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So in!

Here's a good resource to get a reference point for times and temps: http://barleypopmaker.info/2009/12/08/home-roasting-your-malts/

Yup!

Hey HBT, A few months ago, I had been posting long-form articles about malting written by me and my partner at Sprowt Labs. Turns out long-form articles take a long time to write, so we've dialed it back to shorter, more visual content. Through this medium, we're putting out the fun facts...

I live in MN so I don't know barley farmers out in western WA, but I can tell you that there's a craft malthouse near you called Skagit Valley Malting. You could ask them where they get their barley. Love the estate beer plan! Sounds like you're on the right track.

Hey it's 10 pounds of barley that won't become beer, but not 10 pounds wasted. Now if you made the exact same mistakes again, that would be a bit of a waste. You get mold if you don't have proper climate control. It's partly a function of moisture, but the germinating grain should be kept...

You're right that most of the world's barley goes to animal feed. The distinction is that most of the *malted* barley goes into beer. Those would be some lucky animals if they got their feed barley malted for them ;)

Yeah, kilning drums are tough to pull off on a small scale. I've been happy with a stationary grain bed during kilning - makes things a lot simpler.

Most of the world’s malted barley will end up as beer, but the other major industry that relies on malt is distilling. As all-around malt nerds, we took a look at how distillers use malt, especially in making the infamous single malt Scotch whisky. Some things are similar to brewing, some are...

Several articles ago we dug into the story of Maris Otter, the present king of malt flavor. It was a fun story to research, so we decided to turn it into a semi-regular series on barley varieties. In this article, we look into the king of Victorian barleys, Chevallier, a variety loved...

Low intensity heating is indeed ideal for drying. We usually start kilning around 120 F to remove the bulk of the moisture, then gradually ramp the temp up to the final curing temp for the last couple hours. Curing temp can vary widely between 176-221 F depending on what kind of malt you're...

Yeah you're getting pretty far from any conventional brewing method here, but hey, why not. One thing that I don't understand is what the amylase is going to do in the fermenter. Typically, conversion would have happened before the boil and then the amylase would be denatured by the high temps...

Also, I'm excited to hear how your modified kilning drum works out. I know a number of malthouses use massive rotating drums for roasting.

Very interesting. So let me get this straight: you'd be using the Aspergillus to make amylase accessible instead of malting to make those enzymes accessible? Does the amylase come from the barley or does Aspergillus release its own amylase into the mix?

Nice. Very convenient indeed. I think I might know where that barley is going in MN to be malted... ;)

Now that we’ve gathered a crew of home brewers to join The Harlan Society (our open-source project to revive heritage barley varieties), we thought it an appropriate time to come out with an article about its namesake, Harry Harlan. He was perhaps the first man to devote himself fully to the...

This thread reminds me how lucky we are to be able to brew just as a hobby. We all have such a romantic idea about the pros, but they probably get jealous of those dudes in a garage taking their sweet time home brewing. I wonder how often home brewers get into commercial brewing and end up...

I'm intrigued. Do you pitch more of that kviek yeast every time you add wort? Have you tried pitching different strains to add new yeasty layers to the soup? I feel like this model works great for a chili, where every new ingredient and every additional hour of simmering can make it better...

Right, I was describing the smells of germinating barley specifically. I haven't done quinoa so I can't say anything for certain about its smell, but that sourness doesn't sound like a normal smell. In my experience, when my grain isn't getting enough oxygen or is getting too warm, there's a...