how i make all my own malt

[Absinthe]

i've malted about 200kg on the floor (not all at once lol about 7kg at a time) and i've done about 70kg in the drum prover. the drum is great as is has just about zero labor compared to floor malting and i get a much better product. the total active labor to malt and kiln 7 kg of grain now is about 10-15mins instead of the hour+ it takes on the floor.

i just steep till i see the chits (about 4 fills of the holey bucket in 48 hours) transfer into the drum and set the timer in about 5 days (or when its modified) i empty the malt into the kiln (i will have an update vid on the kiln as i have done a few improvements on this since i made the vid) and after about 8 hours of kilning shes ready to go

 

[Pappers_]

Very interesting, Absinthe! Thanks for sharing the videos. Do you malt your grain because you like to do, to add another layer to your brewing? Or is malted grain difficult/expensive to come by in your neighborhood? Or ?

 

[wyzazz]

So sweet!

 

[Absinthe]

Very interesting, Absinthe! Thanks for sharing the videos. Do you malt your grain because you like to do, to add another layer to your brewing? Or is malted grain difficult/expensive to come by in your neighborhood? Or ?

mainly its because im crazy. i love to make everything from scrach myself and not just a once off. hence the fact i make my own yogurt, soap, beer spirits, i blacksmith, grow my own veggies and hops, have chooks and grow quail.

i love the fact that im making what i call "farm house beer" just about every household made their own beer (ok that was 500 years ago, but dont tell anyone that ) and i love the fact that i have my own.

 

[Absinthe]

oh and im cheap cheap cheap so if i can save a buck i will (my malt cost about 1/2 what i could buy it for)

and 75% total brewhouse efficiency from homemade malt anit bad if you ask me

 

[Pappers_]

mainly its because im crazy. i love to make everything from scrach myself and not just a once off. hence the fact i make my own yogurt, soap, beer spirits, i blacksmith, grow my own veggies and hops, have chooks and grow quail.

i love the fact that im making what i call "farm house beer" just about every household made their own beer (ok that was 500 years ago, but dont tell anyone that ) and i love the fact that i have my own.

That's great, Absinthe - I'm envious!

 

[BargainFittings]

Very cool stuff. I'd love to do some blacksmithing in the future.

 

[KCBrewer]

Very cool, and educational (for me anyway). Thanks for posting the vids.

 

[ohad]

wow , great stuff !

It looks like you found relatively simple solutions to home malting.
The laundry-drier-malt-kiln took me by surprise

It got me thinking... both malting and kilning are done in a rotating drum.
So how about designing a single drum malting process ?
a nice design could make home malting possible for many homebrewers.

 

[BargainFittings]

ohad,

The trick is you are involving water in the first step. If the heating unit was modular to be removed while doing the malt process it might work out ok.

 

[Absinthe]

you dont have that much water during the malting 48 hours with 4 fills of the holey bucket is all the water the grain needs, you dont need to add anymore water.

i did toy with doing it in the same device (malting kining) but that means i can start the next batch malting while im kilning the last batch (but i could do slightly larger batches) and the speed of the dryer and the fly screen etc also removes all the rootlets etc.

a slow rotation would not throw the grain around enough to blow the rootlets away.

if i was going down that path i would build a box around the drum and add a heater with a thermostat on the air temp on the way out of the drum (as i have the dryer setup now) and run it much like the dryer. its the rootlet that would be the problem

 

[wyzazz]

Absinthe - wondering if you've ever malted corn? If so, is the process the same?

I'm thinking Mickey's BigMouths for mowing the lawn!

 

[SgtHulka]

Very cool thread! Great videos.

 

[wilceaser]

PROST!
Absinthe, Since you switched from floor malting to your malting drum have you had any infections or molding problems?
Very cool video!

 

[Absinthe]

PROST!
Absinthe, Since you switched from floor malting to your malting drum have you had any infections or molding problems?
Very cool video!

i have had much LESS infections due to it being turned every 2 hours instead of 5 to 9 hours infact i have had no infection in the drum as yet (but i havent used this in the summer yet)

as for corn no i haven't tried corn as yet as all i can get is seed corn that is treated, so no good for consumption. im sure it will work i cant think of any reason it wouldn't its nice and gentle during the malting so it wont break the shoot (from memory the corn shoot needs to hit 2-3 times the length of the grain (the shoot must leave the grain and get to the same or twice the total length of the grain)to get enough enzyme to modify)

 

[wyzazz]

Not to throw this EPIC thread too off course, but instead of malting my own corn, could I instead grind unmodified, dump a bunch of Amylase Enzyme in the mash with the corn, and get essentially the same result? But then again I guess if I was doing that I could just pour sugar in to the boil and run with that too...

 

[Absinthe]

the corn will give a much better taste than the sugar.. you will need to cook the corn for about an hour before you add the enzyme, although adding some as you heat up will also help keep it runny so you can stir it.

i use steam injection when i cook my corn as doing it direct is a HUGE PITA it will scorch and stick like poo to a blanket

 

[vincemash]

very interesting and educational

MacGyver like gadgetry

 

[Absinthe]

very interesting and educational

MacGyver like gadgetry

thank you the MacGyver thing is the story of my life lol i love using things for tasks other than that they were designed for

 

[Dauntless]

mainly its because im crazy. i love to make everything from scrach myself and not just a once off. hence the fact i make my own yogurt, soap, beer spirits, i blacksmith, grow my own veggies and hops, have chooks and grow quail.

I think I'm in love with you.

Epic thread indeed.

 

[bendavanza]

Man you blokes down under have a thing for DIY. I love it.

 

[Absinthe]

i think i have a fetish for DIY lol

 

[SgtHulka]

the corn will give a much better taste than the sugar.. you will need to cook the corn for about an hour before you add the enzyme, although adding some as you heat up will also help keep it runny so you can stir it.

i use steam injection when i cook my corn as doing it direct is a HUGE PITA it will scorch and stick like poo to a blanket

"poo to a blanket" - lol

 

[Absinthe]

the nice way of saying it

 

[WortMonger]

This is a truly awesome thread. Once I have the room, I would love to start malting my own. You never answered the guy earlier about malting corn. I am interested in hearing about malting corn, rice oats, etc. Would there be any problems with your system with these other grains? I also hate to boil anything direct that isn't pure liquid. I use a pressure canner with another container inside as my cook pot (think double boiler) to prevent any scorching. I have had great success with this doing decoctions, and those are very sticky so I couldn't imagine corn....

 

[Sawdustguy]

What has been the modification of your DIY Malting? Are they fully modified so you don't need rests?

 

[Absinthe]

This is a truly awesome thread. Once I have the room, I would love to start malting my own. You never answered the guy earlier about malting corn. I am interested in hearing about malting corn, rice oats, etc. Would there be any problems with your system with these other grains? I also hate to boil anything direct that isn't pure liquid. I use a pressure canner with another container inside as my cook pot (think double boiler) to prevent any scorching. I have had great success with this doing decoctions, and those are very sticky so I couldn't imagine corn....

i havent tried malting anything but barley and i made a steam wand to cook corn if i want too

What has been the modification of your DIY Malting? Are they fully modified so you don't need rests?

they are fully modified and im getting easily as good efficiency as bought malts but i still make a kinda "rest". i start it in my herms a tap water temp and ramp it up with the malt

 

[jamesseth]

I love the set-up! I have a quick question... If the dryer has a no heat/just air setting could you just use the dryer as the couching (or whatever you call the rolling blue barrel) device and then, when ready, use the heat setting on the dryer for drying the modified barley? Would this work? Making it a single device process other than the sprouting bucket.

 

[Absinthe]

I love the set-up! I have a quick question... If the dryer has a no heat/just air setting could you just use the dryer as the couching (or whatever you call the rolling blue barrel) device and then, when ready, use the heat setting on the dryer for drying the modified barley? Would this work? Making it a single device process other than the sprouting bucket.

yes it would if you had a slower drier but you wouldnt be able to do as large a batch as the drier can only just turn when the malt is ready for kilning and has lost a fair bit of weight due to evaporation (i dont add ANY water when couching/malting) even the she struggles some times, and if the drier turns to fast youll break the rootlets and smash some of the grains.

 

[jamesseth]

Got you, thanks for the advice! Do you think it would dry them out too much since the blower would be on?