Hello after a long break! Malting my own now....

[Dave S]

I checked my new batch of malt on the 'malt floor' today. My wife left the brewshed open for the dogs to sleep in, despite 2 Bullmastiffs being in there and me covering the grain with one of her nice towels, there was a hole munched clean through her towel this morning. Dammit, I'm gonna be in trouble.

I think malting on the floor is a non starter unless I fix up a proper wooden frame and mesh, and even then it will attract mice. So I have adopted a new approach. In the states they use big plastic buckets (like the mango boiler ones) on their side which rotate on a timer with the grain inside. I don't have time (and can't be bothered) to build one so I have gone for the highly technical approach of a plastic storage box. I can still have this on the floor inside the house (where its actually quite cool) and I can turn the grain and mist it ok. So that is the new 'malting tun'.

Pic below of the malt box with one my totally useless mouse catchers.

Maybe a cat would be better, but then again it would probably sh*t on your malt . Great stuff though. Oh to have more space.

[Subsonic]

The dog would defo get the moggy! The two of them got a fox a while back, one got the head and the other the backside. They gave one big tug and I was left with a right old mess to clean up!

I did another batch of malt today, this one I air dried in the polytunnel as usual. I then filled every oven tray I had and set the oven to be at 90c with one probe for that. The other probe I stuck in the malt and set the alarm for 80c. Once that went off I shut the oven down and left to cool. This batch looks, smells and tastes like the best yet so I am thinking perhaps once dried a spot of kilning is required. I will do a brew with it and see how the efficiency goes, i've got high hopes..... Sub.

[Subsonic]

I've got the pale malt done and seeing as I am going to do a stout next (Vossys Oatmeal) thought I would get some black malt done. I did this by roasting the pale malt at 230c for about 30 minutes whilst stirring frequently. This produces a HUGE amount of smoke, luckily the wife was out and I disconnected the smoke alarm. It also pops a lot like popcorn. So a pic of that below. I could probably have roasted it a bit more but it was getting seriously smokey in the house. After I did all this I realised the the recipe doesn;t need black malt but chocolate lol. Luckily I still have some of that left. Gonna crack on with modifications to the grain mill today and then hopefully get ready for a home malted all grain brew up next week. May post some pics. Sub

[Fil]

Cracking read. got me smiling from ear to ear. with plans to grow the barley too, any plans for cultivating your own yeast, i saw a utube from a us brewery who cultivated a yeast strain from a brewers beard hair, the resulting beer being 'brewers beard'.. whats next toecheese ale where was the bishops finger b4 it lent its name to the beer?? its l8 and ive sampled. ill get me coat..

[Subsonic]

To say I'm pretty chuffed with the results in an understatement. My efficiency is improving each time. I am following some good advice on a youtube channel called 'Woodland Gardener' about malting, the guy is pretty good on malting and brewing Weiss, (well worth a watch to see his Erdinger recipe and how he harvests the yeast). I now sprout the barley in my kegerator. Tomorrow I have 13kg of grain in the mash tun for a Californian Steam Beer. Total cost of this big brew - £5.

I checked at the agricultural suppliers today and they sell whole wheat as well, so guess what I am planning next....... Sub

[jmc]

Hi subsonic

I saw this Google book and when I read the section on malting it reminded me of this topic of yours.

Principles of malting haven't changed a great deal.

Google Book (free) - The Complete Practical Brewer; Or Plain, Accurate, and Thorough Instructions in the Art of Brewing Ale, Beer & Porter
By Marcus Lafayette Byrn - 1852

Start of Chapter on Malting

[Subsonic]

Cheers for that, I have downloaded it for a read. Sub