Home Malting and Kilning

[JesseKing]

I just finished making my first beer with homemalted grains. I did 10gals of a hoppy honey rye with about 12lbs of homemalted pale malt and 1.5lbs of homemade 60L crystal malt. I had to buy several other specialty grains including the rye malt. Overall, it went smoothly and is happily fermenting away in the primaries. I put half on an American style ale yeast and the other half on a french saison... Should be exciting to see how everything turns out.

This has been a 9+ month endeavor....

 

[instapman]

Sooooooo have good things come? Just curious. I read the whole thread and WOW, what an undertaking. Surely you have had some "dirt to beer" home brew by now.?.?.?.

Subscribed...

 

[lurker18]

Hi guys
I'm also going to malt some barley I just grew, harvested about 60 kg, this is the first time so I'm taking it slowly!

So I was wandering, has anyone discovered what dimension is a plump? I read somewhere malting plants want barley at least 2.2 mm diameter, can help? Do you use a filter to select grains of a same size before malting?

Cheers

Stefano

Stefano, that is correct. I work for the Canadian Grain Commission and I described the plump and thins a few post before you asked this. It is done by a maltsters request, something like no more than 4% thins, no more than 2% forign material, no more than 5% peeled and broken. Each maltster will have their own specifications to what they want. In Canada, this is pre selected on the farm before it is delivered to the shipper. That way anything that is entering the system is known to be malt quality before it ties up space. Also, it is possible to be selected, and because of poor storage, when it is time for delivery, another sample is taken and it can then be turned down,
As for sizing, it is actually a very simple procedure. The grain is passed over a set of sieves, and anything too small will fall through and the bigger plump seeds will stay on top.

As I write this I am looking at a boat headed to China, 10 000 tonnes of Copeland and 34 000 tonnes of Metcalf. These samples will be then taken home and used in my home malting.

 

[JesseKing]

http://picasaweb.google.com/mrjesseking/HomeMalting?feat=directlink

 

[Brewbecca]

@lurker18:
You're right, your post was just a couple before mine Thanks for the info anyway. You're lucky you get the best! And I know it's crazy at my level of malting, but now I'm thinking about getting a sieve and see what it happens to my barley! I don't think It's an easy task to build one, so I will search for one, the hard part will be finding one with the right size of holes.

@jesseking: very nice dryer! Is it a vacuum-cleaner you use to extract the air? I was wondering, how do you control the temperature inside the dryer? Is there a temp probe inside? Can you regulate the heat of the hairdryer? If the inlet air temperature changes, can you mantain the inside temperature constant?

 

[JesseKing]

@lurker18:

@jesseking: very nice dryer! Is it a vacuum-cleaner you use to extract the air? I was wondering, how do you control the temperature inside the dryer? Is there a temp probe inside? Can you regulate the heat of the hairdryer? If the inlet air temperature changes, can you mantain the inside temperature constant?

The hairdryer is used to blow air across the grain that is suspended on two screens. The one I found on e-bay had 3 temperature settings which gives me some control. I can also close down or open the vent holes on the bottom of the dryer with masking tape. The dryer doesn't get quite as hot as I would like, but I am able to sustain 95+ temps.

After spending a couple of days drying in the dryer I put all the grain in the oven to kiln it, that makes sure that all the moisture is gone and gives it a very light toast. We'll see how well it all worked here in a couple of weeks when the first beer is finished.

 

[Maltster]

I am a all grain brewer and we malt our own barley
we get our barley seed from

Harrington Seeds Inc

2586 S Bradleyville Rd
Reese, MI 48757

(989) 868-4750

 

[woodardg]

a book i just pick up is

the homebrewer garden


it has hops ,malts, and brewing herbs

 

[justio]

yo man! i'm in ann arbor, where you at? when you get your grains up and running, let me know. i'll buy some off of you for sure!

 

[hops4me]

Johney's seeds sells two row in 1, 5. and 25 pound amounts. Harvesting and threshing by hand is time consuming. check out the brewers garden it has method for malting in 5 lb batches

 

[Lessley]

HI Everybody
I'm a journalist working on a story about the micro-malting movement, and have already talked to, or are planning on talking to, small commercial outfits like Valley Malt and Riverbend, but was interested in talking to homebrewers who've attempted DIY malting. If anybody has, and would be open to talking before my deadline on Wednesday, pls email me at [email protected]. Thanks!
Lessley Anderson

 

[Jhoss]

Here's some rye and some oats (green) - could just as well have been barley. Does get me to thinkin'.

 

[MichaelN416]

I've just read this thread from start to finish and look forward to hearing how everyone's experiments have gone. I too have started to grow my own barley. Thanks to all who have contributed, I've learned a lot so far. I'm not completely sure what kind of seed barley I planted. The local AG seed supply store didn't know much about barley for malting. While I did specify 2-row; I'm not completely confident that is what I got. I'll attach some pictures and maybe someone here will know.

Ultimately what I'm striving for is something similar to Golden Promise or Marris Otter.

 

[lurker18]

If you have any of the seed left, it is very easy to tell the difference between 2 row and 6 row. On two row barley, the creases will all be straight, running from the tip to the germ end. 6 row barley will have a slight twist to the creases on 2/3 of the seeds. The twisted seeds are usually slightly smaller than the straight creased ones. The twist is caused by the seeds being lined up on the heads in opposing pairs of three, the two outside seeds will get twisted while the middle seed grows straight. On two row barley, the heads are lined up as single opposing seeds, so here will be no twisting.

 

[roastquake]

follow

 

[Jhoss]

I've got some on order, I plan on a smallish plot of something like 12 feet by 80 feet or so. Being that I have a 4 foot wide tiller on my tractor, 3 passes up the middle of my food plot which is over 100 feet long but surrounded by trees and not much grows (except clover) underneath the trees so I won't put barley there. SE Mich, south of Flint about 30 miles.

 

[Jhoss]

By July should have my own grain. I have 50 lbs., don't need it. Michigan guys please Help defray my costs. Contact me for seed.