screamlead
Landlord.
Well so far upto press i have malted about 50 KG of barley and with inconsistent results i have to say.
First batch i did by the book but then had problems drying and roasting by not getting a constant roast. I have an electric oven by Indeset which is large enough but in no way accurate in its settings. I have got one of those stc1000 things which can hack 6KW so i may in the future use it to control my oven tenmps properly. I did try to roast using the BBQ and wood on the roof but again same thing inconsistant, as some grains burnt. Not that it bothered me too much but i did do a nice stout which came out with real roasty flavours so was happy in the end with it.
2nd batch i was doing during winter and as such, i malt outside ie soaking and drying 2 hours soak and 8 hours air dry then soak again etc. But inclement weather went against me and it ended up soaking for a lot longer than i intended. Eventually got 5KG done and had another batch on the go but the weather took its toll and i had to bring it inside with the wood burners to try to dry and roast it. Needless to say i lost the whole batch due to my damn cats thinking it was their new bed and wazzing in it!! :sick: :shock:
I did notice too that my next two batches of beers were both under their target SG and had to add sugar to bring it back up and i didnt think much of it at the time. The beers turned out superb in the end anyway so nothing lost.
BUT - -!
Just done another batch of 5kg and got from a different source this time and local. If anything over here the barley is never constant sized as i presume in uk it will be and the same with the crush too?
Mine i crush with a mincer - electronic which i have already gone through one set of gears with it and completely destroyed another. However next month i do get to pick up a proper grain mill i got from a yank here who is leaving so snapped it up.
Originally the weather was nice so off i went malting again and just into the first soak we got thunderstorms so again the barley got longer soaking than it should have and this time i noticed when i was spreading it out to dry on my screens on the roof once i had finished my hands were sticky and sweet - cue alarm bells! I now think that the longer soak is removing some of the flavours and sugars from the malt. But i will do a beer with it anyway and see what happens.
This batch was also a smaller grain than my last lot but more consistant in size and was a whole lot cleaner too, however upon bunging through my mincer this time it hasnt crushed as much as it had been, so i stuck it back through with a smaller plate and smaller holes resulting in a lot better crush but a lot more finer than last time and no whole kernals in the mix. Now thinking stuck sparges with resulting finer crush.? I have only done a KG of it which i roasted at 120c for two hours in the oven - it went in at 914 grams and came out at 816 so losing 98 grams of mosture in the process.
The rest of the batch i am going to wait for my new grinder mill and do that lot with it.
I'll update this with pics and more details as and when i crack on with the next brew.
First batch i did by the book but then had problems drying and roasting by not getting a constant roast. I have an electric oven by Indeset which is large enough but in no way accurate in its settings. I have got one of those stc1000 things which can hack 6KW so i may in the future use it to control my oven tenmps properly. I did try to roast using the BBQ and wood on the roof but again same thing inconsistant, as some grains burnt. Not that it bothered me too much but i did do a nice stout which came out with real roasty flavours so was happy in the end with it.
2nd batch i was doing during winter and as such, i malt outside ie soaking and drying 2 hours soak and 8 hours air dry then soak again etc. But inclement weather went against me and it ended up soaking for a lot longer than i intended. Eventually got 5KG done and had another batch on the go but the weather took its toll and i had to bring it inside with the wood burners to try to dry and roast it. Needless to say i lost the whole batch due to my damn cats thinking it was their new bed and wazzing in it!! :sick: :shock:
I did notice too that my next two batches of beers were both under their target SG and had to add sugar to bring it back up and i didnt think much of it at the time. The beers turned out superb in the end anyway so nothing lost.
BUT - -!
Just done another batch of 5kg and got from a different source this time and local. If anything over here the barley is never constant sized as i presume in uk it will be and the same with the crush too?
Mine i crush with a mincer - electronic which i have already gone through one set of gears with it and completely destroyed another. However next month i do get to pick up a proper grain mill i got from a yank here who is leaving so snapped it up.
Originally the weather was nice so off i went malting again and just into the first soak we got thunderstorms so again the barley got longer soaking than it should have and this time i noticed when i was spreading it out to dry on my screens on the roof once i had finished my hands were sticky and sweet - cue alarm bells! I now think that the longer soak is removing some of the flavours and sugars from the malt. But i will do a beer with it anyway and see what happens.
This batch was also a smaller grain than my last lot but more consistant in size and was a whole lot cleaner too, however upon bunging through my mincer this time it hasnt crushed as much as it had been, so i stuck it back through with a smaller plate and smaller holes resulting in a lot better crush but a lot more finer than last time and no whole kernals in the mix. Now thinking stuck sparges with resulting finer crush.? I have only done a KG of it which i roasted at 120c for two hours in the oven - it went in at 914 grams and came out at 816 so losing 98 grams of mosture in the process.
The rest of the batch i am going to wait for my new grinder mill and do that lot with it.
I'll update this with pics and more details as and when i crack on with the next brew.
