toasting my own specialty grains.

[Channel66]

So I was given a bunch of 2 row recently that I was told was pretty old, it was in an open sack just folded over itself, I already had a fresh sack of it in my stores, and I was skeptical of the quality of this. So I decided to play around some with toasting/roasting it. Making crystal malt etc. Figured I'd post my results here.

So to start with I figured I'd make some chocolate malt, nice roasty flavor and color. I grabbed my cast iron skillet, made sure it was nice and clean, pre heated it on my gas range on low. Added some whole 2 row and stir. Constantly stir, took about a half hour to achieve this...

Now I might have toasted it a little too long I'm not entirely certain, it was perfect when I pulled it off the heat but I didn't have a dish ready to dump it into and cast iron stays hot enough to continue cooking. I think with the dark toasts it's a fine line between toasting and burning

I had more luck with the Crystal malt. But just a warning it is a long process.

First you soak the grains, 2-4 hours I soaked for 3

Then you are to "mash"the grains in their own husk, to do this I put them in the oven and heated to the mash temp of 160 and held it for 90 minutes.

Then it's time to dry the grains. I did this using my nesco pro dehydrator. You can also do it in the oven but I find you can get a more thorough dry, with less heat, in less time with the dehydrator. Spread them out thin over multiple racks if you can and I set it to 125 it took about an hour and a half. In the oven I've read that 225 for however long it takes, spreading them thin.

After they are dry you have pale crystal malt (it tastes delicious) you now have the option to be finished or to toast them to your desired color.

I toasted this batch to an Amber color, 350 in the oven for 15 minutes, stir, then another 15 minutes.

Overall this was a fun little project, I will be doing more/different degrees of toast with the remainder of this sack. More for learning purposes than anything.

I grabbed some quick hot water from my coffee pot (184f, too warm for beer, but fine enough to make an example) to steep these to show color.

If I am doing this wrong, or anyone has anything to add/questions please feel free.

For the record I don't plan on using these because I'm unsure of the quality of the original 2 row. Just a learning process.

 

[Beaker]

I've kicked around the idea of roasting my own grain just for fun, since I have a solid drum coffee roaster. It would be fun to experiment, but my main concern would be having some kind of high sugar/starch, easily carbonized residue left over when I subsequently roast my coffee (at much higher temps), so for now, I'm just kicking it around.

Here's a shot of my Quest M3. Actually, in the first shot, there's two of them, my buddy's and mine. Both linked to the laptops for temp monitoring in real time. It's the only way to manually profile a roast with any precision and repeatability in a digital form.

The second shot is just a close up of the front of the roast during the middle of a roast.

 

[Channel66]

I've kicked around the idea of roasting my own grain just for fun, since I have a solid drum coffee roaster. It would be fun to experiment, but my main concern would be having some kind of high sugar/starch, easily carbonized residue left over when I subsequently roast my coffee (at much higher temps), so for now, I'm just kicking it around.

Here's a shot of my Quest M3. Actually, in the first shot, there's two of them, my buddy's and mine. Both linked to the laptops for temp monitoring in real time. It's the only way to manually profile a roast with any precision and repeatability in a digital form.

The second shot is just a close up of the front of the roast during the middle of a roast.

That's Fricken awesome. I'm jealous. I probably wouldn't use it to roast grains either.

 

[alane1]

I've made my own crystal 60 before using the same method, what I'm wondering is if you could "mash" the grains in a tun at conversion temp the same way you would an all-grain batch then dry and roast them at the same time in the oven.Just a thought but would'nt this save alot of time?

 

[Channel66]

I've made my own crystal 60 before using the same method, what I'm wondering is if you could "mash" the grains in a tun at conversion temp the same way you would an all-grain batch then dry and roast them at the same time in the oven.Just a thought but would'nt this save alot of time?

I think that if you dry too fast you will crack the hull, all that moisture creates steam in the kernel as it dries out, this creating pressure enough to crack it open. You want to dry it out slower and to me it seems you would want to keep the temp below boiling until the kernel is completely dried out.

But I'm certainly no expert. This is my first go at it.

 

[alane1]

I think that if you dry too fast you will crack the hull, all that moisture creates steam in the kernel as it dries out, this creating pressure enough to crack it open. You want to dry it out slower and to me it seems you would want to keep the temp below boiling until the kernel is completely dried out.

But I'm certainly no expert. This is my first go at it.

Makes sense, I've only done once.Great results but what a p.i.t.a.

 

[lowtones84]

Looks good to me! I've been doing this recently and have enjoyed the results. I've done crystal malts and something close to the color of Munich a couple of times. It's kind of fun in my opinion and adds a little more individual character to the brew.

 

[Channel66]

Looks good to me! I've been doing this recently and have enjoyed the results. I've done crystal malts and something close to the color of Munich a couple of times. It's kind of fun in my opinion and adds a little more individual character to the brew.

I find it fun as well. And it makes your house smell so good.

 

[lowtones84]

I find it fun as well. And it makes your house smell so good.

I agree with the smell part, though I did get some complaints when I did the crystal. I've never done something as dark as the one at the top of your post but I would be interested to see how a brew using it would turn out. I would definitely let it rest for 2+ weeks before using it.

 

[Channel66]

I agree with the smell part, though I did get some complaints when I did the crystal. I've never done something as dark as the one at the top of your post but I would be interested to see how a brew using it would turn out. I would definitely let it rest for 2+ weeks before using it.

Oh yes totally would let it rest at least that long. I don't plan to brew with it like I mentioned in the first post, just learning/perfecting the process. Actually I already crushed the dark stuff (playing around with the gap on my mill as well)

I guess I'm lucky swmbo mentioned at least 3 times yesterday that it smelled really good while I was doing the crystal.

 

[greyghost]

Here is a really good link http://barleypopmaker.info/2009/12/08/home-roasting-your-malts/