mashing homemade malt without drying it first

[Talon_Ted]

having returned to home brewing after a long absence i have been re-reading my old brewing books. i was thinking about having a go at malting my own barley and one of the ideas that occured to me was mashing the malt immediately it was ready without drying it. are there any draw backs to doing this? i realise you won't be able to remove the roots.

if there has already been a thread on this i would be grateful if you tell me where to find it to save boring everybody.

thanks for any advice you can give me.

ted

 

[battwave]

I read an article about true pilsner and I think this is the case there.

I think malted is primarily dried to stop it going off or rotting. Presumably you'd still need to roast/kiln?

Got to be worth a go, even if you only mash it to see if it converts.

Be interested to hear how it goes if you try it/

 

[paulpj26]

Unless you have years of experience in a maltings house and the right equipment I wouldn't go there. Having recently been to a maltings house I can tell you it's very difficult to make good malted barley (hence the reason why breweries don't make there own malt).

The price of malt to be fair is pretty cheap so unless you are just wanting to have a bit of fun at making your own I'd just use your local home brew shop.

Sorry to be so negative

 

[Aleman]

Even at Plzen around 1835 when Josef Grolle was brewing malt was dried . . . it may not have been kilned, but it was certainly wind dried in the floor maltings which accounted for the fact that it had to be used fairly quickly.

If you do have a go at malting your own, do bear in mind that your variability and degree of modification will be worse than a skilled maltster and in order to actually get any reasonable efficiency out of the malt you will probably have to resort to a decoction schedule

 

[Talon_Ted]

thanks all for your comments.

i will definitely give it a go in the next month or so. probably the best way to do it is to mash half the batch wet and the other half dry and compare the two. that way i should know where any failure lies. in the extremely unlikely scenario that is isn't a huge success!

i am slightly surprised that more people haven't tried it but i have to say this is not the first time i have found this some of my ideas! (er most of them actually)

mark

 

[craigite]

I did try it a few years ago using my late dad's barley. The nitrogen wasn't quite right as the malters confirmed so no use for whisky.

It was a disaster. I just couldn't keep the temp and the air right, just didn't have enough time ( work got in the way ).

Still, I'd love to try again some day.

Good luck.

 

[Stone Cold]

lots of people seem to malt their own at home in america, lots of you tube videos to help you. doesnt look to hard
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HauYECAEQ8I