My first DIY barley malt

[gsugg]

So I took 5/1/2 pounds of raw feed store barley, soaked them in a bucket on and off for 4 to 6 hours each with a rest out of water over night. (I'd mist them just before bed to keep them hydrated).Repeated the process for about 3 days. On the fourth morning, I tied them up in a piece of burlap sheet (Old tobacco sheets). Dunked it in water with 1/2 cup of bleach, rinsed well many times. Then wet sack, barley and all for 1 hour in cleans water . Put them under a box that had plenty of air in and around. Opened it 1 1/2 days later, and it was covered in chits. Dunked the whole thing about twice a day and hung to dry in dark place. With 1 1/2 days, had roots going all over the place. Had to open it and separate all the roots. 3 or 4 days later, had shoots anywhere from under modified to drastically over modified. I let about another 1/3 of the shoots over modified as I'm more concerned with conversion and flavor rather than starch contribution. '

I dried the malt/barley on a sheet laid on a piece of tin in 95 degree weather for about 8 hours. Did the same thing for two days. Tied up barley in pillow case and ran in dryer for about an hour on low heat to help break roots, etc. Finally, took barley and put in about 2 inches deep in home dehydrator (about 20 years old) at a setting of 115 degrees for 3 hours. Rotated the seed bottom to top so none of it got too hot. Only thing next time is I might play around with toasting some on pans in oven. And it sounds like I did a lot, but really minutes and hours worked is next to nothing. Cost of barley for 50 pounds of about 8.50 plus tax.Going to try a run of all oats (50 lbs. crimped is less than $9 bucks. I'm thinking of grinding it down to corn meal consistency, use both the barley at about 10% for some conversion plus mostly flavor plus back it up with liquid enzymes to ensure conversion.

Next is corn, got to give it a try. Thanks guys, Greg ---the plus is the mule likes my experiments at any stage!