Comments on: Malting Barley Grain at Home

By: Mistakenly ordered 20lb of unmalted wheat - Home Brew Forums

Mistakenly ordered 20lb of unmalted wheat - Home Brew Forums — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 03:56:45 +0000

[...] it! http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2009/12/05/malting-barley-grain-at-home/ __________________ "If God had intended us to drink beer, He would have given us [...]

By: malting - Home Brew Forums

malting - Home Brew Forums — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 19:27:57 +0000

[...] Malting Barley Grain at Home | Home Brewing Beer Blog by BeerSmith __________________ Seeking the perfect IPA recipe, 5 gallons at a time. [...]

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:49:56 +0000

hey Brad,
Great article thanks for the info and clear steps. While I agree that commercially this is done to such precision that a home malter wont be able to come close, I am still going to give it a try. I recently started growing my own barley and other grains in very small batches, (even going to try hops) just so that I can drink a glass of beer knowing that I made everything in it. So even if I lose half of my grains to poor malting, It will still be worth it.

Thanks,
Jeff

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 05:26:45 +0000

Also is the technique the same for barley?

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 05:26:19 +0000

How long do the malted hops keep for and is there a recommended storage technique?

By: Heidi

Heidi — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 19:05:45 +0000

I am only a few steps away from making my first beer from scratch. I know, the ‘few’ steps may turn into many paths wandered, lost, and revisited, but at least I have already a lot of experience sprouting grains!

By: Robin

Robin — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 22:53:50 +0000

Thanks for the article, I just bought 3000 pounds of Metcalfe barley to feed my milk goats (almost a years supply at the rate I’m feeding) and I thought I might attempt a little homebrew with it. (The low protein makes it better for homebrew than for goat feed.) I’ve never done all grain just partial. The barley looks good and should be appropriate though because the farmer sell to Coors and Miller. I got it for 10 cents a pound which is what it’s going for on the commodity exchanges right now so pretty damn good deal. Can’t beat commercial brewery prices

I took my dads dump truck out with two bean boxes (large steel containers that hold about 1500 pounds of barley each) and he filled them strait out of his combine. I can’t find a single image of a bean box on google which I find quite strange as they’re used quite a bit in southern Idaho. My wife, daughter, and I got to ride with him in the combine for a couple passes which was awesome. Those things are so fancy it makes you feel like you’re in the future.

By: TY

TY — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 22:41:38 +0000

If you going to buy barley from a seed supplier, make sure it is UNTREATED! Unless you want to be poisoned…

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 10:51:22 +0000

“Start with a large bucket that can handle the grains plus enough water to float all of the grains.”
just a tip only the bad grains will float to the top witch must be removed, the good grains will sink to the bottom.

By: Diastatic Power and Mashing your Beer | Home Brewing Beer Blog by BeerSmith

Diastatic Power and Mashing your Beer | Home Brewing Beer Blog by BeerSmith — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 22:07:25 +0000

[...] power starts as part of the malting process. As we covered a few weeks ago in the article on Malting at Home, the malting process consists of placing raw barley grains in water and germinating (sprouting or [...]

By: Richie Giannone

Richie Giannone — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 13:48:02 +0000

Check this cool video out regarding the subject at hand. I’m in the process of trying this out right now. Wish me luck!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HauYECAEQ8I

By: dustin Busby

dustin Busby — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 22:13:15 +0000

I malted my barley and it sprouted a lot faster than i thought and some of it sprouted a little to far. I dried it and then roasted it at 225 for a few hours. The only thing is it is Six row and ends up cloudy do you have any suggestions on keeping it from clouding ???

By: Brad Smith

Brad Smith — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 20:33:54 +0000

Hi,
No – you actually can’t skip the drying step. It is important to reduce the amount of water in the malt before you brew with it.

Brad

By: William

William — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 19:03:44 +0000

If say someone is out of work and they can start brewing as soon as their malt is finished germination could he skip the drying step (except for specialty malt toasting for an hour or so in the oven) and go straight to brewing?

By: Brad Smith

Brad Smith — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 17:40:02 +0000

Thanks!
Best wishes to you and thank you for the kind comments.

Brad

By: Yanqui Mike

Yanqui Mike — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 07:13:48 +0000

Keep the comments comin´, guys! This is all excellent stuff.

I´ve tried my hand at malting before a couple times and have failed …but that´s not going to stop me. Success teaches you nothing.

Down here in Argentina, I have excellent access to beer barley (cebada cervecera) from “seed plants” that service all the giant breweries here. Malt extract here is all imported and the price is prohibitive. Barley malt is much more inexpensive. Malting your own is the key to free beer.

We need to learn how to do this.

When you malt your own barley, you are your own man.

It´s the next logical extention. I aspire to be a maltster.

Please keep helping.

Yanqui Mike
http://www.yanquimike.com.ar
011 -54 -9 -11 -3803 -7099 (cel)
312-235-2241 (VoIP)
yanquimike (skype)

By: Brad Smith

Brad Smith — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 05:00:28 +0000

Jay,
Thanks for the info – I appreciate the great tip on getting grains from seed plants!

Brad

By: jay

jay — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 04:06:10 +0000

Given my knowledge of the cereal grain growing system, the best place to purchase your grain is at a seed plant. Basically a seed selling company that sells to the farmers. The variety of grain is certified, and it is cleaned better than feed grain. They will know exactly which of the many varieties of barley are best suited for malting. They also size the grain so it is uniform and give a percentage of germination and timeline. The price is a little more than feed, but we are still talking about 10 to 12 dollars for fifty pounds.

By: Feed Store Barley? - Home Brew Forums

Feed Store Barley? - Home Brew Forums — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:33:41 +0000

[...] http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2009/12/05/malting-barley-grain-at-home/ here is a place to start looking if you are ! __________________ subversive(n.)One who advocates or is regarded as advocating subversion. Quote: [...]

By: brewer

brewer — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:02:41 +0000

Thought others might like this.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5956849_malt-barley.html

By: Dee

Dee — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:07:08 +0000

I have a HVLP painting compressor that I use to dry the malt. I attach a garden hose to the compressor and the other end to a plywood disc with holes covered with window screen at the bottom of a 5 gal bucket. The clean compressed air (this is a turbine pump) flows up thru the malt and drys it in no time. You can put an engine block heater in the hose if you want more heat.

Too simple.

By: thargrav

thargrav — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:18:11 +0000

Great article. And no, I’m not trying to bash you – I believe that everyone should try malting his own grain at least once to understand how the process works.

But the commercial maltsers have gotten their process down to such a science that I don’t believe any of us can get close to their consistency. They control their process all the way out to the farmers, expecting them to grow & deliver grain with a protein content not above a particular percent and an exact moisture content range. Barley that does not meet these standards usually becomes cereal or cooking additives or animal feed.