Was reading the link to ebooks on brewing that Bugwan posted and The Complete Practical Brewer; Or Plain, Accurate, and Thorough Instructions in the Art of Brewing has an interesting description on malting barley.
link
Anyone thinking of doing some malting, start with only a few kilos, then scale up. If you are lucky like redgums, you have access to good low protien barley. Malting barley is often downgraded to feed grade due to high protien. Have a look in the horsey feed barn, you are looking for barley that has good consistant grain sized, not a mix of shrivelled and fully filled grains. A 30kg bag is about $10, depending on the season.
When you brew with it, aim for a higher og beer, I have found that the amount of sacharides never reaches anything like commercially malted grain.
I have found an old zapap bucket great for malting, have even drilled up a few more buckets so do 8Kg at a time in three buckets.
The process is very moisture and temperature dependant. Watch out, as the barley reaches the correct point of germination, be ready to stop it, as it then takes off and is fully sprouted quickly. I have seen grain of an evening before I go to bed approaching the right point and by the next morning it is almost past it.
