[b-hoppy]

My impression has always been that making malt is easy, but making good malt is hard.  I'll be looking forward to your results!

Very true, as you're just encouraging a seed to do what it naturally does (germinate), but from that point on is the real test.

I did about 15 pounds of feed barley back in the early 90's and ended up turning it into a munich/vienna malt as I couldn't get my final kiln temps below about 220F.  It did make a decent beer but what I remember most was that I'd never do it again because of all the work, haha!  (especially the fact that you could buy a bag of malt for less than $20 back then)

I'm sure you'll have good luck with your project!

[morticaixavier]

My impression has always been that making malt is easy, but making good malt is hard.  I'll be looking forward to your results!

Very true, as you're just encouraging a seed to do what it naturally does (germinate), but from that point on is the real test.

I did about 15 pounds of feed barley back in the early 90's and ended up turning it into a munich/vienna malt as I couldn't get my final kiln temps below about 220F.  It did make a decent beer but what I remember most was that I'd never do it again because of all the work, haha!  (especially the fact that you could buy a bag of malt for less than $20 back then)

I'm sure you'll have good luck with your project!

you know, I hear the 'lot of work' thing from a lot of folks when they are talking about home malting and I wonder. This process, not counting the waiting part, took maybe 20-30 minutes of my time. Granted I only made 1 lb of malt but I could easily scale the process up to 5 lb at a time without too much additional time, maybe double what I spent this first time.

So overall it might add 2-3 hours to my 'brewday' but those extra hours would be spread over the couple of weeks between brew days. It's possible I'm talking out my bottom and we will see as this experiment continues.

Price wise, I'm paying 50-60 bucks for a sack of organic domestic malt. If I want continental or british malts, we're talking 70-100 bucks. So the economics might have changed. That being said, it's not really about being economic is it? I make a decent living and my time is way more valuable than the value of the beer I produce (theoretically my beer is priceless but in the hard cold light...)

[BrewArk]

If the additional work or the cost were the issue, I could go to Costco and buy a case of Celebration for about a buck a bottle, but I like homebrewing.

I have been growing hops for about 5 years and grew barley for the first time this year.  My winter barley experiment is in.

I will probably malt my first batch after Christmas. (either Santa will bring me a dehydrator, or I'll pick one up on after Christmas sales) I'll probably be working in the 1# range too.

Best of luck on your batch!

[morticaixavier]

If the additional work or the cost were the issue, I could go to Costco and buy a case of Celebration for about a buck a bottle, but I like homebrewing.

I have been growing hops for about 5 years and grew barley for the first time this year.  My winter barley experiment is in.

I will probably malt my first batch after Christmas. (either Santa will bring me a dehydrator, or I'll pick one up on after Christmas sales) I'll probably be working in the 1# range too.

Best of luck on your batch!

thanks,

from everything I've read, that dehydrator is going to be key. You can dry at an extremely low temp and a good one will allow you to cure at ~165 or above which is great.

[klickitat jim]

I think knowing how to malt is a great skill. Probably not efficient but neither is building tiny ships in bottles. But when the ZA comes, people who can malt their own will be kings.

[morticaixavier]

Well the game is afoot...

This afternoon I milled my 443 grams of home malted 6 row robust barley, then I milled 443 grams of gambrinus pilsner malt.

Unfortunately, at about this point I got distracted and forgot which grain bag had the pils and which the home malted stuff. oops. oh well, it's good and truly randomized now. Too bad it will never be un-randomized 

I mashed each at 155 45 minutes (I used the oven set to 170 to maintain the temp and that worked well). I mashed in with 2.25 liters of water each so right around 4 liters/kg.

I pulled the grain bags and rinsed each with 2.5 liters of 180 degree water and let them drain while I went out to dinner. about an hour later I took a preboil gravity on each. Started the boil and added 4 grams of american liberty hop pellets to each.

Given my above comment I has assigned Sample A and Sample B.

Sample A Preboil gravity = 1.020
Sample B Preboil gravity = 1.027

I have my suspicions on which is which. I think A is the homemalted stuff. There is also a slightly less... well malty aroma to A which re-enforces my suspicion

[morticaixavier]

Final results:

Sample A: 1.8 liters @ 1.047 for a 63% Brewhouse efficiency. Taste is sweet and bitter.
Sample B: 2.0 liters @ 1.052 for a 77% Brewhouse efficiency. Taste is also sweet and bitter.

Pitched 4 grams of us-05 in each after chilling. Time will tell. It's cool enough here now that I am going to just ferment these out at room temp which is ~65 here.

[tommymorris]

I think knowing how to malt is a great skill. Probably not efficient but neither is building tiny ships in bottles. But when the ZA comes, people who can malt their own will be kings.

Now you're talking!

[morticaixavier]

Okay, sample time:

Sample A: 1.012 (75% apparent attenuation) Possible infection as there is a thin whiteish film on the surface. Not 100% sure it's infection but it is suspect. Aroma is very very yeasty/raw bread dough with a pear/apple aroma. Flavor is light, fruity, grainy not bad.

Sample B: 1.006 (89% apparent attenuation) No film on this one but the aroma and flavour are quite similar to Sample A. There is a much stronger alcohol heat/flavour in this one and it comes across as somewhat more harsh. There is a slight metallic aftertaste that may be there with Sample A but the higher FG masks it.

Overall they are both drinkable and after a couple more weeks might even be passably good if overly simple/boring. I'm still not sure which sample is the homemalted sample so I guess we will have to move on to test 2.

I'm going to malt 5 lbs and make a small 2 or 3 gallon batch with more thought to making a proper beer. Kolsch seems like a style that will lend itself to highlighting the malt.

[morticaixavier]

Well, I bottled the initial test samples. I got 1 22 ounce bottle from Sample A and 2 from Sample B.

We will see what happens in a few weeks. Not holding my breath here but I'm still interested. Neither was totally revolting upon bottling but neither were something I would drink either. thin, slightly too bitter.

[dkfick]

Well, I bottled the initial test samples. I got 1 22 ounce bottle from Sample A and 2 from Sample B.

We will see what happens in a few weeks. Not holding my breath here but I'm still interested. Neither was totally revolting upon bottling but neither were something I would drink either. thin, slightly too bitter.

Well they were very low gravity all base malt beers... I would expect them to be somewhat thin... But I think what you need to look at is if they taste similar...  Did your homemade basemalt stand up to the maltsters basemalt.  That would at least give you an idea if you would liek to do it on a larger scale for a whole batch etc...

[morticaixavier]

Well, I bottled the initial test samples. I got 1 22 ounce bottle from Sample A and 2 from Sample B.

We will see what happens in a few weeks. Not holding my breath here but I'm still interested. Neither was totally revolting upon bottling but neither were something I would drink either. thin, slightly too bitter.

Well they were very low gravity all base malt beers... I would expect them to be somewhat thin... But I think what you need to look at is if they taste similar...  Did your homemade basemalt stand up to the maltsters basemalt.  That would at least give you an idea if you would liek to do it on a larger scale for a whole batch etc...

Oh don't get me wrong. I'm not disappointed particularly with either. I didn't expect much. They do taste similar. one might be a bit breadier than the other and one a bit more bitter. Hard to tell till they have some time away from the yeast and some carbonation.

I'm moving forward with the next step anyway because I have the barley and it really wasn't that difficult.

[dkfick]

Nice.

[BrewArk]

Ok, I'm taking the plunge.  Just started soaking a pound of my homegrown barley.  (since some of the same seed is growing in the garden - I'm sure it's venalized enough)

Here it is soaking:

[morticaixavier]

nice!

I tasted one of the samples (I got 2 22oz out of one sample but only 1 out of the other). It was odd, kind of doughy bready. I suspect partially an infection but I also suspect that that was the homemalted stuff and I didn't kiln it off right at the end. the final curing process is it seems important so after it's all dried off it should be bumped up to ~ 165 for 20-60 minutes to cure it. This is what I'm going to try next anyway.