Home roasting problem and questions

[atakanokan]

Hi everyone,
I have a pale malt and wanted to roast some of it to have amber malt and copper malt. I set the oven to 350 fahrenheit and closed the door and opened the heater. Before the oven could reach 350 degrees, the malt started popping like popcorn. So a lot of questions appeared.

1) I have been using the Radical Brewing book for the temperatures and the duration. Do you start the clock when the oven reaches the desired degree or preheating is counted in the duration?

2) I have two fans in my oven. The first is the outlet fan that pushes air to outside from the oven. The second one is for circulating air inside the oven. Should I keep these off or on? Do I want the moisture to escape or stay in the oven?

3) When roasting the malts, should I stir them at some intervals? If yes, what is the recommended interval?

4) What about the oven door? Should it be crack open to help moisture escape or shut?

5) The main problem. The malt started popping like popcorn inside the oven, they started flying like shrapnel. What is the reason behind this? And how do I overcome this problem?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[ImNoExpert]

I've never tried this, but the pale malt could be popping like popcorn for the same reason popcorn does; moisture in the seed. Even though it's dry, pale malt still has some amount of moisture in it. Just a guess on my part.

Also, I thought malters used low oxygen kilns to roast their malt without burning. I could be wrong, though.

 

[atakanokan]

I've never tried this, but the pale malt could be popping like popcorn for the same reason popcorn does; moisture in the seed. Even though it's dry, pale malt still has some amount of moisture in it. Just a guess on my part.

Also, I thought malters used low oxygen kilns to roast their malt without burning. I could be wrong, though.

You were right. The poppings started when I increased the oven temp rapidly. I tried to do it in slower manner and no poppings happened. The slower way allowed the moisture to escape I guess.

 

[ImNoExpert]

Cheers to that. Maybe I'll have to try that: Popped Malt Alt