HomeBrewHoo
New Member
I've been following the gluten-free homebrewing forum for some time and thought that I'd take the plunge and attempt some recipes with self-malted GF grains. I have no experience with malting and limited all-grain brewing experience so pardon my ignorance. I started with 1 lb each of hulled buckwheat and millet and I experienced different problems with each. Any suggestions or thoughts on where I might have gone wrong?
Buckwheat:
I soaked / rinsed the grains for about 36 hour until the sprouts were about twice as long as the groats themselves. I then dried them in the oven set to warm (~160 deg). After crushing them (with a rolling pin), I mashed them at different constant temperature intervals of 120, 140, and 155 deg. I then attempted to sparge the grains in a mesh strainer with 170 deg water but the buckwheat had turned into a thick, gelatinous, oatmeal-like blob. The sparge water couldn't penetrate the grains so I just vigorously mixed the water and the grains and then filtered (a rudimentary batch sparging). The resulting wort (if I can call it that) was a white, milky, starchy liquid. I'm assuming that this is not normal. Any idea where I went wrong? Would rice hulls help with the sticky mash?
Millet:
After nearly 4 days of soaking/rinsing, only 20% or so of the grains showed any sign of sprouting. Fearing mold, I dried them out in the oven. The mash went well but I was not expecting much in terms of fermentables given the poor malting. Anyone have success malting millet? I rather like the smell of the dried/toasted millet and would like to add malted millet to a sorghum extract-based recipe.
Any help is much appreciated! Thanks!
Buckwheat:
I soaked / rinsed the grains for about 36 hour until the sprouts were about twice as long as the groats themselves. I then dried them in the oven set to warm (~160 deg). After crushing them (with a rolling pin), I mashed them at different constant temperature intervals of 120, 140, and 155 deg. I then attempted to sparge the grains in a mesh strainer with 170 deg water but the buckwheat had turned into a thick, gelatinous, oatmeal-like blob. The sparge water couldn't penetrate the grains so I just vigorously mixed the water and the grains and then filtered (a rudimentary batch sparging). The resulting wort (if I can call it that) was a white, milky, starchy liquid. I'm assuming that this is not normal. Any idea where I went wrong? Would rice hulls help with the sticky mash?
Millet:
After nearly 4 days of soaking/rinsing, only 20% or so of the grains showed any sign of sprouting. Fearing mold, I dried them out in the oven. The mash went well but I was not expecting much in terms of fermentables given the poor malting. Anyone have success malting millet? I rather like the smell of the dried/toasted millet and would like to add malted millet to a sorghum extract-based recipe.
Any help is much appreciated! Thanks!