malting corn

[bad Lee]

Thailand calling!
I'm usually to be found over at other brews,but I need some grain help!
Chiang mai is about 2000miles away from the nearest homebrew shop.I can't get barley.
I found inspiration in "chicha" corn beer.So I dried,soaked and then sprouted the corn.Now I am waiting for the bloody sun to come back.
Could I use a microwave to dry the malt ready for the mash?
Help me please,
Lee.

[steve_flack]

Obviously I haven't tried this but I would suggest that it's not a good idea. IIRC microwaves can be used to make torriefied cereal products - ie they 'pop' the corn. I think rather than drying the corn as you want you'd probably just end up with popcorn with little or no remaining amylase enzymes. You could use it in a beer but you'd need a source of enzymes - some 6 row malted barley probably being the easiest to get hold of and it would convert quite a lot of adjuncts.

[bad Lee]

Thanks very much for that Steve.I'll wait for the sun.

[De-Geert]

Why not dry the green corn malt in the oven? If you have one that can go low (~50-80 C) that would be a good option, I guess.

[bad Lee]

If I were to try the oven,how long do you think it should take?

[De-Geert]

I don't know, but I guess you could find values for pale malt somewhere on the Interwebs.

[boingy]

Short article here:

http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2009/12/0 ... in-at-home

Obviously it's for barley but might give you some pointers.

[bad Lee]

Cheers Boingy.I will give it a read.
Read it,great.I've got a nut brown chicha in mind now.Let you know how it goes.

[raiderman]

I malted my own barley once. I got most things wrong ending up with a bucketful of soggy grains which started fermenting of their own accord!so I'd hesitate to give practical advice - but I did eventually produce malt and a rather weak beer. If I'd stuck at it, with trial and error I could have got a lot better. In your situation I'd go for it because you will get there. Try http://www.adampreble.com/foods/2008/06 ... -malt-corn, who seems to be into distilling but talks about malthing corn. Good luck.

[bad Lee]

I ran into Adam's page yesterday,it was cool.
We have no rain today,so I've put the corn on a sheet on the back seat of the car to catch the heat.
Two days of that and I should be able to roast.I'm almost wetting myself,can't wait!