Help - Malting Millet

[KuraKura]

Hi, i'm from a country where no shop is selling malted grain for me to brew, therefore i decided to malt my own grain. the thing is, getting the raw grain in small quantities is a tough task itself so i searched and found the easiest grain i could purchase to make my first malt; millet.

I've been following instructions from this website http://www.glutenfreehomebrewing.org/advanced_malting_tutorial.php with no sophisticated equipment like he does. I soak 2 kg of millet grain in a plastic bucket for 8 hours and rest them for 4 hours, 3 cycle in total. On the 2nd cycle, the bucket filled with the grains has lot of foams and foul stench could be smelled. i continued to let them germinate by spreading them on a baking tray and cover them with a thin plastic wrap. by 1 - 2 days the roots has developed but by 4th day the shoot still hasn't developed.

So the question is, is the foam and foul stench normal? why the seed stop developing? is it because i oversoaked them in water so they drown and die? or something else?

Please someone who has ever malt millet before help me with this.

Thanks in advance

 

[KeinGluten]

The foul stench is not normal, I don't think. When I malt millet, it smells mildly like bread, but there are no strong smells.

Your process sounds pretty much ok to me; I've done similar and have been successful malting millet. One thing you should definitely be doing is to keep the grains rinsed. I wash them off pretty thoroughly before soaking, then rinse every time I handle them. Once they are no longer soaking, make sure they stay moist and well ventilated, so rinse and stir them periodically. You may not want to fully cover your tray with plastic wrap, as they need air to grow.

It sounds like you have millet in the hulls based on the fact that they germinated (most hulled millet germinates poorly, as the germ usually gets removed with the hulls), so remove the hulls from a few to see if the stems are growing. The stem (called the acrospire) grows from the same point as the root, but grows along the grain inside the hull, so you won't see it until it pokes out the other end. You want to dry it out when the acrospire is about to poke out the other end, as that indicates proper modification, as far as I know.

 

[dwhite60]

Mead is easier. Add yeast to diluted honey with some nutrients. Might be a better choice. You can even make "Mead Ale" boiling the honey with hops.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[homemaltster]

So the question is, is the foam and foul stench normal? why the seed stop developing? is it because i oversoaked them in water so they drown and die? or something else?

KuraKura, I've seen that problem too, and it happens when the grain doesn't get enough oxygen. Like you said, the grain is drowning - well actually, it's fermenting because of the lack of oxygen. You can aerate your steep water with an aquarium pump and/or do longer air rests, like 8-10 hours.

What country are you from?