EASY sorghum or millet malting method

[giuzep89]

Hello friends,

I've been thinking starting to brew with gluten-free malts, but unfortunately here in the Netherlands I haven't managed to find any ready to use sorghum or millet malt syrup. So I've been considering malting it myself.

I found a few different guides ranging from pretty easy to pretty difficult. I'd like to keep this as easy as it gets given it's still an experiment and I'm curious to see whether the taste of the finished product is anything to write home about.

Does anyone have a malting schedule like that at hand? Honestly I could do with either millet or sorghum, whichever is easiest and works best. Any pointer will be welcome!

Cheers

 

[glutarded-chris]

Looks to me like proper malting is really difficult and time consuming to get the amount of grain needed. Might be easier to procure the enzymes and use them with unmalted grain. The enzymes are so good these days!

 

[giuzep89]

Yeah, you're probably right. And that doesn't even include the mashing, which also seems to be a real pain with sorghum.

 

[glutarded-chris]

Based on the "sorghum twang" you get from the sorghum syrup, I would not use it. Millet, rice and buckwheat work great, but I have never used them unmalted. I know there are others that have used unmalted grain. Since we are able to add totally effective enzymes, we now don't need to malt the grain to unlock the natural enzymes. The natural ones denature in gelatinization anyway. If you can get Ondea Pro, Ceremix and Termamil, then you are probably good to go. There may be others these days. I would research advice from those that are already experimenting with unmalted grain.

 

[giuzep89]

Based on the "sorghum twang" you get from the sorghum syrup, I would not use it. Millet, rice and buckwheat work great, but I have never used them unmalted. I know there are others that have used unmalted grain. Since we are able to add totally effective enzymes, we now don't need to malt the grain to unlock the natural enzymes. The natural ones denature in gelatinization anyway. If you can get Ondea Pro, Ceremix and Termamil, then you are probably good to go. There may be others these days. I would research advice from those that are already experimenting with unmalted grain.

I had that thought in the past, but I think I read somewhere that added enzymes are not as effective as those that are naturally present in malted grains. Is there any truth to that?

 

[glutarded-chris]

The enzymes available today are MUCH more effective than the natural enzymes in gluten free grains. Basically, better than anything but barley. You have to get the mash up above 75C to gelatinize the starches in gluten free grains and the natural enzymes can't survive that at all. Cerial mashing and other techniques are good for adjuncts but not for the main mash. With these enzymes and malted grain you can get the fermentation to behave very much like with a barley base. I am sure it will work with unmalted grain, just not sure about the flavor of the final product. Would require experimentation.

There may be some others that are still on this forum that have more current information. The Zero Tolerance group/club has been very effective at collecting and disseminating information.

Their Wiki: https://zerotolerance.mywikis.wiki/wiki/Main_Page

If you have not already seen this, start 39 minutes into the video. This was a game change for me: