Pale malt

Some basics for malting barley at home. See my blog for more information on malting. brewingbeerthehardway.wordpre...

[@xor-gate]

Very clear and informative! Thanks for sharing

[@JonasHagberg]

Love that you use SI units and Celcius! SI FTW!

[@2moon4moon]

Good to see someone who seems to know what he is doing! After six years of homebrewing I am just getting into homemalting and am strongly considering to get that book of yours now :)

[@BrewingBeerTheHardWay1]

Well thank-you! malting is such an interesting hobby, after almost ten years I'm still learning new stuff. I find the book is a convenient way to access all the recipes I have found instead of swimming through the blog - so yes you absolutely should buy it and the malting log book too - very handy! Cheers!

[@2moon4moon]

@@BrewingBeerTheHardWay1 I just ordered the book :) Maybe I can bother you with a question regarding my first batch? It started with 1kg of wheat and I followed “simpler” instructions from other sources, but only stumbled upon all your content on day 3. So I didnt check for moisture content, neither before nor after soaking. I did 3 soaking cycles (each starting with 4 hours wet, 20 hours dry - 13°C). After those 3 days, I let it germinate for 4 more days now and it has germinated a bit unevenly. Most acrospyres are 3/4 of the grains length now, while there is a noticable amount doubling this or cutting it in half. The starch spreading test comes in mostly fine. I feel like I should dry it today, but I can’t get my hands on a food drying machine before tomorrow. Alternatively, I have got an electric oven which can in practice heat as low as ~60°C. What should I do? Thank you in advance!

[@BrewingBeerTheHardWay1]

@@2moon4moon Spread it out in a thin layer to wilt it, like a half inch or less. You can even put a fan on it. Wilting stops the growth and will buy you some time. This used to be a common practice but is not done today for the sake of speed. Even though the growth stops the enzymes will continue to develop so it's actually a good thing to do as it will raise your diastatic power. As far as kilns go check out my blog for some design ideas , food dehydrators tend to be pretty small. The easiest method I've found and it's been very consistent is the electric fry pan (at 11:30 in the video) with a temperature dial which you can often find at a thrift store for $10. When drying small amounts (under 5 lbs) you don't even need a fan just some heat so one of these fry pans in your oven or in a wooden box works very well.

[@sidewinderdrums]

Great video. I have watched several on the malting process, and yours is the best I have seen by far.I am getting ready to try malting for the first time this weekend. A farmer friend grew 3 acres of "Hockett" 2 row marling barley, and I now have a free supply. 1st question. I am in Arizona, and it is very dry here. I am going to use my "fermentation chamber" (small refrigerator with temp control) for holding the grains around 55f for the process. I assume I should spray/mist the barely a couple times a day during the sparging and germination phase. Does this sound correct? I am thinking the air drying phase should work extremely well here with our single digit humidity. 2nd question. For the roasting process, you mentioned that you normally kiln under 120f till moisture is below 10%, but this time at 33% humidity, you did 140f for 3 hours, 175f for 2 hours, and then 195f for 2 hours. I really like the idea of a shorter schedule in the oven. Did these grains mash normally in the brewing process, or did you need to mash longer? With this kilning schedule, would this still be called "pale" malt, or would be called something else for comparison. Have you adopted this process now, or have you gone back to the 120f till under 10% schedule? Sorry I have so many questions. I am really excited to try this, and I don't want to mess it up. Thanks again for the video, Rob

[@BrewingBeerTheHardWay1]

Thanks! I'm jealous, good luck and let me know how it turns out. Cheers

[@BrewingBeerTheHardWay1]

Hi Rob unfortunately I'm only seeing these questions now, sorry for the slow response! Increasing the temp to 60C between 25-35% will sacrifice diastatic power for flavour. Diastatic power is also dependant on how well modified the malt is and how many enzymes have been allowed to develop so lots of variables here. Didn't have a problem mashing with this schedule but it would be good to do a side by side comparison with the two different schedules to see the flavour difference. Most of the time I dry down to 20% before raising the temperature up to 60C just to be more safe. Currently I've been messing around with really long germinations (2 weeks) and long drying schedules 24 hours just for fun, these have a lot of diastatic power, conversion happens very quickly and are very friable. Spraying or misting does depend on your humidity, if you're still using the small fridge I probably would not spray, the roots should start to wither on day 5 or 6 but if they're not looking healthy before that and the acrospires aren't long enough then yes you could spray to perk them up and extend the germination.

[@muslixrex]

Great video, has been very informative. I've checked out your blog on the pilsner/pale malts but do have a question for ya if I may: your oven door is probably slightly ajar during kilning, is this also true for curing ?? Thanks in advance.

[@BrewingBeerTheHardWay1]

+muslixrex Actually there's a gap in the door seal which is 4" long and just wide enough for the wire to go through at the bottom of the door, our other oven was the same. So the door is fully closed during kilning and curing.

[@southernpoop]

I just started malting a few weeks ago. I am using a bag I got from Jonny Selected Seed. This probably isn't the best thing to malt with but I wanted to use it up. I did a bone dry measurement of one ounce. Three hours in the oven at 215 and my 1 ounce sample went from 1.000 ounce to .912 for a 8.8% moisture content? I also have a scale sensitive to the thousands digit, it looks like yours. How crude or course is this way of determining the moisture content? My germination temperature could be a factor because it oscillated between 61-67F and you recommend it being below 60F. Do you have more information on why that is? I may be missing something simple so thank you for you help. My batch size was 13.35. I calculated that my bone dry weight was 13.35x.912= 12.175. A moisture content goal of 43% makes my target weight 21.36. 12.175/.57= 21.35. After two steepings my weight got to 19.2oz. The batch seemed to be already germinating before I reached the weight goal of 21.36. At this point I placed it on a plastic cutting board at a quarter of an inch thickness. Because it was so thin and I'm not home often I did not turn it every hour. It never felt like it was getting warm though. After germination it became 23.28oz. How much weight is gained after the magic of germination is started? I have since sloppily dried it to 11.56 moisture content by way of heating pad in the oven and also the oven. I had a sloppy 24 hours where it roughly oscillated between 100-90f. After this the weight was 15.94oz. I then did a few hours going between 160-180. My moisture content may have been too high for that temperature but I do not yet have precise temperature control for these ranges. If I am at 11.56oz now that must mean that my bone dry weight measurement is not accurate. My mistake might be obvious. Thank you for time. Your blog is a great resource for malting information. I just ordered purple barley 6 row. Have you heard of anyone experimenting with this? I'm also interested in growing and malting spelt just south of Auburn, NY. I heard on a podcast that spelt is comfortable in Upstate NY.

[@BrewingBeerTheHardWay1]

Hey bennirubber Your original moisture does seem pretty low, did you grind your 1oz sample? I didn't mention this in the video but added it in the caption at 2:15. Also sometimes ovens can be inconsistent with their temperatures. I noticed this with my oven at low temps. As for your final weight, you do loose some weight from the roots, also, there are respiratory losses in which grain carbohydrates turn into carbon dioxide and water. Typical industry malting losses are in the range of 6-12% which I also should have mentioned in the video but didn't. There shouldn't be any weight gain in your barley during germination unless you're spraying it, which is fine but I would spray only if the roots are wilting and growth has stopped short. Finally, by curing at around 24% moisture you will have made something similar to a Munich malt. It will probably be nice and malty but be prepared for a long mash (like 3 hours) since some of the enzymes have been used up. I'm sure it will still make a great beer. Let me know how it turns out! Cheers!

[@itisntworking89]

Very nice video, very informative, Question, do you cover the grain while its germinating? Thanks

[@BrewingBeerTheHardWay1]

Thanks sjoha, you usually keep your grain uncovered while germinating because the grain needs oxygen to grow. If you want to slow down the growth to prolong the germination you can cover it and the CO2 will accumulate slowing the growth.This is what's called "couching" However with small amounts of grain I find that the oxygen to grain ratio is greater so this method is not that effective unless you pack the grain into a small container with very little head space. You want to have a long germination (over 5 days) to allow the enzymes to develop in the malt. Another way to slow the growth if your acrospires appear to be getting too long is to spread out the malt on a screen to a depth of 1-2" to allow the roots to wither, essentially drying out the malt a little.

[@itisntworking89]

Awesome thanks for the reply. What I've been doing is having a lose covered plastic draped over the container.

[@RockonBeerBlog]

Very cool. Any plans on where that 5 pounds is headed?

[@BrewingBeerTheHardWay1]

Ended up in an IBA along with some of my chocolate malt, roasted barley. This beer also had some store bought malts and I dry hopped it with the hops I picked last year. It's not bad, but I would have liked a little more roasted character ( just a personal preference) I had cold soaked the roasted grains.

[@andrejandrasik8692]

Hi , Im need help, question is when do you measuring moisture, target weight of malt, after steeping right when you spill water or do you wait some time?

[@BrewingBeerTheHardWay1]

It's best to wait so it can drain properly

[@andrejandrasik8692]

5-10 min or more?

[@southernpoop]

I've been letting it dry to the touch. This can take over four hours for me. I spread it out in a mesh filter I got with a 1 gallon all grain batch. www.northernbrewer.com/double-mesh-stainless-strainer?gclid=CLqChtXxsdMCFRRWDQoda6MKHw. This thing.

[@nawam.5688]

Great

[@sehomecanoe]

Hi. I'm trying to solve a problem with my malted wheat. I seem to have lost my grains diastatic power. Do you have any ideas why? The germination seemed good. I am at a loss.

[@BrewingBeerTheHardWay1]

Could be a few things, tell me about your process

[@sehomecanoe]

​@@BrewingBeerTheHardWay1, you have taught me so much. I now use a hot plate in my oven. My fermentation actually started, so my malt did have the DP after all! I'm new to this, so I just got nervous and panicked. (I learned how to all grain brew and malt grain at the same time, with only two extract kits under my belt. A bit much.) My next step is to master the specialty malts. I would totally buy your book if I could get it on the kindle. Until then, I will use your videos and blog. If you haven't seen this, I recommend it. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gJXGan6KZs6ceK8

[@BrewingBeerTheHardWay1]

@@sehomecanoe Good to hear! and yes that's some great barley porn!

[@thodorissaridis6039]

hello!!! im at day 5 and the starch in not like a paste and not hydrated... also the acrospire reaches only the 50% what should i do??

[@thodorissaridis6039]

+the roots are about 1-2 cm!

[@BrewingBeerTheHardWay1]

thodoris saridis You may want to let it wilt. You can do this by spreading it out to about an inch or two in depth. The enzymes will continue to develop but the roots will dry out a bit and stop growing. Historically English maltsters would germinate for as long as ten days.

[@thodorissaridis6039]

Brewing Beer The Hard Way ok the roots have stopped growing but the starch is very dry!

[@BrewingBeerTheHardWay1]

thodoris saridis What's your climate like? If you live in a dry area you may want to cover your malt next time with a damp cloth and keep the temperature lower. Try weighing it to see what your moisture content is, if it has dropped more than say 5% spray it with water a few times per day.

[@thodorissaridis6039]

Brewing Beer The Hard Way the moisture in greece is about 50 to 75% these days. i started with 5kg barley and after steeping i had 7250.. now i have 6450... today also saw some mould at the barley that was cut in the middle .. maybe it is time to throw it..!