How I "easily" malt my own barley

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

John_Henry

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 23, 2011
Messages
114
Reaction score
0
So, here we are. This is a brief description of how I malt my own Barley, very easy and takes hardly any time.

This is only the second time I've done this, and the way I did it this time was very lazy and unscientific. However, seems to have come out pretty well, and with a bit more patients would be as good as any.

I haven't called this a 'how to', as it is more of an illustration, but should give you a basic idea. If you are having a go yourself then I would defo geek up malting on the tinterweb. Seems to be quite a bit of info, and a few videos aswell. Anyway on to the Malting.

On Monday (28th March) I put the raw Barley on to soak for 24 hrs. I put 5Kg in, but added a good dosh more to allow for loss. The last batch I did 7Kg and ended up with just under 6Kg so would expect near as dammit 85%. However I'm expecting better efficiency this time round. There's a lot of different ways people soak the barley, some a number of days, some even do 2hrs in water, then 2hrs out, over a 24hr period. Personally I don't see any benefit of doing this, and if anything I think they start chitting quicker by simply soaking them in water for around 24hrs. This is obviously less time consuming. So to clarify, on day one I soak raw barley in water for about 24hrs, the only other thing to mention is that I take the floating gubbins off the top with a sieve.

After it's soaked for about 24hrs I drain it threw a sieve taking anything that isn't barley out, i.e. other seeds peas, bits of chaf etc. I then stuck it in a strong placky bag, the sort the super markets advertise for reusing. and put it in the airing cupboard.

After another 24hrs or so it will start chitting (growing roots/sprouting). from this point on I try and give it a mix as much as possible, if pos upwards of twice a day. As the process continues the roots get longer and the barley needs couching (mixing) more often, but really its just important to make sure its not too wet and doesn't start to get moldy.

By Saturday the acrospire was upwards of 50% the length of the grain. What your looking for is 75%. This batched seemed a little more random than the last batch, but I was planning on brewing on Sunday so decided to start malting on Saturday morning. On average I would have put it at a little under 65%, really it could have done with another day or so.

On to the difficult bit, well difficult for me anyway. The malting of the Barley. At the moment we only have an Aga, its good on one hand because I don't spend any extra cash on electricity/gas etc, but you can't control the blooody thing. So, my solution is a box which I sit on the top, kind of replicating the traditional heated wooden floors. However it takes an age to dry out. I started it on Saturday morning and its still going. Had it ontop of the logburner and trying everything to cure it. From what I can gather its very easy in a conventional cooker, the main thing is to keep it under 60 deg. If you want darker malt you simply do it for longer, but keep it under 60, so my research leads me to believe anyway. I like mine darker than marris otter or similar, so give them a bit longer, and with some to get more of a caramel flavor by popping them in the aga. Thats the best thing about doing your own malt, you can make them bespoke to exactly what you want, for your brew.

So thats basically it. If any of you have any questions I'll do my best. If any of you have suggestions they would be most appreciated. I'll ad some photo's in a mo, and pos carry on the thread to the brew, so the whole process from raw barley to finished brew. Hope its of interest.
 
That's really interesting JH :thumb: , how does your beer turn out? must be very satisfying though
 
Good Ed said:
That's really interesting JH :thumb: , how does your beer turn out? must be very satisfying though

Im new to AG, but I have to say Im completely sold. I thought I new a good beer before, but as soon as I started brewing I realized I new nothing. Thats all thanks to my own malted barley, so I would say its turned out well, but don't have anything to compare it to, yet. I've got some malt in the post, so if I get round to it I'll do a side by side comparison. I'd like to grow some hops and barley and use some spring water, that would be really satisfying. Perhaps by next year. :?
 
5588190820_db8d50fd92_m.jpg

5588192338_50d8db030c_m.jpg

5587603335_dae3c567b3_m.jpg

5588193826_decbb6a0f6_m.jpg

5587604735_a188728a51_m.jpg

5588198260_544d470636_m.jpg

5588199670_3d4f7443f5_m.jpg

5587608905_47d32b03f7_m.jpg

5587610361_ea41c4a59f_m.jpg
 
I too started off the process by dunking in a large bowl for 2 hours and they 8 hours 'drying' then repeating over 5 days -

DSCF7961.jpg


Then placed it on screens on the roof to dry out in the sun and sprout =

DSCF7953.jpg


The 'norm' is to wait untill the roots are 3 x the length of the grain and that supossedly will give the 'acrospire' a 75% length inside the grains - check by cutting a few grains with a stanley knife. Some people also advocate using a small amount of bleach in the soaking to stop mould and bugs etc - but i have done 3 batches now and had no problems and not used any bleach :sick:


DSCF7955.jpg



Grains up close - sprouted -

DSCF7964.jpg


I have also used the bung it in a bucket and leave it for a few days too which worked faster than the 2 on 8 off method, i forgot about them actually because of the kak weather we were having as it was no good for drying in the sun.
DSCF7977.jpg


I also used my electric cooker to roast the grains and dry them out properly but mine being electric and not too much control over matters i burnt some of it due to the bottom heat being far hotter than the top as its top and bottom elements in the cooker??
But i got different styles of malted grain and most recpies only call for 100gr of chocolate malt and the darker ones anyway so i have those too - lol

DSCF8020.jpg


Then came the problem of crushing the grains - i went out and bought an electric mincer and smashed it to bits on the 2nd press of the button as it destroyed the drive shaft in the mincer.
So i went to my local Flour miller and had it zapped in an industrial grain machine and the result is above.
All in all it works very well and there is a lot of info on the net on how to roast all the different styles and what degrees c you need to roast them at and for how long - i recon a project i will have to do this year will be a proper roatating roasting barrel for the grains.
Hopefully the weather will improve in the next couple of weeks so i can finally get a brew on - i will be brewing outside on my roof :cheers:
 
Looks good screamlead. Looks very different from mine. Did you sieve them after malting to ged rid of the chaf?
 
John_Henry said:
Looks good screamlead. Looks very different from mine. Did you sieve them after malting to ged rid of the chaf?

Yes i did m8 - i had them on screens on my roof and took off all the dead roots etc then roasted in oven @ 50c for two hours to dry out.
Then had them crushed.
 
Just had a bonus morning - was getting frustrated bashing my barley with a lump of oak to try crushing small amounts! So thought sod it - i previously smashed my brand new mincer trying the last lot. But thought i would give the new one a go - and its worked a treat - i stuck it on a big slanting log up on my roof and the angle of slope and the new mincers speed did the biz brilliantly. The new one runs a lot slower than the previous one too.
Just filled the top tray and the vibration from the grinding delivered the grain down the shute into the mincer at a proper speed for it to cope with it - so happy easter bunny!
Now gonna try out my first AG!! :cheers:
 

Latest posts

Back
Top