Recent content by sandybits

Cheers, Not For Horse. I will toast it up. I can brew with the second batch and will make an educated guess that the first batch would most likely under perform it. Thanks for the times and temps. I wonder if an acid malt can be undermodified? Off to Google...

Well my second batch is done. I left it in the fridge (15c) for about 8 days in the end. It got a little matted and there might have been a bit of white fluff on some of the roots (mould?). However I threw it in the dehydrator for 1 day at 35c then another day around 50c. It sat for another...

Thank again Not For Horses. I was having trouble finding references for the resting or mellowing idea. This weekend my first batch will be close to 2 weeks mellowing, anyway, so I might give it a try. I'm also getting a small order of pale malt delivered from the LHBS so I'll be able to...

Thanks hoppy2B. I just checked my grain after 5 days at ~15c and they are about 3/4 or a bit more of the length of the kernel. So I might be on track for closer to 10 days germination, as per your post, this time. Unfortunately, my best concrete floor is also accessed by the dog and chickens...

I bought a pair of really cheap jewellers magnifying glasses a while back (a weak moment on ebay from memory) and did cut open some grain. And now you've explained what I'm looking for I did see that. I'll slice open a few more to see how the non-floating batch is doing. Fair enough. I wonder...

Haven't looked at the grow side (yet). Do you need a thresher? It was the first time I'd read that one anywhere. The grains I tested have been germinating for 4 days and look about right. I would have expected some "floaters" as per the test. I need to do a bit more work on inspecting the...

I was reading http://www.mosquitobytes.com/Den/Beer/Hmbrewing/Malt.html in which they state, "...50 kernels of malt are shaken into a pan of water. After 10 minutes the number of horizontally floating kernels is counted; undermodified kernels either sink or float vertically in the water. At...

I ended up putting it in a big roasting pan and its in the oven hovering around 78-81c. I've got a meat thermometer in the pain in the grain and am shooting it with my cheap ebay IR thermometer. Another 3 pans the same size would be nice to make the best use of the electricity, mind you...

Great, thanks. I was hoping you would say 4 hours at 70c as that's what my dehydrator goes to :) Edit: Do you check the moisture level before each malting? I've just checked my weight and its lighter than my beginning dry weight which I guess is fine as I've lost some weight to root loss and...

Hey Not For Horses, Thank you for the input. I can live with poor efficiency on my first malting attempt. It has only cost me $1.40 in barley and a couple of bucks for electricity, I guess. However, undrinkable beer at the end doesn't sound very good. I will do as you say and keep the...

Out of curiosity I have attempted malting some barley. I did a moisture test (100c for 3 hours to dry out a sample, weighing before and after) I steeped and air rested to get a 42% moisture content. However I only germinated for 2 days. Some of the grains had the acrospire busting out and a...

:unsure: Are we talking about syphons or something else :)

I'd read somewhere to put the cooling kettle on cold concrete. I guess the theory is that heat transfers to concrete better than air. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_conductivity reckons that concrete is a slightly better conductor than soil and a fair bit better than air alone. Water is...

I ended up putting 1 teaspoon of gelatine into a cup of boiling water then stirred that into the fermenter on Thursday (or Friday :unsure:). Today, I put my DME (mixed into a litre of boiling water) into my second fermenter and racked onto that. Wasn't too painful and it was sort of cool to be...

I've just experienced a very similar thing to the OP. I just bottled a Coopers Cascarillo http://coopers.com.au/diy-beer/beer-recipes/ale/detail/cascarillo-amber-ale-recipe-pack/ and had a Cooper Australia Pale Ale kit sitting on the shelf. Threw that in and took it up to 16 litres (SG -...