Why is it necessary to remove rootlets from sprouted grains?

[BrewingWisdom]

Hi there
I've got two questions
1)During the malting process is it really necessary to remove rootlets from the sprouted/germinated wheat or barley grains and why?
2)After the germination process is it necessary to grind the malted grains for cooking the beer wort or they can be cooked straight away?

 

[VikeMan]

1)During the malting process is it really necessary to remove rootlets from the sprouted/germinated wheat or barley grains and why?

You don't have to remove the chits (rootlets), but they don't contribute anything useful to the mash, and arguably would contribute too much protein to the beer.

2)After the germination process is it necessary to grind the malted grains for cooking the beer wort or they can be cooked straight away?

You could use germinated grains as is (i.e. without kilning), if you use them right away. But unless you want a very light colored beer, you'll want to kiln the malt. After kilning, the chits will be very easy to remove.

But whether you kiln the malt or not, you'll need to crush the malt before mashing, to expose the insides of the grains to the mash water.

I'd recommend reading the book "How to Brew," either the most recent print version, or even the original (if a little outdated) version, which is available to read for free here:
http://www.howtobrew.com/

 

[marc1]

Hi there
I've got two questions
1)During the malting process is it really necessary to remove rootlets from the sprouted/germinated wheat or barley grains and why?
2)After the germination process is it necessary to grind the malted grains for cooking the beer wort or they can be cooked straight away?

1) @bracconiere does a lot of home malting. IIRC he's posted that after drying/kilning you need to remove the rootlets or they will give your beer a weird taste.

2) You need to grind/crush the grains so that water can get at the inside of the grains before mashing them, which is not quite the same thing as cooking them. They get held at ~145-160F for enzymes in them to change their starches into sugars, which extracts into the mash water to make your wort.

What are you looking to do?

 

[BrewingWisdom]

What are you looking to do?

Looking forward to make my first batch of wheat beer.

 

[marc1]

Looking forward to make my first batch of wheat beer.

So you want to malt your own wheat and barley for it?

Have you made beer before? If yes, was it extract or all grain?

Just trying to figure out where you're coming from.

 

[BrewingWisdom]

So you want to malt your own wheat and barley for it?

Have you made beer before? If yes, was it extract or all grain?

Just trying to figure out where you're coming from.

Well just want to malt wheat for it. It will be a pure wheat beer.
No didn't make any beer before. Though I have some experience with fermenting a sugar into alcohol.

 

[MaxStout]

You might want to brew a couple beers with store-bought grains first to see what you like in a brew. Experiment with known ingredients and get a feel for what works and what doesn't. Having some brewing experience will eliminate some variables when it comes time to brew with your home-made malt. You will have a previous baseline from which to compare your home-malt beers.

@bracconiere is an experienced home-malter who might drop in to add some insights.

 

[BrewingWisdom]

You might want to brew a couple beers with store-bought grains first to see what you like in a brew. Experiment with known ingredients and get a feel for what works and what doesn't. Having some brewing experience will eliminate some variables when it comes time to brew with your home-made malt. You will have a previous baseline from which to compare your home-malt beers.

@bracconiere is an experienced home-malter who might drop in to add some insights.

Unfortunately where I live there is no such thing as a store bought grains or readily available malt.
I have to start from the scratch ,it's difficult but a good thing at the same time because in this process I will learn a lot and hopefully one day master it from A to Z.
Ready my introductory post to get an idea where I am coming from.

 

[camonick]

It will be a pure wheat beer.

That’s going to be a little tricky to manage the mash/ sparge. You’re going to need a fairly significant amount of rice hulls mixed with the crushed grain to pull it off. Without, it will be a gooey, dough ball.

 

[BrewingWisdom]

That’s going to be a little tricky to manage the mash/ sparge. You’re going to need a fairly significant amount of rice hulls mixed with the crushed grain to pull it off. Without, it will be a gooey, dough ball.

It's tricky no doubt but it can be done even without adding rice hulls.In the video below as you can see.

 

[eldernut]

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[BrewingWisdom]

I malt my own grain. I remove the rootlets after roasting by simply swishing the roasted grain in a circular motion in one of those cheap plastic colanders. The rootlets get caught in ittle holes and are efficiently pulled off and discarded out the bottom. Not a big deal. Removing it is just to get rid of vegetable matter that could cause off flavours., if you eat a rootlet it's bitter. I also never crack my grain. I just use the malted grain to make wort directly. Never had an issue.

Beer brewing has been brought up to the level of scientific sorcery if you want to take it that far. But a simpler, intuitive process can also make decent if not spectacular beer. You can choose any level beyond basic beer as your target skill level. I personally prefer to brew in a simple low tech fashion. I will probably never brew any kind of miraculous potion this way. But if all I want is a good drinking beer occassionally its enough for me. I also brew booch, ginger beer and other soda's. So I don't have time to perfect brewing to a high art.

You hit that nail right Sir!
As a beginner research of about a week my observations and thoughts are similar to yours.
Just simple procedures are made so complicated and detailed that it literally caused my head to ache lol.
The humans are making beer for around 7000 years and they made good beer even in the early days without all the science and equipment we have these days. It's the commercialization of brewing since last 150 years or so which made things complicated.

 

[marc1]

I malt my own grain. I remove the rootlets after roasting by simply swishing the roasted grain in a circular motion in one of those cheap plastic colanders. The rootlets get caught in ittle holes and are efficiently pulled off and discarded out the bottom. Not a big deal. Removing it is just to get rid of vegetable matter that could cause off flavours., if you eat a rootlet it's bitter. I also never crack my grain. I just use the malted grain to make wort directly. Never had an issue.

Beer brewing has been brought up to the level of scientific sorcery if you want to take it that far. But a simpler, intuitive process can also make decent if not spectacular beer. You can choose any level beyond basic beer as your target skill level. I personally prefer to brew in a simple low tech fashion. I will probably never brew any kind of miraculous potion this way. But if all I want is a good drinking beer occassionally its enough for me. I also brew booch, ginger beer and other soda's. So I don't have time to perfect brewing to a high art.

Can you explain your process for mashing without crushing the grain? I didn't think that it could work that way.

Do you have to mash for a very long time? How is your efficiency (If you don't calculate percentages, then an estimate of how many pounds of grain per gallon of wort at an OG of x.xxx?)

 

[RM-MN]

Can you explain your process for mashing without crushing the grain? I didn't think that it could work that way.

Do you have to mash for a very long time? How is your efficiency (If you don't calculate percentages, then an estimate of how many pounds of grain per gallon of wort at an OG of x.xxx?)

Look up the process for making Crystal/caramel malts.

 

[marc1]

Look up the process for making Crystal/caramel malts.

Right, but I wouldn't think that you'd get much extraction without breaking open the grains.

I was referring to mashing as part of the wort making process, during which the starches are converted to sugars and diffused into the wort.

 

[eldernut]

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[BrewingWisdom]

I simplify the infusion process by putting the grain into a plain fabric bag and infusing in that, it makes taking out the waste easier. I will generally infuse around 65-70 deg C for an hour or more. Remove the grain, let it drain above the vessel so it runs out fully then sparge with a small quantity of 75 deg C water. Add the hops post boil.

Aa a novice I would like to clarify some steps here you mentioned please correct me where I am wrong.
1) Infusion means putting grains in hot water and let it rest for 60 minutes.
2) Sparging means again putting water on the grains to get the most sugars out of them. Either by putting the wort again on grains or hot water.
3) Then again we will have to cook the wort and add hops?

 

[PCABrewing]

If you toast the grain wet instead of dry you are effectively mashing the grain inside the husk depending upon the temps you use.

That results in Crystal VS Roast malt correct?

 

[eldernut]

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[BrewingWisdom]

Infusing is like making tea, grain in water and let it do its thing. Keep the water at temp while this is happening. This is why everything needs to be sanitised before you mash because you actually mash/infuse at lower than pasteurising temps.

So during this stage the flame is on and the water is at boiling ?

 

[RM-MN]

That results in Crystal VS Roast malt correct?

Maybe. To make Crystal malt the grains are "stewed" for a fairly long time so the water can reach most of the inside of each kernel and conversion can happen there. Then the grains are dried with heat to get to the color desired.

 

[PCABrewing]

Then the grains are dried with heat to get to the color desired.

That also causes the sugars to crystalize inside the husk and results in a glassy endosperm.

 

[eldernut]

That results in Crystal VS Roast malt correct?

Now that I don't know because I have never used commercially malted grain. I started malting from my very first brew. I'll have to look that up.

 

[eldernut]

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[VikeMan]

@BrewingWisdom, you should crush your malt before mashing, or your efficiency will be terrible. You don't need to sanitize anything before the mash, because you should boil the wort after the mash, to sanitize it and to allow the alpha acids from hops to isomerize, thus efficiently providing bitternes. And yes, for the vast majority most beers styles, at least some of the hops should be boiled for at least part of the boil time.

If any of what I just typed seems contrary to what you've been told, I would again recommend reading "How To Brew," so that you can use best practices right from the start.

 

[BrewingWisdom]

@BrewingWisdom, you should crush your malt before mashing, or your efficiency will be terrible. You don't need to sanitize anything before the mash, because you should boil the wort after the mash, to sanitize it and to allow the alpha acids from hops to isomerize, thus efficiently providing bitternes. And yes, for the vast majority most beers styles, at least some of the hops should be boiled for at least part of the boil time.

If any of what I just typed seems contrary to what you've been told, I would again recommend reading "How To Brew," so that you can use best practices right from the start.

Thanks mate. I am actually reading that book by J Palmer.

 

[BrewingWisdom]

The heat is on but you are keeping the temp at your target, in my case 70 deg C. If you had no heat then the water would cool down too much. Sorry when I say 'boil' I really mean just infusing. I'm not a precision person so I tend to be fairly free with my language.

And is there any negative effect if we keep the temp high?

 

[RM-MN]

And is there any negative effect if we keep the temp high?

Not necessarily negative but as your mash temp gets into the higher part of the mashing temperature range the beta amylase will be denatured faster and that will leave you with more dextrines that most yeasts can't digest so you end up with a sweeter beer with more body. If the temp gets high enough it also denatures the alpha amylase, stopping conversion. Higher yet can extract tannins if the pH is too high.

You would want to choose a temperature that gets the end result you want.

 

[InspectorJon]

The humans are making beer for around 7000 years and they made good beer even in the early days without all the science and equipment we have these days. It's the commercialization of brewing since last 150 years or so which made things complicated.

What you have say is true to some extent. However, I am not sure most people that drink beer today would concur that the beer made in the distant past was "good beer". It did have an alcohol content but the flavors associated with less control of environment and microorganisms would likely not be appreciated today. But then there is sour beer...