Owly055
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I ran across this article on line a few minutes ago....... I'd never dreamed such a thing was possible.
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2011/11/small-beer-brewed-from-unmalted-barley.html
That said, I was contemplating an experiment of toasting and crushing raw barley, and doing a "sour mash", for perhaps 24 hours. The mashing was intended to gelatinize the starch and bring it into solution. The plan was to reheat the mash after it had soured, and hold it at mash temp for an extended period of time, then draw off the starch rich wort, some of which hopefully would have converted due to the acids developed in the sour mash process, do and do a boil. It would then go into the fermenter, along with a generous dosage of AG300, and a pitch of Belle Saison yeast. A brett yeast might be better. AG300 is a fungal amylase that will convert starch during the ferment.
There would be absolutely no way to do a valid OG or FG test of course
I have no end of crazy experiments I'd like to try..... ;-)
Below are quotes from two sources:
H.W.
The stomach also contains acid, which can also break down starch. The breakdown of starch can be carried out in the laboratory using acid or amylase. Enzymes such as amylase act as biological catalysts in the breakdown of complex food molecules into smaller ones in the digestive system.
'The writer of this article,' says Dr. Thomson, in the supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'has several times tried the experiment of making ale from unmalted barley, and found it perfectly practicable. Several precautions, however, are necessary in order to succeed. The water let upon the ground barley in the mash-tun must be considerably below the boiling temperature. For barley meal is much more apt to set than malt, that is, to form a stiff paste, from which no wort will separate. The addition of a portion of the chaff of oats serves very much to prevent this setting of the goods, and facilitates considerably the separation of the wort. Care must likewise be taken to prevent the heat from escaping during the mashing, and the mashing must be continued longer than usual. For it is during the mashing that the starch of the barley is converted into a saccharine matter. This change seems to be owing merely to the chemical combination of a portion of water with the starch of the barley; just as happens when common starch is converted into sugar, by boiling it with very dilute sulphuric acid, or any other acid. This method of brewing from raw grain answers admirably for small beer. In our trials, he adds, the raw barley did not answer so well for making strong ale as for small beer. The ale was perfectly transparent, and we kept it for several years without its running into acidity. But it had a peculiar flavor by no means agreeable. Probably a little practice might have enabled us to get rid of this flavor, in which case, raw grain would answer, in every respect, as well for brewing as malt does.' He further states, that some years ago it was used to a considerable extent by several brewers of small beer in Edinburgh, and their beer was considered as greatly preferable to small beer brewed in the usual manner. But the practice was stopped by a decision of the Court of Exchequer.
"The London encyclopaedia, vol. IV Benedict to Cadiz" edited by Thomas Curtis, 1839, pages 523 - 524.
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2011/11/small-beer-brewed-from-unmalted-barley.html
That said, I was contemplating an experiment of toasting and crushing raw barley, and doing a "sour mash", for perhaps 24 hours. The mashing was intended to gelatinize the starch and bring it into solution. The plan was to reheat the mash after it had soured, and hold it at mash temp for an extended period of time, then draw off the starch rich wort, some of which hopefully would have converted due to the acids developed in the sour mash process, do and do a boil. It would then go into the fermenter, along with a generous dosage of AG300, and a pitch of Belle Saison yeast. A brett yeast might be better. AG300 is a fungal amylase that will convert starch during the ferment.
There would be absolutely no way to do a valid OG or FG test of course
I have no end of crazy experiments I'd like to try..... ;-)
Below are quotes from two sources:
H.W.
The stomach also contains acid, which can also break down starch. The breakdown of starch can be carried out in the laboratory using acid or amylase. Enzymes such as amylase act as biological catalysts in the breakdown of complex food molecules into smaller ones in the digestive system.
'The writer of this article,' says Dr. Thomson, in the supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'has several times tried the experiment of making ale from unmalted barley, and found it perfectly practicable. Several precautions, however, are necessary in order to succeed. The water let upon the ground barley in the mash-tun must be considerably below the boiling temperature. For barley meal is much more apt to set than malt, that is, to form a stiff paste, from which no wort will separate. The addition of a portion of the chaff of oats serves very much to prevent this setting of the goods, and facilitates considerably the separation of the wort. Care must likewise be taken to prevent the heat from escaping during the mashing, and the mashing must be continued longer than usual. For it is during the mashing that the starch of the barley is converted into a saccharine matter. This change seems to be owing merely to the chemical combination of a portion of water with the starch of the barley; just as happens when common starch is converted into sugar, by boiling it with very dilute sulphuric acid, or any other acid. This method of brewing from raw grain answers admirably for small beer. In our trials, he adds, the raw barley did not answer so well for making strong ale as for small beer. The ale was perfectly transparent, and we kept it for several years without its running into acidity. But it had a peculiar flavor by no means agreeable. Probably a little practice might have enabled us to get rid of this flavor, in which case, raw grain would answer, in every respect, as well for brewing as malt does.' He further states, that some years ago it was used to a considerable extent by several brewers of small beer in Edinburgh, and their beer was considered as greatly preferable to small beer brewed in the usual manner. But the practice was stopped by a decision of the Court of Exchequer.
"The London encyclopaedia, vol. IV Benedict to Cadiz" edited by Thomas Curtis, 1839, pages 523 - 524.
