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And what kind of smell? When I malt, there's certain smells at each stage-- cucumbers during germination, toasty cereal during kilning--but never a super offensive smell. I'd assume something was off during your malting process if you did get a nasty smell.

Cool stuff, Murika. I've been wanting to malt and brew with quinoa myself. When you malted it, what part of the process smelled so bad? Kilning?

Right, Barleypopmaker has one of the more extensive guides on home roasting that I've seen out there. Have you tried any of his recipes before? In most malthouses, roasting schedules are usually longer lengths of time at lower temps, but Barleypopmaker has converted those times and temps to...

Yeah it's similar to brewing in that way - there's a bit of a learning curve at first, but you can start making good malt fairly quickly. And then there's always more to learn, so it can stay interesting for a long time.

I haven't personally tried this, so I can't speak from experience. But I can refer you to Brewing Beer the Hard Way for those details. He says between 220-235F for 3-5 hrs.

Ha I gotcha now. A lot of brewers use the words "malt" and "grain" interchangeably, but for a maltster, you have "grain" before the malting process and you have "malt" afterward. For info on specialty malts, I would have sent you to Brewing Beer the Hard Way anyway. Most of his posts are...

Gotcha. That's a great idea, and exactly what we'd need to get heritage varieties on the production level :mug:

Thanks! I like where you're going with this. One of the coolest things about home malting is being able to play around with any grain ever, and make malts that you can't buy anywhere. My advice is similar to what many beginning home brewers are told: start with something simple to get a feel...

Have you had much of a problem with microbes when you don't add hydrogen peroxide or SMB? I know many home brewers that try to malt have mold problems, and then get turned off malting, which is a major bummer! I've stayed mold-free without adding antiseptics just by not letting my grain bed...

MaryB, could you elaborate more on this? Check with the organic growers association to try to get the seed certified organic?

Yeah we had that problem too. We were able to find a nearby community garden with plenty of sunshine to grow our varieties last year. So that's always an option.

Last year, my brewing partner and I started growing out some heritage barley varieties to explore new (but actually old) malt flavors. In the true spirit of home brewing, we want to make this an open source endeavor, which means we’re looking for collaboration from the HBT community. We think...

Thanks for the additional info, MaltMaker. Moisture meters certainly make moisture tracking easier, though they're unfortunately out of the budget of most home maltsters. There are the field moisture meters that a farmer may have, like the Dickey John, that cost a few hundred bucks, but...

Wood is actually not great for germination floors for that reason - it absorbs moisture from the grain and prematurely dries it out. Plastic is a good impermeable surface, and I like MaltMaker's suggestion of trash bags laid out on the ground. A single sheet of plastic or a tarp might be even...

Floor malting would be much simpler to set up and would have about the same effect. You can turn grain on the germination floor with your hands every few hours just as easily as you could hand crank the drum. And you'd have a more level grain bed. Nothing wrong with sloppiness! The way you...

That's awesome. Next time a farmer says that, tell em they can make it happen!

To add, what I've found most important is to nail your climate control. Cool and humid for germination. What kind of space were you planning to germinate in?

Good to hear from you, H.W. Sounds like you've given your malting setup some thought. If you don't mind, I'll offer some input. Rotating drums have certainly been used for germination before, but if you're looking for simplicity, there are other options. It doesn't get much simpler than a...

Just wrote a guide on how to malt at home, using whatever equipment you already have lying around. If you've ever considered trying your hand at home malting, this should help you start. Happy malting! :mug: http://www.sprowtmalt.com/2017/02/23/how-to-malt-at-home/

How do they manage to get into snap-lock plastic containers (I assume you mean your classic tupperware)? Is there a tiny space between the lid and container? I've got the Iris/Ziploc bin too and it works great. When I use ziploc bags, I keep them in a hard plastic container for protection...