First try at malting.

[Bph]

That's whats up! A little inspiration. So I did more barley and its looking good ATM. But I also started some rye at the same time. Wow! The rye is finished after 48 hours. 24 was the soak and air rest then 24 of just hanging out. The underbed boxes are great for this. My birthday is next week. Gonna buy me a skill saw and some lumber to make a fruit press and a drying cabinet. Still working on the whole pic thing. Once I get this diled in I want to do a write up on my process with lots of pictures so maybe I can help someone like myself that needs to see or do things to learn.

[Bph]

Well full disclosure. I had done my homework on malting wheat cause thats what I was going to use and thats what I went to the feed store to buy. Ended up with barley. Somehow I missed the part where you got to cut barley open cause of the husk or whatever. Like I read it multiply times but out the door it went. I was waiting till it grew out where I could see it was the length of the grain. I'm sure the first batch was ready before I went to the lake. Ahh well... The rye I started 3 days ago is almost dry and the barley I started at the same time will go in the dehydrator as soon as the rye comes out. And I already got more rye working. I got nervous about leaving my malted grain out so I decided to put it in the freezer till im ready to use it. Any reason not to do that? Got to add a chest freezer to the wish list now. Need one for regular life too but mostly for fruits and grain. I wish it was legal to make money off this hobby. Hell even selling malt would help. I got pretty into growing mushrooms for 3 years till the covid hit and I couldnt get rubbing alcohol anymore. Thats the reason I got into this honeslty. I was just trying to figure out how I could keep growing. I made enough cash off of the mush I grew and foraged to justify spending money on it. But then all the chefs I know including myself had to close so I got no place to sell them anyway. Wish I could trade my laminar flow hood for a bigger still and my all American pressure canner for a deep freezer. So long question short how do you store your malted grains and for how long?

[still_stirrin]

....So long question short how do you store your malted grains and for how long?

Short answer......in the deep freeze (I have two 15 cu.ft. chest freezers in the garage). And they’re full of grains, hops, and beef (bought a half animal last summer).

The deep freeze will keep grains for years (kills weevils too). But when you take them out, use them when they thaw since frozen they’ll tend to collect frost. The moisture will soften the grains when they thaw, so you’ll want to weigh them out and mill within a couple of days for brewing.

A freezer at the used appliance store is not too expensive, but I would recommend a chest type if you can find one. They don’t lose as much cold when you open them compared to an upright freezer.
ss

[Twisted Brick]

Twisted, That is one pretty malt drier

It's better looking than my homemade drier made from an electric oven and a vent fan.

Thanks, Shady. Even before I began stilling (or malting) I’ve had a fondness for warm boxes.

[Bph]

Ok. I got my first 50# of malt done. There was some trail and error. Then a bit more trial. And a bit more error. But I have settled on what works for me in my space with the things I have on hand. The only thing I cant figure is how to get the malted grain seperate from the roots and shoots. I dry them and kiln them and they come.off easily. But how do You seperate them? I can get a lot of them out with my method (two small colanders stacked together and shake shake shake.) But there is still a lot in with the grain. My plan is to wait for a windy day and dump the grain back and forth between buckets but I'm all ears for a better way.

[malt_lover]

Use a bed sheet or something instead of bucket. You get more surface area to catch the grain. I used to use a pedestal fan at times to blow away the roots. I don’t bother many times as I haven’t seen them causing much difference. I read somewhere about grassy smell but I didn’t find any. No more stress.

[MichiganCornhusker]

Congrats on your malting, sounds like you’re getting it dialed in.

After kiln, I kinda grind handfuls together to break off the roots. Then pour from bucket to bucket in front of a box fan. Cleans it up enough for my mashes.

I think any grassiness is wiped out in the oven. I don’t think the dried roots and acrospires affect the mash like green would.

[Bph]

Word. Well gonna mash my first batch soon. Just beed to find the energy. Got a lot of irons in the fire recently.

[shadylane]

The only thing I cant figure is how to get the malted grain seperate from the roots and shoots. I dry them and kiln them and they come.off easily. But how do You seperate them? I can get a lot of them out with my method (two small colanders stacked together and shake shake shake.) But there is still a lot in with the grain. My plan is to wait for a windy day and dump the grain back and forth between buckets but I'm all ears for a better way.

Cardboard, ducktape and a window fan

[Twisted Brick]

Bph,

You might consider doing a stovetop mash with your new malt (2lbs in 1 gal water). After confirmation of full conversion with iodine, take a gravity reading. This way you'll know what what kind of DP you're achieving, and can plan full mashes accordingly. As a bonus you'll have 4qts of starter media that you can keep in the fridge for the future. I do this with all my batches and match the starter grainbill to my main mashes - makes the yeast happy.

Just a thought.

Twisted

[Clamsmasha]

[/quote]

Thanks, Shady. Even before I began stilling (or malting) I’ve had a fondness for warm boxes.
[/quote]

Bahaha a man after my own heart!

I read this thread with eagerness as i just liberated a bag each of wheat and triticale from from the horse restaurant.

A test batch of wheat is doing okay but I really want to malt the triticale...seems to have a very high diastolic power.

[Bph]

Had to google triticale. From my limited experience its kinda hard to fuck up. Truth be told just soak the grains and wait. The more you move them around the better but I have yet to see any mold or bacteria. Git a bunch of bugs when I tried to sun dry a batch on a tarp. Went back to the deydrator. But everything has sprouted just fine. I wash everything with oxy clean but other than that I dont take much precaution.

[8Ball]

I use a tarp laid out in the sun. A garden rake works good to move the grains around a couple times. Takes a day or two. Then it goes into the smoker. I use a cold smoke generator. After that, I kiln it all to get an amber roast and to kill any nasties on it. Not worried about destroying enzymes. I use additional malt grains and liquid enzymes.

[Twisted Brick]

Sun-drying malt on garden shade cloth works great. It allows for airflow underneath the grain and once dry, rubbing the grain into the mesh in circles (like polishing a car) quickly removes the rootlets and leaves a big pile to sweep up for the composter.

[Bph]

For whaterver reason I cant figure out how to get a picture on here id love to show an over filled deyhadrator and my finished malt. I'm starting to think you cant from a phone. If only I could get intersted in computers instead of obscure hobbies. Anyway. Ive been using a cheap table top deydrator. My line of thinking is if I load the grain wet into the deydrator I'm getting a Millard reaction while drying and then when its dry I leave it to "kiln" I stack em so high with grain that the trays dont touch. I then wrap it all up like a mission street burrito. Cant say how its working from the conversion side but im happy with the flavors. Makes a tasty snack so I figure it will make a tasty drop.

[Demy]

Sun drying works very well and is cheap, the only problem is that summer is not the ideal season for malting due to the high temperatures, so you have to malt in a cool place (for example on a cool floor) and dry in the sun or malt in autumn winter and dry with forced ventilation. To solve the problem I built a rotary dryer so when I don't use the sun I use this.

Before the machine above, I used this method (the same container for solar and forced drying)

[Bph]

Finishing up the last 10# of malt today. Now I'm sitting on 200# of barley and rye mixed 3 to 1. Time to get my mash on.


Well shit. I was loading pics the other day but cant get it to happen now..... Anyway I got my deydrator full to the brim with foil wrapped around it to keep the heat in

[rushchaser]

Check out the youtube channel called Brewing Beer the Hard Way. He has some good videos about malting and has a video about his malt kiln.

[Bph]

Bought another 50# of rye and am malting the whole bag at one time... Got to get in high gear on my drying cabinet.


I also got up the nerve to stop at an apple orchard that sells "deer corn" the price is good and its fresh from this season. Gonna ve my first corn malt. They have a huge silo full of it. I figure they must supply every moonshiner on the mountain. Nobody nees that mush deer bait.

[Bph]

50# went well. Had it out on a tarp while it rained for 3 days. Now it's on the floor with a fan on it in my sons room. (He went camping with grandma and grandpa).