Hello fellow maltsters, just an upgrade on my malting experiments.
Few days ago I started malting a second batch of barley (it would be the third, but I don't coun't the one I threw away because it had drowned). The climate tricked me: after a week at about 70 F, it turned suddenly to about 90, just in the day I set the malt on the floor for germination. Result: today, after about 50 hours, it's malted superfast again. Well, some less than the previous attempt: this time in most of the grains the acrosphire's length is 50-75% of the grain's length. Anyway, I sent the batch to the drying stage, because I'm going to use a different method: a room on the upper floor of the house (the 2nd), temp about 85 F and a good flow of air. So it's not that hot: probably the barley will go on germinating a while, than start drying. It's a kind of wind drying, I'm curious to see the results!!
Just a bit of other informations: I noticed the black ends show even after steeping, so it's not related to the drying phase. Then I had a look to my reserve of grains, the grains threshed and then untouched: I think I can see in some of them a bluish that might become the black end after steeping. So it could be someting related to my growing. BTW, it's the end not attached to the ear.
After one week, the beer we brewed has been changed of vessel (don't know the reasons or the technical names for this operation
): it tastes sweet but not bad. Found with low density, so we added some more yeast, even if I fear that this will reduce the thickness of the taste. What could we add when we pour it in the final bottles?
If in the end it tastes good, we will try another brew with the second superfast malt, this time adding some malt very rich with enzymes. Any suggestion about this?
Keep malting!