Home malting, giving it a whirl.

[delboy]

Got a 20 kilo sack of seed barley given to me today

Im going to try home malting this (using the BYO method), starting off with 8 Kg (thinking even if its crap i should still have enough for a brew).

The eight kg of barley is sitting in a bucket at the moment, i'll be washing it a few times to get rid of an debris and then before i head to bed tonight i'll immerse in in water.

Then in the morning tip out the water and let the little blighters breath for 8 hours before once again immersing them for another 8 hours. After that i'll pour off the water dry in a towel and then fire them into a bin bag for 4-5 days at room temp until they sprout.

Then air dry and figure out someway of drying them at a low temp (carboard box and hairdryer arrangement maybe )

Have no idea if this will work but i figure what the hell.

I'll post piccies and regular updates if anyone is interested!

[Jim]

Sounds like an interesting experiment, DB. Looking forward to the pics.

[Andy]

Yes, interesting Del. A regular report and pics would make a great info thread

[prodigal2]

Keep us informed with this experiment. Its something I have been giving some thought about doing myself

If you have any links to share it would be appreciated too

Good luck Del

[delboy]

Here a link to the BYO article on malting.

The grain has been steeped overnight, this morning i poured off the water i'll be leaving it like this until about 5ish when once again they'll be getting immersed for 8 hours.

Had quite a lot of floating chaff in it, which i removed using a seive.

[delboy]

Went to immerse the grains again and realised just how turbid the water was, had to rinse and rinse and rinse them until it started to at least be a bit clear (maybe my bag hadn't been cleaned very well). Also had to look out for small stones in amongst them as im pretty sure my grain mill wouldn't thank me for putting them through it.

[delboy]

Had a look in on the grains today, a few are starting to sprout, don't know if this is the beginning of most of them sprouting or if the few of them that have sprouted is all thats going to.
I've been taking piccies but to be honest they aren't very exciting but if enough germinate i'll post them anyway

[mysterio]

Great project!

[oblivious]

Good luck with it, pic's would be great

[richard_senior]

I have had a 10kg bag of barley seed waiting to be planted for a year.
My idea was to do the whole thing, from harvesting and malting etc. using my own hops as well.
I use my hops, but I got put off by a guy who told me just how hard malting is.
I hope you succeed!

[subsub]

I tried home malting a few years ago, it was bloody hard work. Now any the barley I grow on my land goes straight to a local malting house. I had a good run on spelt this year and will be using this in my wheat beer experiments next year.

[delboy]

Well the results are in, and the the verdict is this home malting malarkey isn't that easy, 8 Kg of grains ended up in the composting bin this morning. Only about a quarter sprouted and the whole lot was becoming a big heap of mustyness (ergot posioning anyone, actually i know a few people would probably pay for a mild dose )

I'll have another bash but it'll be on a much smaller scale (maybe 1/2 a kilo) to see if i can get the technique down before commiting to a brewing size amount.

[oblivious]

ergot posioning anyone, actually i know a few people would probably pay for a mild dose .

Trippy

[delboy]

Time to resurrect this thread

I've got a fresh batch of brewing barley that im attempted to home malt again.

This time the barley im using is a cleaner sample and its got a higher germination rate (mid 90s).

I have 6 Kg of it in a grain bag which since friday night i've been immersing in water for peroids of up to two hours usually followed by a 6 hour rest draining (so as not to drown them). Hoping this protocol works better than the last one (8hrs in water, 8 hours out).

The barley is beginning to chit (rootlets emerging) so i'll know in the next few days if a sufficent number are going to germinate to make this a goer.

Will update this even if its just to report that it ends up in the bin like the last batch.

[alefric]

Had anymore ideas on how you might kiln it yet?.........this is very interesting and good luck by the way.

Andrew