# My malting procedure



## tubbsy (5/1/21)

I've been malting my own wheat and barley for a little while now and have been asked to post some pictures of my process, so here it is! Began malting some barley today so will post some pictures as they happen during my process. If anyone has some feedback, please share! Just because I know how doesn't mean I'm any good at it!

Step 1- In this picture I have about 6kg of barley. It's only feed grade but has nice consistent size grains and is free from foreign matter. I wash the grain using a handheld water gun on Jet, which gives the grain a good agitation. I'll fill the tray and quickly decant the water off to get any chaff before it sinks. I'll do that 5 or 6 times until the water is pretty clear. I don't worry too much about any remaining chaff as I figure it's not too far removed from the husk. When done I'll fill the tub again with the jet (the jet has the benefit of oxygenating the grains too) till the water is a few inches above the grain.

This will then steep for around 12hours.


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## kadmium (5/1/21)

Heck yeah this is awesome! Can't wait to see how it progresses!!!!


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## tubbsy (6/1/21)

It's worth pointing out that I'm not monitoring the moisture content this time around. I did the first few times with a tea-ball, but now just go by the chits. I also don't monitor the temperature. I hope to eventually when I can control it a bit better, but at this stage it steeps in the tap water at around 10-14ºC and will typically stay that temp all night.

The steeping schedule is basically my work/sleep schedule, so hasn't been too consistent, especially if it occurs over a weekend. It got a 13.5 hour steep last night and this morning before work I drained it in a mesh basket. I got these baskets from Bunnings and they work really good as the hole size is perfect for this purpose (and others as you'll eventually see). After tipping the grain into this basket, I then set it back into the plastic tub (it's a snug fit and sits off the bottom), cover loosely, and let rest until I get home from work.


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## shacked (6/1/21)

This is awesome. Looking forward to the rest of the process!!


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## tubbsy (6/1/21)

No photo today, because the grain only went back in the tub for another steep. It'll steep for another 14 hours, then rest again for another 9-10 hours tomorrow. We'll see then what more is needed.


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## tubbsy (7/1/21)

Pic of the chits starting to emerge this morning. Will need more time, with maybe a 4 hour steep this afternoon, but we'll see..


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## yankinoz (7/1/21)

MYO (malt your own) takes dedication. Good on you and best of luck, but I won't be joining in soon.


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## tubbsy (7/1/21)

> MYO (malt your own) takes dedication. Good on you and best of luck, but I won't be joining in soon.



I've had a few people tell me that, which I find weird given the hobby of the people saying it. I guess it's like people who love cooking, but would rather use packet pasta instead of making it yourself.

The 5-10 minutes per day it requires isn't that much of an imposition and I enjoy the process, which is easier than a lot of people realise (with the right equipment).


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## MHB (7/1/21)

I think there is only one good reason to make your own malt - because you want to!
Mind you having shipped stuff to the west coast of Tasmania, freight might come into it.

For your other hobby, sure, but for brewing I want a COA on every malt I use, lower protein contents than you will get from feed grade barley.
Most of my brewing is recipe development for commercial brews or finetuning other recipes, to be able to do that effectively I need to know exactly what is going into every brew. Its all about repeatability for me.
I can admire what you're doing, won't be doing it any time soon.
Wish you all the best and happy to cheer from the sidelines.
Mark


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## tubbsy (7/1/21)

So, not much more to report today. Chits are similar this morning, so it's soaking for another 6 hours. Will strain the grains before bed and rest over night.


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## tubbsy (8/1/21)

Had a 6 hour soak yesterday evening, then another 8hr rest overnight. The rootlets are starting to emerge, and this is where I've been stopping the steep/rest and begin the germination phase. I germinate the grain in the basket sitting in the tub to allow some air flow through the grain so it doesn't get too hot (temp of grain this morning was 11.2C).


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## Hangover68 (8/1/21)

Well done, as a chef of 35 years i understand your desire to do this. 
Looking forward to the end result, what is the cost of feed grade barley anyway ?


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## tubbsy (8/1/21)

Hangover68 said:


> Well done, as a chef of 35 years i understand your desire to do this.
> Looking forward to the end result, what is the cost of feed grade barley anyway ?



What I'm using now costs $12/20kg, but could be had cheaper if bought directly from a farmer. Current port prices are around $220-$260 per tonne. Oddly, malt barley is selling for pretty much the same price, probably due to the China situation.


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## tubbsy (8/1/21)

Germination continues with the rootlets growing some more. Gave the grain a spray from a bottle to moisten while turning it over by hand. Grain temp sitting at 20.1°C.


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## Feldon (8/1/21)

Oh please God, tell me you're not going to toast those new born babies to death!! 
Agghhhhhhh. No!!!!


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## tubbsy (8/1/21)

Feldon said:


> Oh please God, tell me you're not going to toast those new born babies to death!!
> Agghhhhhhh. No!!!!



What?!?


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## S.E (8/1/21)

Feldon said:


> Oh please God, tell me you're not going to toast those new born babies to death!!
> Agghhhhhhh. No!!!!


I suspect it could be worst! (arguably). Wouldn’t surprise me if he just lets them dry out slowly laid out in full sun to die!


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## tubbsy (9/1/21)

More germination today. Still only turning twice a day, but may have to do it more often once the rootlets get a bit longer to prevent matting.


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## tubbsy (10/1/21)

The importance of turning and not having the bed too thick was evident this morning. Despite an ambient temp of 13°C, the middle of the bed was 26°C.

Also checked the acrospire length today and its not far off. With the grain I'm using I can actually see the acrospire under the husk, but I peeled the husk back to get a better look. I checked 10 grains and all had similar lengths. I reckon it'll be done this afternoon.


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## MHB (10/1/21)

That one looks ready to kiln. Another day and the first of your Hussars will be showing.
My interest in malting is mostly academic, have studied it and been through a couple of maltings as part of studying brewing, so treat this as observation not criticism.
Everything I can see says you may not have got quite enough moisture into the grain at the start and that its been way too warm.

Looking at yesterdays picks, there is some there that is starting to branch (ty rootlets) and some that is just starting to chitt. There is also a fair fraction that have done diddly.

When barley is classes as malting grade Protein content is one of the main criterion, one of the others is evenness of sprouting, the varieties chosen for malting are selectively breed for this trait. If you can get your hands on malting barley you might get better results.

Uneven hydration will result in uneven sprouting, too warm tends to promote rootlet growth, normally by the time the rootlet is the length of the corn it should have forked and the acrospires should be about 3/4 of the corn length and the goods ready for kilning.
There will be a significant loss of potential from overgrowth.

Anything you can do to measure your moisture uptake (100 corn weight, imbedding some perforated containers with a known mass of grain in the bed...) and being able to control the temperature better should help.
Most malt is cooled has the CO2 content and has the moisture of the bed controlled by forcing air through it, probably need a bit more than a fan.

If you were making malt for another hobby it wouldn't matter but brewing malt, especially if you intend to do isothermal mashing, needs to be very well and evenly modified. What you have there will be inconsistent and I would strongly recommend you either do decoction mashes (the traditional way to cope with under/inconsistently modified malt) or step mashes, should improve your yields and the quality of the wort.
Well simply it would help make better tasting beer - and for me that's the nuts.

Am still following with interest.
Mark


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## tubbsy (10/1/21)

MHB said:


> That one looks ready to kiln. Another day and the first of your Hussars will be showing.
> My interest in malting is mostly academic, have studied it and been through a couple of maltings as part of studying brewing, so treat this as observation not criticism.
> Everything I can see says you may not have got quite enough moisture into the grain at the start and that its been way too warm.
> 
> ...



Thanks Mark, that's exactly the type of feedback I need.

Temperature control is definitely on my to-do list. I just need to figure out how to get air moving through the grain without drying it out. This malting is also the first time I have done it when the weather has been warmer. Temp control and oxygenation of the steeping water is also something I plan on looking at. My understanding is that oxygenated water kept to cold temperatures will slow any growth but not drown the grain? Biggest issue I have at the moment is no cooling capacity for anything but cold crashing. My wife won't let me modify our current fridge to use, so I'm on the lookout for something else.

Yeah, the grain I have is far from ideal. Mashing efficiency has been pretty consistent at around 70%, but having mashed commercially malted grains I know I can comfortably hit 85% with my mashing process. The brew in my other thread is to determine what this malt makes. It's currently in the fridge cold crashing and will be bottled tomorrow, but from a sample of the wort, it actually tastes pretty good, and I imagine it would only get better with carbonation and conditioning.

With this malting, I think I'll give a step mash a go, at least on half the malt with the other half mashed as normal to compare.


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## MHB (10/1/21)

Cheers
I have some notes (somewhere) from class work years ago, I'll have a dig around and see what I can find.

I know some small (home) maltsters draw air up through a stack of trays, there is a small sprayer down the bottom so the air is fully saturated with moisture, wet air wont dry stuff (well unless there is a big change in temperature)

How are you measuring your Extract Efficiency, as a percentage of grain weight, dry grain or against a typical expected yield - just so we are using the same point of reference?
Mark


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## tubbsy (10/1/21)

I had planned to repurpose a 200L drum with sprayers on a fixed axle that the drum would rotate around. It would be used for everything from steeping to drying. Only if I could make it entirely out of steel would I look at kilning in it, but my air fryer does an OK job of small batches.

Efficiency is probably more brewhouse efficiency as I plugged the numbers into the Brewers Friend OG mash calculator using guestimate commercial malt equivalents.


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## tubbsy (10/1/21)

Had another look at the grain and there are some sprouting already, so I've gone ahead and started the drying phase. I have this box, with a couple computer fans on a dimmer and a couple baffles to direct the air evenly up through the basket.






The basket is fully sealed so the air can only go directly up. This box will sit in my fermentation chamber which is set on 35°C. It'll be there until the malt starts to feels dry, probably at least 18 hours. It does mostly recirculate the moist air inside the chamber, but there is a low inlet and high outlet to the chamber to introduce some fresh air. Another fan would be handy...


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## kadmium (10/1/21)

tubbsy said:


> Had another look at the grain and there are some sprouting already, so I've gone ahead and started the drying phase. I have this box, with a couple computer fans on a dimmer and a couple baffles to direct the air evenly up through the basket.
> View attachment 119784
> 
> 
> The basket is fully sealed so the air can only go directly up. This box will sit in my fermentation chamber which is set on 35°C. It'll be there until the malt starts to feels dry, probably at least 18 hours. It does mostly recirculate the moist air inside the chamber, but there is a low inlet and high outlet to the chamber to introduce some fresh air. Another fan would be handy...


You could also put one of those damprid containers from woollies in the chamber. Will suck up any moisture in the chamber. 

This is pretty cool!


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## Malted Mick (10/1/21)

tubbsy said:


> I had planned to repurpose a 200L drum with sprayers on a fixed axle that the drum would rotate around. It would be used for everything from steeping to drying.
> 
> That will work for the sprouting stage. The drying and malting may require a different approach because of the heat required. Commercial Alfalfa (Lucerne seed) sprouters use plastic or fibreglass rotating drums. They are fitted with lights, fans and misting nozzles using chilled water to contol the temperature. They rotate very slowly and gently roll the sprouting seeds to ensure each seed gets exactly the same amount of moisture and air. The drums are angled to drain off extra moisture. You would not need your drum to be translucent for greening of the sprouts. This will give you other options for drum material, what about a front loader washing machine tub that guys use as berly buckets!


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## postmaster (10/1/21)

Hey Tubbsy, Great Stuff, I have been malting on and off for the past 2 years and have just built a Germination - Drying- Kiln machine out of an old Beko front loader washing machine. (This is M11) less pulleys, 8 kg capacity and a variable speed motor. It is a real challenge malting in hot weather. (I usually did it from May onwards) Got some fresh grain (Hindmarsh) so I though I would give it a go. I actually steep in a fridge @ 15ºC and rest in there also. I use a twin fish tank aerator to provide oxygen and aeration. I ensure that when I change the water it is also at 24ºC. The issue I am having is that the germination goes to about 23ºC in this hot weather which is not ideal. In the past have done it at 18 deg. I think you get a bit darker malt than a pale ale at that temp. But I am giving it a crack. If you have Excel or even Libre Office this spreadsheet is a great help


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## tubbsy (10/1/21)

postmaster said:


> Hey Tubbsy, Great Stuff, I have been malting on and off for the past 2 years and have just built a Germination - Drying- Kiln machine out of an old Beko front loader washing machine. (This is M11) less pulleys, 8 kg capacity and a variable speed motor. It is a real challenge malting in hot weather. (I usually did it from May onwards) Got some fresh grain (Hindmarsh) so I though I would give it a go. I actually steep in a fridge @ 15deg and rest in their also. I use a twin fish tank aerator to provide oxygen and aeration. I ensure that when I change the water it is also at 24 deg. The issue I am having is that the germination goes to about 23 deg c this hot weather which is not ideal. In the past have done it at 18 deg. I think you get a bit darker malt than a pale ale at that temp. But I am giving it a crack. If you have Excel or even Libre Office this spreadsheet is a great help



That looks awesome! Is that an air frier you've mounted on the door?


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## Malted Mick (10/1/21)

Postmaster well done what a set up. Your issue of having germination temperature overun can be controlled by chilled misting water like the commercial sprouters use. I think they run their water chillers around 16c. I have to step back because before I know it I will be considering building my own sprouter! LOL


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## Malted Mick (10/1/21)

Here you go a alfalfa sprouter!


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## tubbsy (12/1/21)

So, the grain is dry and the kilning begins. This step is a bit tedious as the air frier can only fit 1.5kg. The temp control is also very touchy below 110°C, but I fiddle with it on the first batch to get the temp right.

Normally I go straight to 85°C for 2 hours, but I'm adding in a 1hr 65°C step prior this time.


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## MHB (12/1/21)

Guy next door was trimming his hedge this afternoon, which got me to thinking about you getting more air through you're sprouting trays.
Did a quick Google and ran into something that would perhaps be even better.
Should have more than enough air flow to get a good air dry before kilning.
*Farriers Electric Blower Blacksmith*


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## tubbsy (12/1/21)

MHB said:


> Guy next door was trimming his hedge this afternoon, which got me to thinking about you getting more air through you're sprouting trays.
> Did a quick Google and ran into something that would perhaps be even better.
> Should have more than enough air flow to get a good air dry before kilning.
> *Farriers Electric Blower Blacksmith*
> View attachment 119800



That would work great! Couldn't complain about not enough air with that!

I too have been thinking about my drying and kilning. I have a number of drying ovens at work (each up to 6m3) which would be ideal but I can't take my grain in to dry as they're set to 105°C. But there are a couple old ones, no longer operational (1.0m3 and 0.4m3) that I might be able to get hold of and repurpose. The smaller one would probably be better as it has 6 shelves around 40x40cm that could comfortable fit 1kg each, maybe more. And runs on 240v unlike the other 415v oven. Would only need to replace the PID.


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## MHB (12/1/21)

Sounds great, hopefully the price is right
One place I used to work the foreman was known to use a ten thousand watt annealing oven to heat up his pies, about the only time it got turned on, think the boss should have put a microwave or mini oven in the lunch room but not my problem if the meters used to hum.
Mark


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## tubbsy (13/1/21)

Kilning continues. Its all had an hour at 65°C, now for 2 hours at 85°C. I should get it all finished tomorrow night, then it can rest for a few weeks.

@MHB Do you know of a malting wheat grain specification? I've looked around but can't find anything.


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## MHB (13/1/21)

Off the top of my head - No.
There aren't any special varieties breed for malting, they just select for the lowest protein and all the other traits that make it easy to malt, even corn size, uniform sprouting, low foreign seeds...
You can get Raw Wheat through Jo White, I would assume its the same as they malt, but its not much cheaper than malted wheat.
Have attached a couple of COAs for Australian Wheat and German Pale Wheat. Should let you abstract a fair notion of what they started with.
Just did a search, haven't got one for raw wheat - sorry. If you emailed whoever sells Joe White these days, I think its Bintani they might be able to send you one. There isn't anything on the Joe White site.

Hope that helps some.
Mark


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## MHB (13/1/21)

Took a snip out of Kunze for you, has about as much info on Wheat as I have ever needed, might be a help
Mark


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## tubbsy (13/1/21)

Thanks Mark.

My family are wheat farmers, but malting wheat was never thought about. Even the barley we grew was only for feed. Low protein wheat was also often sold for feed as high protein was target for the highest grade (prime hard) because it makes better noodles. Was just curious what wheat grade maltsters might use.


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## tubbsy (14/1/21)

So, kilning is now complete and after resting for a few weeks will be good to use.

To summarise, my steps were...

Step 1 - Washing the grain
Step 2 - Steeping 13.5hr, rest 9hr, steep 14hr, rest 9-10hr, steep 6hr
Step 3 - Begin germination once rootlets (not chits) appear
Step 4 - Continue germination. Kept in a cool place and turned by hand twice a day, with misting sprays to keep the grain moist.
Step 5 - Measure acrosprie length. For me it took only 2.5 days for the acrospire length to reach 75-100% of the grain length. Normally takes up to 4 days but it has been a bit warmer recently.
Step 6 - Dry the grain to halt germination. I did this at 35°C for 12 hours, then bumped it up to 40°C for another 8 hours. Continue until it feels "crispy".
Step 7 - Kilning. I did this in an air frier in 1.5kg batches. All malt was kilned at 65°C for 1 hour and 85°C for 2 hours.
Step 8 - Wait at least 2 weeks and the malt is ready to use!

From here I plan on making some crystal malt. I forgot to keep some aside before drying, but I've read a decent approximation can be made by soaking the kilned malt then "stewing" at 65°C for an hour, then dry and kiln again. I'll probably give it 180°C for an hour and see how it goes.


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## kadmium (14/1/21)

First of all. Wow. That was very interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Really appreciate the little side hobbies and things that go along with brewing. 

And second, making crystal sounds interesting! Essentially mashing it for an hour, then roasting it. Makes sense now that I think about it! I wonder how they get biscuit, vs crystal vs chocolate etc. I am guessing just different roasting temps and times?


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## tubbsy (14/1/21)

Yeah, this will be my first go at a crystal malt. Roasted malts are fairly straight forward in the air frier, with the exception of the very dark malts which require greater temps and/or extra care to not catch fire. Most of what I've made so far has been done at 180°C for an hour and smells delicious. A quick guide can be found here.


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## MHB (14/1/21)

Crystal is mashed in the corn, at home I would consider taking green malt (after sprouting but before drying) and BIAB it, then drain, dry and kiln, temperature and time of kilning is mostly what determines colour.
Stewed malts (Vienna, Munich... Aromatic, Biscuit) are heated up late in the sprouting process to encourage melanoidins, then dried and kilned, hotter kilning for darker versions. In the old floor malting days they would at the end of sprouting, heap up the malt and cover it with tarpaulins so it got hot and high in CO2.
Amber to Black are just malt dried then kilned at higher and higher temperatures. The term Black Patent is because to get true black malt there was a fair chance of the malt catching fire, some one "Patent" a drum roaster that made it a safer and controlled process, there days fires in maltings are pretty rare, mind you Joe White burnt down one of theirs a decade or so ago.
Malt is one of the primary ingredients in brewing, knowing a bit about malt helps us choose the right malt for the job at hand, its also a real craft/science in its own right. Lots to learn and it would be fun to play around with if I had the time.
Big ups tubbsy, hope it works well for you.
Mark


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## tubbsy (15/1/21)

I ended up visiting a homebrew shop today that I only just found out about in Somerset who stock grains. Picked up a 25kg bag of Coopers Pale Malt (half the price of Maris Otter!) that I'll use as my base and use my home malted grains to make specialty malts. I could see myself having to have a batch malting at all times and that just isn't feasible. Now I should be able to do several batches a year (will try for mostly in winter) and maybe give some of those stewed malts a go.


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## postmaster (16/1/21)

tubbsy said:


> That looks awesome! Is that an air frier you've mounted on the door?


Tubbsy. No its a halogen turbo oven I see K-Mart have them for $45 at the moment Make sure you get the 1300 Watt one. I dry at 40 60 deg C and than Kiln at 80 deg C for 3 to 5 hrs. I just judge by the look of the grain and if its hard to bite into. Should be about 3% moisture
I think I have had it heat to 85 deg no sure if it would heat much higher, but thats okay for Pale Ale


https://www.kmart.com.au/product/12l-convection-oven/2755301?&gclid=CjwKCAiAl4WABhAJEiwATUnEF3isXtxP38Q5h1gst_WP4tl8wdrA61gCNbl2P-K_rUBfFgoCMxYcZxoC4jAQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds


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## postmaster (16/1/21)

Malted Mick said:


> Postmaster well done what a set up. Your issue of having germination temperature overun can be controlled by chilled misting water like the commercial sprouters use. I think they run their water chillers around 16c. I have to step back because before I know it I will be considering building my own sprouter! LOL


Malted Mick. Yes. Sounds like you are a tinkerer like myself, you get the bug and keep going. I am thinking along these lines. Using a Extractor fan so it blows air in the top of the Machine (Replacing the Ozito blower) This moves about 180 CFM. I would run ducting through a jockey box that I could keep cold water in and it hopefully would chill the air as it draws through and than blows into the machine. Not sure if it would work, so its just a thought in process. Other wise back to malting in Cooler weather. You really do not want too much moisture when its germination. Just enough to make sure the husks do not dry out.


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## postmaster (16/1/21)

Malted Mick said:


> Here you go a alfalfa sprouter!View attachment 119791


Yep that what I need. Lol


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