Home malting, giving it a whirl.

[delboy]

Have worked out using my smoker thermostat that i can keep our oven around the 40-50C mark which should do the job of drying, the kilning at 100C should be a doddle in the oven.

Im not sure its ever going to come to that though, i would say at the moment that i only have about a third of the barley germinating, i need a lot more to sprout if it going to be any use, the next few days should tell me if enough are going to sprout or whether its going to end in the composting bin again

[oblivious]

Keep up the good work delboy

[Digby Swift]

Any progress delboy?

[delboy]

Any progress delboy?

Funny you should mention that im presently sitting in the kitchen supping my innes and gunn clone and keeping a bit of an eye on the oven whch is drying out some malted grain

The batch i kicked the thread off with for a second time only had about 40 % germination so in the composting bin it went. I didn't update but i started another 1 kg batch with a different steeping schedule (much shorter steep peroids), got the germination rate up to the 70s with this schedule, not high enough for brewing but im going ahead with the drying and kilning steps to see if it yields much off anything in extract.

I have lined up next a single 4-5 hr steep (read it in a sci paper) to see if i can get into the magical 90s germination rate

[Digby Swift]

Excellent that you're getting progress. Hopefully when you've got it cracked I'll leach off your research and give it a go.

[subsub]

Nice one Del, perserverance is the key to this

[oblivious]

Any up date Del?

[delboy]

Have the grained dryed but i haven't had a chance to mash it yet, been busy rewiring the house, I have two full fermenters that need cornied as well

[Tequilla6]

I have just come back to brewing and have succeeded (I think) in malting my own barley.

If I had found this site earlier I would have taken pictures of the process. The best guide I found was on You Tube. If you don't like "Sting" it gonna get on your nerves because they insist on playing the song "Fields of Gold" Throughout.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HauYECAEQ8I

I was quite happy with my result and it follows the process that I observed when a colleague went through the malting process with me in his own home set-up. The first 48 hours with the 6 hour steep and 8 hours rest was the most challenging part. Luckily my SWMBO gets up early so she was able to do some of the steeping in water or resting at 5am whilst I was still in bed. Had a late night drinking Beer

The chit was the only part that was a bit blurry. But once you see the grain it's obvious its at this stage. Keeping the oven at 50C for 24 hours was the hardest part. Especially when the wife was cooking a roast in the larger oven next door. Still the grains smell right and have had a further cook for 2 1/2 Hours at 100C for a pale larger malt. The real problem now it to find a friendly brewer or LHBS to crush my grains so I can brew with the Malted Barley. That's the real test I suppose on how successful I have been.

Is it worth it? In my mind not as a regular thing, but as a small one off production to understand the process and to say you have gone from Grain to Glass I think it's worth it. But with all things where do you draw the line. Now where is a local bit of field I can have a go at growing and harvesting my own barley...

[ChrisG]

I really fancy trying this next year. Where do you get the seed barley from?

[delboy]

I got it from a friend who just happens to be a farmer that grows barley for seed, some people have reported good results just using feed barley which should be much easier to get your hands on.
I think for home malting getting the process right is probably going to be more critical than the barley the type of barley you use.

Good luck.