# AHB Articles: How to make malt at home



## absinthe (14/3/10)

This is the discussion topic for article: How to make malt at home


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## kenworthy (14/3/10)

Thanks for that,Im going to give it a try some day,looking forward to the kiln video!


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## absinthe (14/3/10)

kenworthy said:


> Thanks for that,Im going to give it a try some day,looking forward to the kiln video!



i was going to do that video today but cant find my camera


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## pdilley (14/3/10)

There is a video up already but it's been degraded in quality by YouTube demanding raw video uploads. All my vids get horribly pixelated like his one of I try and compress or convert video format before uploading. You only get good quality if you upload the huge raw video file. Sucks to be uploading hundreds of megabytes for only so many seconds of video but it really improves the quality of the videos on that site drastically so if you have any raw videos it's worth uploading them as the videos might be up there for a long long time.

Still enjoyed watching it as it is. And part of my favourite group of interests as I'm becomming quite the permaculture / self-sufficiency nutter.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete


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## absinthe (14/3/10)

Brewer Pete said:


> There is a video up already but it's been degraded in quality by YouTube demanding raw video uploads. All my vids get horribly pixelated like his one of I try and compress or convert video format before uploading. You only get good quality if you upload the huge raw video file. Sucks to be uploading hundreds of megabytes for only so many seconds of video but it really improves the quality of the videos on that site drastically so if you have any raw videos it's worth uploading them as the videos might be up there for a long long time.
> 
> Still enjoyed watching it as it is. And part of my favourite group of interests as I'm becomming quite the permaculture / self-sufficiency nutter.
> 
> ...


its only a crappy camera, so the video isnt much better than that anyway..





and i did find my camera so the kiln video is going up now


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## absinthe (14/3/10)

the second video is up.. 

enjoy


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## Effect (14/3/10)

very nice...

how do your malts rate against bought malts...and what is the price like?


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## pdilley (14/3/10)

I've been trying to source barley growers to drive out and get farm gate pricing. You'll be shocked to see the markups along the way from arriving at malting house to arriving to your lhbs.

PS love the kilning video 

Cheers,
Brewer Pete


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## absinthe (14/3/10)

Phillip said:


> very nice...
> 
> how do your malts rate against bought malts...and what is the price like?


to be honest i have never used bought malts apart from some peat smoked malt.. i have always made my own..





as far as price goes i get the grain for about $0.70 a Kg but after the power id say $0.85-$1 a kg. (i am thinking of getting a larger amount i might be able to get the cost down even more. but its not really what its about for me. its about doing it all myself).

i'll be making a vid on my roasting techniques. and another on how to make crystal malts too.


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## absinthe (16/3/10)

just an update i have made a test malting drum, a blue plastic drum with small baffles inside that turns really slowly to stir the grain without damaging it.. hopefully its a winner and i can post a vid of that guy too


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## Anofre (21/3/10)

What size is the white tub you use to water & drain at the start? Do you fit all 7 kg in at once?
On the water it 3 times a day for 3 days; Does that mean its under water in the laundry tub consantly & drain & refresh at each of these times, or fill the container up & let it drain out each time?

Cheers for the vids


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## absinthe (21/3/10)

Anofre said:


> What size is the white tub you use to water & drain at the start? Do you fit all 7 kg in at once?
> On the water it 3 times a day for 3 days; Does that mean its under water in the laundry tub consantly & drain & refresh at each of these times, or fill the container up & let it drain out each time?
> 
> Cheers for the vids


i think the tub is about 15 ltrs, it does fit all 7 kg (a third of a bag) 

the water means fill the tub and let it drain 3 times a day, if you leave the barley under water for that long she'll die, or have a much higher chance of a barterial infection


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## Anofre (21/3/10)

Im going to do this, looking forward to it.
My family grow barley & have been thinking about turning it into beer for a while.

Dunno about butchering the clothes dryer tho. The Missus wouldnt be impressed.

We dry our seed in a commercial dryer, flame driven. Can crank it quite high, though not sure about kiln temp until I test it out. It pops seed on the hot edge on full crank. Im wondering if I could make a small rack for the malt up which could fit off it.

1st round will be in the oven I think...


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## absinthe (22/3/10)

Anofre said:


> Im going to do this, looking forward to it.
> My family grow barley & have been thinking about turning it into beer for a while.
> 
> Dunno about butchering the clothes dryer tho. The Missus wouldnt be impressed.
> ...



can you run it without the flame to dry the malt? id love to see some pics of it


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## bum (22/3/10)

Phillip said:


> what is the price like?


 
Based on Absinthe's reply (and having no go at Phillip here whatsoever) this question is absolutely irrelevant. You'd be saving, what? An average of $12 per brew? And even then only if you ignore the time=money thing. If you don't have $12 to put towards your hobby then your should consider the merits of competitive breathing. 

I want everyone to know that I accept that an interest in malting your own barley is worth at least $12 per batch and that the money is not my point - unless the money is yours.


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## Anofre (22/3/10)

absinthe said:


> can you run it without the flame to dry the malt? id love to see some pics of it



Yep, flame is diesel driven with a thermostat. Can run on plain air. It cuts on & off as the temp drops. The air is from a 3ph electric blower. If you blow grain with plain air at 100% humidity & you will actually moisten the grain. Flame makes it quick + dehumidifies.

Ranges from 0-80degC or so on the dial. Wouldnt trust the scale & use it like a low-high. High will pop sorghum.
On a dry day you can put a greenish batch through (+15% moisture) & get it down to 12 in 1 run. If its rainy it makes it harder. I'll try get some pics soon as i can. We built it oursleves, blower is 2nd hand.
Like a mini version of this: http://www.richmondauctionservice.ca/html/...GrainDryer1.jpg

The problem is its a 2t bin. Can run with 1t at the lowest. 
If we have to dry any less, we actually lay it out on a big tarp in the shed & stir it regularly - just like you did!


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## absinthe (22/3/10)

Anofre said:


> Yep, flame is diesel driven with a thermostat. Can run on plain air. It cuts on & off as the temp drops. The air is from a 3ph electric blower. If you blow grain with plain air at 100% humidity & you will actually moisten the grain. Flame makes it quick + dehumidifies.
> 
> Ranges from 0-80degC or so on the dial. Wouldnt trust the scale & use it like a low-high. High will pop sorghum.
> On a dry day you can put a greenish batch through (+15% moisture) & get it down to 12 in 1 run. If its rainy it makes it harder. I'll try get some pics soon as i can. We built it oursleves, blower is 2nd hand.
> ...


hmm one ton of malt eh? sounds good  although i dont dry it on the plastic when i lay it out, thats just to malt it in fact you need to keep it moist.. i think the level of moisture in malted grain would be much high than harvested grain.. (im guessing) .. 

so the grain just has air bing blown through it? then it wouldnt remove the rootlets, thats the advantage of the dryer it screens out the rootlets at the same time


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## Bandito (26/3/10)

Dude! thanks heaps for the vids! I am so going to automate malting and kilning when I get a chance!

Thanks heaps for sharing your knowledge! 

A few weeks ago I thought I read on here that you were looking to buy grain direct (cant find it now), but I saw an ad on tv that same week about putting buyers in touch with growers - as in where one can buy grain direct (ar almost) from the grower. Havent seen it since though - anyone have a phone number for it? I saw it on country nsw tv.????


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## fcmcg (27/3/10)

Bandito said:


> Dude! thanks heaps for the vids! I am so going to automate malting and kilning when I get a chance!
> 
> Thanks heaps for sharing your knowledge!


Bandito...with all this automation...will you actually need to be there to drink the final product ? Or will it drink its' self lol...
sorry mate couldn't resist


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## Bandito (27/3/10)

I'll pay that one!

I am finalising a valve purchase in the next few hours, and wanted to consider whether I should get an extra 12" butterfly valve for this purpose - automating this will be quite hard! Still coming to grips with the concept.


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## Pete2501 (27/3/10)

Bandito said:


> I'll pay that one!
> 
> I am finalising a valve purchase in the next few hours, and wanted to consider whether I should get an extra 12" butterfly valve for this purpose - automating this will be quite hard! Still coming to grips with the concept.



Do the thing you're doing. In the mean time check out a local/closest maltster to get an idea of what's needed.


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## Bizier (27/3/10)

absinthe said:


> to be honest i have never used bought malts apart from some peat smoked malt.. i have always made my own..



Mate, you are awesome. A true homebrewer. Good topic, and I am hanging out to see your other vids.


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## absinthe (28/7/10)

i have added a third vid as an update i have a much faster/easier method now


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## Bandito (2/8/10)

I'm having trouble seeing the wiki linked to in the first post. Can anyone else see the vids or text? I just get blank picture outlines and no text.


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## Bandito (5/8/10)

Googling the thread title hit the vids.

Thats awesome! Great work!


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## Banshee (6/8/10)

How do you know your barley is suitable for malting. Low protien malt is sold to the maltsters the high protien is very good for animal feed. You dont want high protein barley. 
Barley aint barley.

The malsters test the barley for suitability.

How do you test yours?


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## absinthe (8/8/10)

Banshee said:


> How do you know your barley is suitable for malting. Low protien malt is sold to the maltsters the high protien is very good for animal feed. You dont want high protein barley.
> Barley aint barley.
> 
> The malsters test the barley for suitability.
> ...



i make beer with it..


yes i do get a little more protein haze than commercial malts but it doesn't bother me that much im not trying to win awards with my beer. most feed barley is steam rolled (as far as i know) as it makes the nutrients more available to the animals. i just buy a 25kg bag of whole barley from the feed store. it works great and its cheap


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## mash head (13/8/10)

As a grain grower this is all very interesting. The blokes at the grain recieval site test the grain to tell you if its malting quality, just because they test it for you doesnt mean you have to sell it to them. One day I will invent some more time and get back to brewing and malting.
Keep up the good work absynthe..

Greg


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## Bizier (13/8/10)

Interesting, I just listened to the recent BN Sunday Session with the Whites from White Labs, who have an enzyme product out that cleaves haze proteins. I would be interested to see it used on one of said beers that might have above average protein levels.

PDF



> Enzyme preparation for food use containing proline-specific endo-protease


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