New Improved Malt Kiln for Diastatic Brown Malt

Improvements to the malt kiln I made 4 years ago for making diastatic brown malt. This kiln is fueled with wood pellets burned in paint-can "gassifiers" for a clean consistent burn. Good for those of us who live in town-houses. For more info on diastatic brown malt and lots of other malting info check out the blog at brewingbeerthehardway.wordpre...

[@ElGatoLoco698]

Heyooo, bout time we hear from you. Glad to see your still makin beer the hard way.

[@Demymaker]

Very interesting, a real realization in "old time" style but fully functional. I think it takes a lot of practice to find the right temperature regulation but it is really something respectable!

[@StoneyardVineyards]

Awesome

[@RIBill]

They were most certainly NOT burning straw, exactly. When I went to India, they had a giant pile of straw and a giant pile of fresh manure. They would take a bundle of straw and pack it with fresh manure and then form it into something that looked like an extra-large calzone. The stacked them up in a ring to dry. They burned these for heat and cooking.

[@haylakesbrewery8550]

lots of great info thanks for sharing ,i have been brewing for about 15 years now and want to start malting and growing my own hops.i am in alberta so can get barley easy but malting it looks like it has some tricks to it ,the proof is in the finished beer.

[@segarza]

Utah biodiesel supply has stainless steel screens for barrels. Just right for holding your grain. Check out their website.

[@BrewingBeerTheHardWay1]

Holly crap, these look perfect, thanks segarza!

[@segarza]

@@BrewingBeerTheHardWay1 My pleasure sir. Anything to help you continue on your quest!

[@manatoa1]

I find it fascinating how the inconsistency in the process gives you everything you need to make a nice porter. Also how much kilned malt do you get per batch?

[@BrewingBeerTheHardWay1]

Yes pretty cool eh, I've done 12 lb batches but I think I could do twice as much in this kiln. That would give me a grain bed of about 6 inches.

[@manatoa1]

If the straw was bundled in a sheaf or bale, they could probably find a size that worked right. Or maybe dampers of some kind? Or guys continuously forking it in. I think scale makes this kind of thing so hard to figure out. What makes sense on a large scale can be bizarrely impractical for a lone hobbyist.

[@BrewingBeerTheHardWay1]

I agree, it must have been bundled tight, maybe there's a visual example in an old painting or illustration somewhere.

[@TheDuckofDoom.]

@@BrewingBeerTheHardWay1 Before modern combine harvesters and dwarf cultivars, the harvest method was cut, bundle with wire, [finish drying as needed], stuff bundles in a threshing machine to remove the seed, the final straw was longer and less crushed. Modern straw is shorter as grown and gets partly chopped in the combine before being bailed in a random orientation. The ashes from straw make a good potassium fertilizer and tends to raise soil pH (similar to lime pound per pound.)

[@BrewingBeerTheHardWay1]

@@TheDuckofDoom. Good point!

[@cmbtcmaltplant462]

Francois, thank you for all that you do. I would like to reach out to you, I have messaged you on Instagram under the account 'maltacademy'!