Adventures in Malting

[Monstar]

Hey dudes. I don't post here a lot, but I have been reading tons for about a year now. Anyways, Im seriously obsessed with brewing so I decided to start malting some grain. I could only find wheat at the feed stores (I have some unmalted barley on order from Colorado Malting), but I thought some of you might be interested in how I'm doing it! There is a more detailed and fun to read version on my blog, but I will keep this thread updated as well.

I used a Homer bucket for steeping. I started with about 20 lbs, which was my first mistake since I seriously undersetimated how much the grains would swell!

Anyway, it took just two 8 hour rinse/soak cycles for them to start chitting.

Which was too soon, because I hadn't built a malting floor yet. So I jacked some ideas from COLObrewer and THIS SITE and made a malting floor out of cement board, some 2x4's and Plaster of Paris!

While I waited for that to cure, I decided to soak the grains one last time for a couple hours in a StarSan bath to kill any gross stuff that might have found a home in there. Then I drained and started "couching" on my new malting floor. I wonder if having a malting floor in my basement increases the value of my house? Hehe, I keed.

After 24 hours of going outside to stir them up every few hours, I decided it was time to spread them all out. I also mixed in another batch of StarSan for good measure.

Here's how the malt is looking!

Can't wait to brew a kick ass hef with this.

 

[hopsalot]

how are you kilning the malt?

 

[Monstar]

Its hot here in Denver, and dry. Im just going move it into the sun for a couple days. Should be around 100 degrees this week!

 

[Monstar]

I also plan on making some light and darker crystal wheat.

 

[hector]

Are you using hulled wheat ?!

Hector

 

[Monstar]

Yea... isn't most wheat hulled? Hence stuck mashes? I have never seen wheat with a husk.

 

[COLObrewer]

Yea, wheat has no hull, how did your malt turn out? made anything with it yet?

 

[Monstar]

Hey COLObrewer! Turned out great actually. I even made some light and dark crystal wheat... but then I realized I didnt have a mill or a scale! Both are arriving in the mail this weekend, so I should be brewing with it very soon.

One thing... I wouldn't reccomend the plaster of paris. It stuck to some of the malt. Also, I really need to build a kiln; we had 2 cloudy days right in a row, so it did not dry as fast as I had hoped.

 

[Monstar]

Just for an update... I did indeed brew with the wheat malt I made.

Its currently going insane in the basement, yeehaw!

After it was done malting, I left it in the sun for 3 days to dry, and then cured in the oven at 212 for 3 hours.

I also made some dark and light crystal wheat putting green malt in the oven @ 150 for 2 hours, then drying it out at 215, and finally roasting at 300. The light was roasted for 30 minutes, while the dark was roasted for around 2 hours.

The wort actually tasted really good, but it did smell a little... off. All in all Im super pumped, cant wait to drink it. I also started some barley thats currently kicking booty as well. I should be brewing with that this weekend!

 

[Monstar]

Hmm... cant get pictures to work. Lame.

 

[COLObrewer]

Hmm... cant get pictures to work. Lame.

Yea, I was looking forward to it too. Try right clicking on the photo and go to properties then copy and paste the Address (URL) in your IMG tags, I dont know picasa tho, I use flickr.

Or do what you did in your original post?

 

[Monstar]

I did the same thing as before haha. Im gonna stick em in Photobucket and see if that helps.

 

[Monstar]

Alright pictures are up. The one of it fermenting is sideways, not sure why, its not like that in photobucket. O well, close enough!

Also, COLObrewer, have you heard of Colorado Malting? I just picked up 150 pounds of their unmalted stuff (50 lb wheat, 100 lb barley) for .30 a pound. Its *really* good stuff too..]

 

[skippyf16]

I'm in on CMC grain buy #5, but have been curious about malting as well. Can we malt year round here in Denver?

 

[Dahoov]

When using Picasa, in the pane to the right of the image be sure to select the "Image only (no link)" check box, select the size you want from the drop down and paste the "Embed Image" link into your HBT post using the "Insert Image" popup. Be sure to delete the "http://" that defaults in the "Insert Image" HBT popup or the link won't work.

Edit: Guess I am too slow to post stuff here.

 

[Monstar]

No, Dahoov, that helps a TON. I reimported them into photobucket, but with my Android phone those instructions will save me lots of time! Thank you!

And yes Skippy, I don't see why not. As long as you can keep your malt at around 50-60 degrees while its malting, there's no reason why you couldn't as far as I can see.

 

[COLObrewer]

Alright pictures are up. The one of it fermenting is sideways, not sure why, its not like that in photobucket. O well, close enough!

Also, COLObrewer, have you heard of Colorado Malting? I just picked up 150 pounds of their unmalted stuff (50 lb wheat, 100 lb barley) for .30 a pound. Its *really* good stuff too..]

Looking good, please give us some tasting notes when they are ready to swill.

Yes, I've bought from Colorado Malting, they have great product.

 

[Monstar]

Looking good, please give us some tasting notes when they are ready to swill.

Will do!

 

[COLObrewer]

I'm in on CMC grain buy #5, but have been curious about malting as well. Can we malt year round here in Denver?

Wouldn't know why not, malt on! You can see my link here for details on malting: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/happiness-home-malting-107409/

 

[Monstar]

Update: BARLEY TIME.

Busy day. Barley is fully modified, so I finally got to use my new contraption that I built a week or so ago!

When I did my wheat, I realized just how much I hated moving the the grain over and over to different contraptions. So I decided to build the above thingamajig, which is basically 2 100w bulbs and a 200w bulb. This gets placed on top of my malting floor (in the OP), I put a fan on the opposite side (I cut a vent into the malting floor on the side opposite of the bulbs) and voila! Kiln/malting floor.

It works *great*. Its been literally holding 104 degrees all day. Perfect!

I also made roasted barley

and what ended up being light, medium and medium/dark crystal.

The light is still in the oven drying a bit more.

Tomorrow I will cure some pale malt hopefully and make some other toasted malts.

 

[COLObrewer]

That kiln top looks interesting, are you gonna hinge it so you can get in and move the grains easily or do you have an automatic stirring device up your sleeve?

 

[Monstar]

Ive gotta hinge it. Right now Ive just been lifting it up and resting it against the wall. But that sucks. Hinge coming soon!

Also, I took a leap and left it on all night. Just checked the temp, 110 degrees. That's a load off, I definitely lost some sleep last night over it. A few more hours and this stuff should be ready for the oven!

 

[Monstar]

Also, COLO, do you weigh your grains to accurately tell if they are at the right moisture content or do you just do the "if its crunchy" test?

 

[COLObrewer]

Never have weighed, I'll probably start though if I ever get my all-in-one device going, in the beginning anyway to get the timing close.

 

[skippyf16]

Held 110 degrees all night in your basement?

 

[Monstar]

Sure did, Skippy... well, it was at 110 at 8 AM this morning. Dried to below 10% in about 22 hours.

Never have weighed, I'll probably start though if I ever get my all-in-one device going, in the beginning anyway to get the timing close.

Killer dude. Cant wait to see what you come up with.

 

[Monstar]

Finished all my barley, and went overboard on my specialties. Which was awesome. I made 5 lb out pale and about 2lb each of:

-Roasted barley
-Light Crystal
-Med Crystal
-Dark Crystal
-Amber malt
-Brown malt
-Copperish malt

I used the amber, medium crystal and pale malt to brew this bad boy

Wort tasted and smelled awesome. I put in color estimates into Beersmith and it came out VERY close. Also nailed my target gravity, 1.048.

Can't wait for this one to finish. If anyone gets into malting, I highly reccomend buying barley from Colorado Malting.

 

[Monstar]

UPDATE: Good news, bad news.

Bad news first. The ale made from the feed store wheat was a massive failure. Possibly the worst beer I have ever made. Mouthfeel is like drinking a marshmellow, looks like sludge, tastes like 409. Im dumping it.

Good news: Went down to take a gravity reading on my first beer made from barley, and it is crazy good. I went for an ESB, and I nailed it. By far the best English style ale I have made. Still a little sweet (1.018), but the malt character is so... robust . Here is the recipe I used:

4 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 66.67 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 16.67 %
1 lbs Home Amber (35.0 SRM) Grain 16.67 %
0.30 oz Chinook [13.00 %] (60 min) Hops 22.0 IBU
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (30 min) Hops 10.8 IBU

fermented at 65ish, s33 yeast.


The color was spot on. It was really cool to have to add that "Home Amber" malt into Beersmith, haha. Now the challenge will be to duplicate it!

I have 2 more down there that I brewed this weekend. Im going to keg them all as soon as I get home from tour in 3 weeks and Ill let y'all know how they are tasting and post a bunch of pics.

 

[android]

sweet, thanks for sharing the journey with us. looking forward to tasting notes.

 

[Monstar]

sweet, thanks for sharing the journey with us. looking forward to tasting notes.

Dude, no problem! Also, I brewed a forth batch today and got 93 PERCENT efficiency. I won't go into detail here since I already did in the all grain forum, but long story short my numbers were legit.

Needless to say I was pretty shocked and blown away haha

 

[Monstar]

Small update.

I took gravity readings/taste samples of ll the beers I have made from my two batches of barley. All are fermenting just fine, in the .01 to .19 range, and they all taste great!

The problem I am seeing is they are very similar in color. Only two should have been close (13 and 15 SRM) but all four seem to be in that range, where I brewed a pale (6 SRM) and a porter (30 SRM). I need to experience more in this area.

They also all taste like I am making something closer to Vienna or Munich instead of a straight pale base, which means the kiln temp might be getting a little high. To me that is a good thing (they taste great), BUT I would like to get better temperature control on my kilning... apparatus... for the future.

 

[BBL_Brewer]

You could wire the light bulbs through a thermostat and regulate the temperature a little more accurately. Cool process BTW, I might have to give it a try myself one of these days.

 

[Monstar]

Yea, I think I will do that. You definitely should, now that I'm finishing up my 4th batch of malt it is getting a lot easier, not to mention saving me lots of $$$ on grain.

 

[Monstar]

My first beer from home malted barley! Here is the actual recipe I used:

4 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 66.67 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 16.67 %
1 lbs Home Amber (35.0 SRM) Grain 16.67 %
0.30 oz Chinook [13.00 %] (60 min) Hops 22.0 IBU
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (30 min) Hops 10.8 IBU
1 Pkgs SafBrew Ale (DCL Yeast #S-33) Yeast-Ale

OG-1.05, FG-1.009

So, some notes. The color is awesome, as you can see. The head pours thick and creamy, and a small layer stays on the top all the way down. I am getting a lot of caramel, which most likely means I need to cool it on the specialties. Had I known it would be this sweet, I would have added more bittering hops. It leaves a VERY nice toasty flavor in my mouth.

All in all, its a pretty good beer! No noticeable off flavors aside from the over-the-top caramel notes. Its also pretty darn clear; especially for the first pour out of the keg. I am very proud.

I will post a side by side of all three beers later tonight. I already know I need to find a better way to estimate the colors of my home malts... all of these beers, at least in the fermenter, looked exactly the same.

 

[Monstar]

Beer number 2!

This was brewed with "copper" malt. Heres the recipe:


Amount Item Type % or IBU
5 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 80.00 %
12.0 oz Home Copper (100.0 SRM) Grain 12.00 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 8.00 %
0.20 oz Nugget [14.80 %] (90 min) Hops 18.7 IBU
0.10 oz Chinook [11.90 %] (75 min) Hops 7.3 IBU
0.25 oz Nugget [14.80 %] (60 min) Hops 21.9 IBU
0.20 oz Chinook [11.90 %] (45 min) Hops 12.9 IBU
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale

OG- 1.056. FG- 1.015

holy balls is this good. Toasty, malty, perfect hop profile. Its a little hazier than the first brew, but it definitely tastes better.

Actually, drinking this and the first one side by side really makes the Belgian characteristics from the S33 in the first batch more apparent. I had never really tasted that out of S33 before, even thought the package said that it should.

THOROUGHLY enjoying this brew. If someone had given me a pint of this and told me it was from home malted barley, I might not have believed them.

 

[Monstar]

Brewed again today, a pale ale. This is my 4th batch in a row where I have achieved over 90% efficiency. Add that to the fact that my beers taste great...

No way Im going back to store bought grains. Unless, of course, I get lazy =P

 

[Monstar]

O man, these are getting great. Ive been hitting the kegs pretty hard this weekend... I really need to bottle a few to age before I drink it all.