Sun Flower malting

[weaks]

Hi, I am about to try using sunflower seeds as the base gain to my GF beer and wanted to know if any one knew if I needed to remove the seed husk on the sunflower to steep this grain? Thanks

 

[Brewdouche-RuBrew]

aaaaaaaaa. Im going out on a limb here but, you would have to crack the (seed).

Where did you find "malted" sunflower seeds? Oh you would need to malt them, can they be....malted?

What is the diastatic power of sunflower emzyms?

Have you thought, or researched this through?

 

[Noontime]

I hate to add an issue AND not answer your question, but I'd be concerned with all the oil. I know people have used different nuts and seeds in beers and wines by crushing them and removing some of the oil, but sunflowers are VERY oily. Just something to think about.

Good luck and I really hope to hear more about what you're doing and how. It sounds dilicious!

 

[Lcasanova]

Wow! I've never heard of malted sunflower seeds but I suppose they would malt. If you have the time give it a try with the shell cracked/on and with the shell off. Good luck and let us know.

 

[david_42]

Well, yes, you'll have to remove the husk. However, sunflower seeds are oily enough you can practically burn them as candles.

More importantly, they have very few carbohydrates, which makes them useless for brewing. They run 7-14% carbs vs 75% for barley and other grains.

 

[rocketman768]

More importantly, they have very few carbohydrates, which makes them useless for brewing. They run 7-14% carbs vs 75% for barley and other grains.

Light beer for baseball players?

 

[weaks]

So, first attempt malting the sunflower seeds went all wrong. They attracted soooo many fruit flies. Second attempt went well. With 10 lbs of sunflower I made 3 gallons with a OG of 1.050. So it is fermenting as I type and smelling oh so good! I didn't take the husk off and so far no problems with oil. We'll see.

 

[Lcasanova]

Were the malted sunflower seeds your only source of fermentables? What was the mash like; did you grind them up nearly to a flour?

 

[Brewdouche-RuBrew]

This thread makes me want to sprout anything with a seed and malt it.:fro:

 

[DKershner]

Well, good on you for still trying. This should be interesting...

 

[poopyhead]

how did this ever turn out?

 

[zamlock]

So, first attempt malting the sunflower seeds went all wrong. They attracted soooo many fruit flies. Second attempt went well. With 10 lbs of sunflower I made 3 gallons with a OG of 1.050. So it is fermenting as I type and smelling oh so good! I didn't take the husk off and so far no problems with oil. We'll see.

I'm getting ready to malt sunflower seeds. Would you mind telling me how you did it? I'm experienced with malting corn.

I liked your analysis of pounds and gallons to OG. Very informative.

Thx

 

[zamlock]

I was asked by a friend to make beer with sunflower seeds, (his natural food business is called Sunflower). I was inspired by weaks' post and analysis, and so I malted 10 pounds of black oilers. The germination rate was quite good, (I malt corn, and it never does that good). It smells great. See attached picture of it on the drying rack.

Anyway, I plan to do a mini mash just like weaks did to see if there are enzymes and fermentables, and make a beer that is 75% barley and 25% sunflower.

I'll keep you posted.

 

[muench1]

Ressurrected thread! You may want to call up Colorado Malting Co and ask them about sunflowers. They've actually taken orders and commercially malted some for a micro out there.

 

[zamlock]

So I malted 10 pounds of sunflower seeds and dried them. I tried several ways to crack them, and found that a blender worked best.

I mashed 6 pounds of 6 row barley and 3 pounds of sunflower seeds for a 3 gallon batch of beer. The color of the sparge water was gray and not nice to look at. After I boiled and hopped and all that, the color was a very nice brown. The OG was 1.020, which tells me that the sunflower seeds didn't add anything to gravity. I chucked in some light DME to get to 1.040. The amount of sediment was incredible. I cleaned up all the odds and ends of hops in my freezer, so it has 4 different kinds in it.

I pitched Wyeast's American Lager yeast, and after 48 hours there was nothing happening. There was no indication of CO2, and not one little bit of krausen. So I threw a pack of champagne yeast in. It started slowly, and after another 48 hours it's very active. Smells great, too. It's still in the primary as I write this.

I've got several pounds of malted sunflower seeds left if anyone wants some.

 

[radog]

and how did it turn out? A local club just ordered a lot of malted sunflower seeds. I'm debating buying in.

 

[Osedax]

Also interested. I have access to about 10 lbs of CMC malted sunflower seeds. Just wondering what they contribute.

Noticed this is a zombie thread. The guy only has 4 posts and its almost a year old. Doubtful we will get a response.

 

[qzpm150]

I would also like to bump this thread as I have pondered this idea.

 

[Zuljin]

This thread makes me want to sprout anything with a seed and malt it.:fro:

I'm down with it. Bird seed beer!

According to "The Drunken Botanist", we primarily use barley, even with other fermentable seeds, because it's barley that has the all around best diastatic power. It also helps ferment the other seeds, such as wheat and corn. The best bet is to use other seeds as specialty grains, like we already do.

But hey, if you ain't screwing up, you ain't trying