system first, then made a siphon and filled up the keg. This is the first time I've made a siphon work out well, previously I'd decanted the fermentor like an idiot.

The keg is now under gas, and I'll be keeping it cool and rolling it to get it carbonated by Saturday.

The beer tasted like beer! It has a mild chocolatey taste I've come to expect from my home brew. There is a grainy/grassy taste in there too that isn't great, but it doesn't ruin the beer. A souvenir from having home-grown everything, I guess. I think this is much better than my first batch, and almost as good as my other ones.

Cheers!
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The color is very dark amber but not quite black. The final gravity is 1.015 down from 1.040, so I didn't get much attenuation. Alcohol content is about 3.3%, calories are 133 per 12 oz according to brewers friend. It's a dark, light beer.
 
Merry Christmas everyone!

We broke out the beer for the holiday party last night, and it was well received. Even if it wasn't the best beer on the planet, folks were excited to try completely home-made booze. I'd been shaking the keg every few hours for the last couple of days, and I think it carbonated up pretty well since Monday. The nitro gave it a very pleasing head and I'm happy to have some left over.

About a year and a half ago I decided I wanted to serve a drink that I had made myself. I looked into spirits and cider before settling on beer. This thread was a major reason I thought I could pull it off, so thanks everyone for their input. It feels very rewarding to have accomplished this goal after so much time and effort. I'm proud I could pull this off, and I'm happy to be able to share my updates here. Brewing has turned out to be a lot of fun, and has really turned on a crafty/artsy side of myself that I'm enjoying. I'm glad to say this hobby isn't as hard as I thought it would be, and plus I get cheap beer into the bargain.

Happy malting, everyone!
 
It's beer o'clock!

After two weeks in the fermentor, bubbling had almost ceased and I decided to put it in the keg. I ran some sanitizer through the keg and tap system first, then made a siphon and filled up the keg. This is the first time I've made a siphon work out well, previously I'd decanted the fermentor like an idiot.

The keg is now under gas, and I'll be keeping it cool and rolling it to get it carbonated by Saturday.

The beer tasted like beer! It has a mild chocolatey taste I've come to expect from my home brew. There is a grainy/grassy taste in there too that isn't great, but it doesn't ruin the beer. A souvenir from having home-grown everything, I guess. I think this is much better than my first batch, and almost as good as my other ones.

Cheers!
Yf15bt4.jpg


The color is very dark amber but not quite black. The final gravity is 1.015 down from 1.040, so I didn't get much attenuation. Alcohol content is about 3.3%, calories are 133 per 12 oz according to brewers friend. It's a dark, light beer.

I made a brown smoked malt that turned out the same color as yours. I was little disappointed, but its a smokey, roasty-toasty amber. Been toying at buying one of these to just to make chocolate malt.

Keep working on what you done so far.

I'm not malting, but I'm committed to smoking and roasting my own malts. I have a thread link in my signature. - Roast'em Toast'em Smoke'm If You Got'em! - I like to hear how your roasting an toasting goes. Not to mention smoking if you're so inclined.

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While randomly browsing around Pinterest, I came across a few posts about sprouting barley as a winter time snack for chickens. This is our first winter with chickens and thought this would be a good activity for the kiddos. Likewise, I thought this would also be a good way for me to see if malting my own barley would be feasible.

My first two attempts to simply sprout the grain have failed miserably. I'm using a clear plastic storage container about the size of a large shoebox. I go through wash and steep process until the barley chits. After that, I keep it moist and turn it a few times per day. Rootlets have developed by day 2 and everything seems to be going well. The problem is, about day 4, white mold begins to pop up in the grain. From what I've read and observed, I need another day or two for the acrospires to be at the proper length in the majority of the grain. But by day 6, its so covered in mold that I end up pitching it.

I'm leaving the container open, no lid or active air circulation. This is in the house, so the air temp is about 69 -72F. What steps do I need to take to keep the mold growth at bay? Put a lid on the box? Set up a computer fan?
 
I assume it is not root fuzz.

Try sanitizing with Star Sans and maybe rinse before the sprout. Many many people grow seed sprouts. look this up.

I question where the mold spores come from in the first place. raw grain, air, water, human interference, children, SWMBO you need to figure this part out.
 
While randomly browsing around Pinterest, I came across a few posts about sprouting barley as a winter time snack for chickens. This is our first winter with chickens and thought this would be a good activity for the kiddos. Likewise, I thought this would also be a good way for me to see if malting my own barley would be feasible.

My first two attempts to simply sprout the grain have failed miserably. I'm using a clear plastic storage container about the size of a large shoebox. I go through wash and steep process until the barley chits. After that, I keep it moist and turn it a few times per day. Rootlets have developed by day 2 and everything seems to be going well. The problem is, about day 4, white mold begins to pop up in the grain. From what I've read and observed, I need another day or two for the acrospires to be at the proper length in the majority of the grain. But by day 6, its so covered in mold that I end up pitching it.

I'm leaving the container open, no lid or active air circulation. This is in the house, so the air temp is about 69 -72F. What steps do I need to take to keep the mold growth at bay? Put a lid on the box? Set up a computer fan?

Put a cup of hydrogen peroxide or a bit of campden tablet in the final steep water. Keep the grain at a cooler temperature mid - upper 50's is ideal. When the steep is done don't keep it in the steeping container instead spread it out on the floor on a large plastic garbage bag (unscented) maybe 1 - 2 in. thick. Mist it very lightly and turn it 2 - 3 times a day by hand the first day or two after steeping, then stop misting it, and spread it out even more, but continue to turn it (i.e. scoop it up in your hand and turn it / mix it). Keep an eye on it and check the length of acrospires, they shouldn't break out of the husk but should grow to the length of the kernel. You can use a fan to blow across the grain after the acrospires are full length, this will help dry it out. You can malt in the 69-72F range but it promotes mold/fungus growth and rigorous/overgrowth of the acrospires.

The temperature, boxed in container and continually adding moisture is what is promotes the mold growth. Once the grain has been saturated with moisture (steeped), keeping it in the open (on the floor, i.e. floor malting), allowing germination while turning the piece and then slow drying with good air flow is key.
 
Put a cup of hydrogen peroxide or a bit of campden tablet in the final steep water. Keep the grain at a cooler temperature mid - upper 50's is ideal. When the steep is done don't keep it in the steeping container instead spread it out on the floor on a large plastic garbage bag (unscented) maybe 1 - 2 in. thick. Mist it very lightly and turn it 2 - 3 times a day by hand the first day or two after steeping, then stop misting it, and spread it out even more, but continue to turn it (i.e. scoop it up in your hand and turn it / mix it). Keep an eye on it and check the length of acrospires, they shouldn't break out of the husk but should grow to the length of the kernel. You can use a fan to blow across the grain after the acrospires are full length, this will help dry it out. You can malt in the 69-72F range but it promotes mold/fungus growth and rigorous/overgrowth of the acrospires.

The temperature, boxed in container and continually adding moisture is what is promotes the mold growth. Once the grain has been saturated with moisture (steeped), keeping it in the open (on the floor, i.e. floor malting), allowing germination while turning the piece and then slow drying with good air flow is key.

I think I'm trying to do two different things. Sprouting for the chickens is one thing, but malting for beer is a just a different process. I think I'll just end up using a little bit of potting soil for the chickens.
For malting, my garage, this time of year, is in the 45-50F range. I have a long weekend, so maybe i can get a small batch started and build a small lightbulb heated kiln for drying. Just one more way to spend money in this hobby.
 
I think I'm trying to do two different things. Sprouting for the chickens is one thing, but malting for beer is a just a different process. I think I'll just end up using a little bit of potting soil for the chickens.
For malting, my garage, this time of year, is in the 45-50F range. I have a long weekend, so maybe i can get a small batch started and build a small lightbulb heated kiln for drying. Just one more way to spend money in this hobby.


I've been homemalting for 2 years now..just happened across this thread google searching for a better way of deculming than the bucket to bucket method. But saw this wasn't dead, and thought i'd share my experience with bacteria. I've found that the advice to soak for 8 hours and again doesn't work for me, I get rotten grain (that by the way still makes a beer that tastes fine and hasn't killed me yet). But I don't get the rot with just a 30 min soak. drain. let breath for an hour. soak again for maybe an hour. drain let breath. then just soak it once a day for 5min until the acrospires are mostly coming out of the husks...(sorry for my poor writing skills)

I use sweater drying racks 3 of them stacked with a box fan blowing over them for 1 day to dry, after a day the grain is firm enough to lock up the enzymes and I put it in the over at 170f for 12 hours to kiln. then bucket to bucket to blow off the rootlets, I've found storage tote to storage tote works better though because I can drop it further without the grain blowing out of the path.

one last thing I've noticed with homemalt dryed this way is I get 75% effecincy with a single infusion mash at 150's, but if I do a second step at 165f, for an alpha rest, it bumps up to 85%
 
I started a new batch on Sunday to see if I can get this going again. Two days of steeping and resting about every 8 hrs got 2.5 lbs of barley to 40% moisture content. During the steep and rest, I placed the barley on the basement floor at 64F on an instant read thermometer.
I moved it to the garage this morning (50F) to start the germination process. Hope to see some chitting when I get home.
I've spent the past two weeks working on a "kiln" which is my old Little Chief smoker that I hardly used. With the addition of two porcelain light sockets and a few different wattage bulbs, I came up with a combination to cycle the malt through drying and kilning. There's a little more testing to be done before I finalize everything.
 
Long time since I contribute to the post
Just to let you know that I hare revamped my project of micro malthous all in one, full automated project and now I’m committed to complete the job

the mechanical parts is almost ready
the controller and the software completely developed

Just a preview here



stay tuned
Davide
 
Hi guys

project update, control panel installed and wiring in progress , few more stuff than can do I dry run

stay tuned
Davide

 
The home malting experiment continues. Trying to malt feed barley earlier this year didn't go well. The barley contained lots of reddish seeds that I suspected was fusarium. Fast forward to now.

This is Robust barley planted in the second week of June. Frost the week prior kept me from planting. This was much later than I wanted but the Alaskan summer just didn't want to get started. I'm going to need a warm dry September to let this patch fully mature.

 
Just for some gratuitous barley porn, here's some Maris Otter just four days after your last-but-one post : https://twitter.com/RobinAppelLtd/status/1012388077338324994

Been a crazy year for winter barley in the UK (and from what I hear over much of northern Europe) - a long hot summer has meant some farmers even started cutting their Otter in June, which is unheard of, and the winter barley is pretty much in by now. But that same dry weather has been a bit of a disaster for spring barley.
 
Growing your own barley too! awesome!

just to keep this thread alive thought i'd post a pic of my new toggle switch oven, on low the temp probe has a 200ohm resistor in series so the oven has a range of 95f-~i'd guess 350f. so when i kiln my malt i can get a constant 150f, instead of the old low temp of 200f. it says 170f, but actually went up to 200...


being i have no way to constantly stir my crystals in the oven for roasting i'm playing around with longer lower temps, did one batch of wet green malt let the grain come up to 150f covered, sit for about an hour, then bumped the temp up to 220f for 12hours uncovered. this is what i got...a lot better than the blended mostly too dark stuff i was getting at 350f

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this camera sucks, if i do more of this i'll look into getting a better one.

P.S. yes the stove is a mess because i use it to brew 10 gal batches...i just had to take a knife and bore out the orifices just a bit to get the flames bigger....
 
Anyone doing anything exciting? Anyone? Anyone? . . . . . . . .:rock:



well i'm drinking homemalt beer now....still have a burning desire to make a homemalt crystal malt, that is pressure cooked at 15psi for an hour or so after stewing and all that....haven't actually gotten around to it yet....
 
So, this thread planted the seed many years ago about home malting. I finally got the opportunity and gumption to do it!

Naturally, I ignored most advice in the interest of making the process easier. Instead of mixing in a couch, I just laid out the chit malt on the dehydrator trays in a thin (3/4") layer and didn't touch it again.

This is wheat BTW. So far, it stalled out at about 50%. Drying it anyway because I already have another batch in the pipeline.
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