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

[Subsonic]

Hi all, its been a while since I posted here. Reason is I moved to the south of France and for 2 years have been busy and not being able to brew much. To cut a long story short, I ran out of malt and hops a while back, there are no suppliers near me. The price to get them shipped from the malt miller was getting a bit pricey so I bit the bullet and decided to start having a go at malting my own. I also planted a hop garden. So I figured I would post the results. I had hops in the UK and wasn't sure how they would do in the heat here, well they all did very well and I reckon I have enough hops for the year (cascade - went mental, fuggles, goldings, Northern Brewer and Bramling cross) need to get some noble ones but I'm ok so far (all from Willingham nurseries in the uk and very good).

The malt price was about £25 a sack plus £12 postage from the UK. I spotted 25kg of barley at my agricultural supliers for £10 with a good protein level so got a sack in for a trial. I malt on my brew shed floor which is dead flat sealed concrete, I then dry on a table in my polytunnel which sits at about 50c no probs. Drying is a tricky bit but luckily my polytunnel is spot on at the moment. Crushing was a head scratcher. In the end I build a twin concrete roller crusher for about £5 which I run off an electric drill. Its a tad slow feed wise but I can stick 8kg of grain through it in about 10 minutes (I double crush it just to be sure). Building that was a pig (mainly getting the rollers to run central) but now I have built it I can build a better one no probs.

My first brew had an efficiency of about 40% instead of my usual 70% but - it worked! I was running around the field like a madman much to the concern of the local farmers. I was seriously so chuffed I was back in the brewing business. My later maltings are getting better but even if my efficiency is lower I do have the satisfaction of knowing that the grain was cheap as chips.

I may get back to my 70% but for the moment I am more than happy. I also make all of my crystal and darker malts which isn't too hard. So if any of you are out there and finding the price of malt getting a bit pricey, I would recommend giving DIY malting a go. Even if you just want to do a few speciality grains. So thats a bit of an update from me on the malting. Subsonic

[critch]

well done that man!

hoe your enjoying your new home!

[SiHoltye]

Fantastic, very well done. How does your finished beer taste? Any different, do you have a terrior from your own malt process?

[Subsonic]

Thanks for your kind words! Well, I just had another sneaky half, so the verdict..... At the moment I am concentrating on my 'house bitter' which is a 1038 beer, simply malt and crystal hopped with goldings and fuggles, yeast Nottingham. I know this beer by heart so can compare the home malt turn compared to shop bought. Well, first off you have to clean and wash the barley well to get rid of chaff and (strangely enough) a small amount of rapeseed. My brewshed sits (inside) at over 30c during the day so I struggle to keep my malting temp down (which I think explains my fast growth and low modification), even though I malt on a sodding great big concrete slab. I am malting more at the moment as its getting cooler so will compare results. The beer - its blindingly good, I truly am gobsmacked at how well it went. Honestly the first pint I poured I was like, 'bloody hell, it worked'! Strangely the diferrence is a much creamier head as opposed to a 'gassy' one. I would say it has more body too but that may be my crystal. There is also a lot more trubb so whirlpooling helps (and once malted you have to remove all the rootlets as they give a fair bit of crap). I have had to however, due to exhorbitant gas prices here, prime my cornies. Much as I hate to as it uses that pure white and deadly stuff - sugar. That may explain the creamy head as well. I use 2oz of sugar for a corny keg and a skinny beer line to dispense the first half then move onto a normal 'norm' tap. My main reason for malting was I cannot justify £40 a sack inc. postage and being British a challenge is always good! But at £10 a sack its fantastic! I could probably get it cheaper still but the wifes face which is something else when I go out to check my 'rootlets' might take on a deeper shade of red if I turn up with a ton of the stuff! Well worth a go to try your own speciality malts mind. Sometimes I think I over research stuff, I was reading Seymours self sufficiency book the other day and his recipe for malting and making beer used a stupid amount of barley for 10 gallons, it was either blindingly strong or the old day efficiencies were a bit low. Either way, it worked for him and it does work for me, the beer is as good, if not better than my bought in malt. Subsonic

[mozza]

Well done that man! I remember trying my first all grain and being over the moon thinking that I had 'made it from scratch' but you have literally done every process apart from growing the barley yourself! Congrats! I bet it tastes amazing!

[Eric]

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. What a smile you must be wearing.

[Subsonic]

I've got a micro tractor coming on the 1st November and was thinking, 'Mmmm, I could plant some of that barley....' I think that may be taking it a bit far mind and could lead to 'le divorce' lol! Its a bit of hassle malting (mainly time wise, its not complicated) but I grow all my own veg here and honestly growing barley is a piece of cake compared to some vegetables, you soak it, rinse it, soak it and rinse it and then it grows - on concrete lol. Growing the hops is also cool and so dead easy, that is something well worth doing if you have even a tiny bit of land with something for them to grow up. They grow like weeds, I picked masses of Cascade this year and have a freezer full of hops. Ah, happy days at last. Next up Vosseys Oatmeal Stout - one of my faves Subsonic.

[boingy]

Malting your own. That's hardcore. Nice one.

As for growing your own I suspect planting it and growing it is the easy bit. Harvesting it and threshing it would be the killer.
Surely you should try a few square metres though, just to see how it might go...

[guypettigrew]

Astounding! Well done you.

Perhaps you could start a small business supplying other would be home brewers near you once you've got the process sorted.

Guy

[subfaction]

sounds like your living the life!
Well done that man!
I'd would love to see some pictures

[Goosey]

Astounding! Well done you.

Perhaps you could start a small business supplying other would be home brewers near you once you've got the process sorted.

Guy

He could! I'd buy some!

And some hop plants!

[Subsonic]

Well, if its any use I thought I might post some pics of the malting process as I have just started some yesterday. I hope I can post the pics ok as its been 2 years since I really used the PC much (I ain't old, just got fed up of slaving my guts out over PC's.) So, let me try. First up is a pic of my brewshed (taken a while to build and bankrupted me), in the corner you can see my brewery. 3 sankey kegs, 2 marchmay pumps (covered with black placcy cos of the weather), a RIMS system I bought from ADM and a Jetburner (Bayouburner from US). All the kegs have false bottoms from Disco someone (can't remember but he did a good job). I've got a copper intercooler, corny kegs, ATC 800+ or summat and lots of other bits and bobs.

EDIT - If anyone can tell me how to post a pic in to the post direct that would be good cos on the preview I just saw a load of gobbleydegook so I stopped trying to load them. I have them on my hard drive and picasaweb if thats any use. I used to know how to do it but hell its been 2 years and I've forgotten. I do remember useful stuff like making beer lol. But if anyone is interested I can post the malting process from start to pulling a pint. Sub

[Trefoyl]

Well, if its any use I thought I might post some pics of the malting process as I have just started some yesterday. I hope I can post the pics ok as its been 2 years since I really used the PC much (I ain't old, just got fed up of slaving my guts out over PC's.) So, let me try. First up is a pic of my brewshed (taken a while to build and bankrupted me), in the corner you can see my brewery. 3 sankey kegs, 2 marchmay pumps (covered with black placcy cos of the weather), a RIMS system I bought from ADM and a Jetburner (Bayouburner from US). All the kegs have false bottoms from Disco someone (can't remember but he did a good job). I've got a copper intercooler, corny kegs, ATC 800+ or summat and lots of other bits and bobs.

EDIT - If anyone can tell me how to post a pic in to the post direct that would be good cos on the preview I just saw a load of gobbleydegook so I stopped trying to load them. I have them on my hard drive and picasaweb if thats any use. I used to know how to do it but hell its been 2 years and I've forgotten. I do remember useful stuff like making beer lol. But if anyone is interested I can post the malting process from start to pulling a pint. Sub

I started to sift through the gobbledegook but you edited your post before I could finish. Just right click on an image you wish to use and select "copy image location"

[Subsonic]

I Don't see a button that says copy image location? I see Img or URL and thats about it? I firkin hate computers

[Subsonic]

Well, I cant figure out sticking pics in so here is a simpletons link to my brewery:- Edit - fink I've sussed it now




And a link to the malt I am currently making. I have halved my usual brew batch (40 litres) as I want to experiment with malts. I used to use 8kg for a decent brew of 40 litres (at 70% efficiency). Now I have halved that to 4kg for 20 litres and allowing 1/3rd extra malt for my 'home made' malt as that is what a lot of online brewers seem to do. So I malt 7kg to allow some wastage and some for crystal.

I soak the malt and give it a good rinse to get rid of the chaff and rapeseed, I use a spare fermentation bin as this gives a good idea of how much water the malt is taking in, 7kg is up to the 11 litre mark and it goes up as the water is absorbed. I soak, drain, soak, drain etc. until rootlets are forming (about now - can just about see in the pic) so tomorrow it is onto the malting floor for malting. Its still bloody hot here, my shed floor is sitting at 22c during the day but I'm hoping it will go ok now. More pics to follow - if I can get to grips with copying from picasaweb and my hard drive.....Sub