Malting Wheat

Hi all,

I live in a country where home brewing supplies are somewhat hard to come by. While it's not really an issue to import hops and yeast from overseas, trying to get my hands on any type of malt is hard as sending stuff via airfreight in bulk can be quite costly, especially once you get into the 4-5kg range.

However, having had a look around the internet, it appears that malting grains isn't too complicated of a matter. I'm quite interested in malting my own wheat, and wheat is easily available. I do have a few questions, though:

1) What is the difference between wheat grain and wheat berries? I was told to seek out wheat berries for malting, but they seem a lot harder to find that typical wheat grain.

2) I know that barley can't be pearled in order for it to be malted. Does the same apply to wheat? The wheat I've seen for sale here is hulled, sold as 'wheat grain'. Viable?

3) I have seen some hulled barley for sale (not pearled). Can this be malted as well?

Thanks for the help!

Wheat berries and grain are the same thing.

You want the husks on the barley. After you crush the grain the husks act as a filter media when lautering the mash, to prevent a "stuck" mash.

Thanks for the feedback!
Does that mean that hulled barley can be malted? I can always get my hands on rice husks to prevent a stuck mash.

NO,hulled barley won't sprout.this one :

you need unhulled intact barley.

Here is an interesting way to malt grains that you may be interested in pursuing. I plan on building one of these this summer and trying it out.

http://www.nogy.net/malthouse/

I also plan on malting wheat. Would be interested to hear how your process works out.