Growing Barley for brewing

[drtablet]

hats off to you good4whatAlesU you've really embraced this.
Don't you have a temp controlled fermentation fridge you could drop to 15C for this?
or is already full of beer

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Having good fun. Thanks drT for the inspiration.

Nah unfortunately no fermentation fridge, that would be ideal.

I usually just ferment in an esky bag with a couple ice bricks - holds 17-18C okay.

What I do have access to are some large industrial drying kilns at my work though.. Tenp controlled to .1 degrees. If I get that far kilning should be good..

 

[Weizguy]

One of the reasons malting is not recommended for home production of brewing grain is due to production of nitrosamines.
The potential production of these strong carcinogens was mentioned at the latest ANHC meeting by Bert Van Hecke, from the BOM maltbakery/ brewery.

You (home maltsters) may want to review his talk from ANHC 2016 and perhaps check if he provides reference material before making yourself crook.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Thanks for the info.

Looks like the commercial malt plants use sulphur sprays or "indirect heating" to reduce the nitrosamines to acceptable levels. Mainly a problem in direct gas or fuel (e.g. peat) type systems.

The unit I will attempt to use if all goes well is a fan forced electric unit (element is hidden behind stainless panels). Not sure if that makes any difference?

I suppose people made malt for several hundred years before we knew about nitrosamines produced by fuel malting. The brewer in our family lived to over 90 and made a lot of traditional malt and beer, lucky genetics I guess. No plastic and very little fructose in his lifetime (1782 - 1872).

 

[wide eyed and legless]

One of the reasons malting is not recommended for home production of brewing grain is due to production of nitrosamines.
The potential production of these strong carcinogens was mentioned at the latest ANHC meeting by Bert Van Hecke, from the BOM maltbakery/ brewery.

Considering we are making a group 1 Carcinogen with the beer, and most food carry the same risk especially processed meat,(so there goes the bacon) and we have a greater than 50% chance of getting cancer, what the hell. I am interested to see how it goes, I mixed rice hulls with my Perlite and got rice growing, even developed ears.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Okay so a small amount of germination this-morning, seems to be going a bit slower as desired (with a bit of temp control).

For interest I threw a temperature logger in the esky bag last night at around 4.00 pm and left it in overnight. Graph below (click on it to make it larger). It seems a single large Ice-brick keeps the temperature below 20 Celcius for about 10 hours. Beyond that and things start to warm up. May have lasted longer except I left one corner of the bag open to allow airflow.

Note for self is that the bricks need replacing every 10 hours is up to maintain sub 20 C. Two ice bricks may maintain a lower temp for longer. .

Edit: What I should have done is put one logger inside the bag and one logger outside the bag do get temperature differential (influenced by the ice-bricks)... Okay I'll do that tonight.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Gave the grain a stir with a trowel at lunch time. The deeper grains are germinating a bit more quickly than those on top (Trays are about 7 cm deep). Seems to be going okay though.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Changed out the ice bricks for the night, just reaching 24 hours germination.

Sliced open a few grains and it looks like the acrospire is still quite short, so that's good at this stage (?) not sure if I'm looking at the right part.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Day 2 germination.

The grain seems to be germinating very well, but I am quite disappointed with my temperature control. Delays feeding the ice bricks during the day (and overnight) temperature is not low enough and germination is running at an average of about 19 degrees (about 3 degrees to high) ..... graph below. We'll see how it goes. Perhaps if the germination is all done in 3 days, they at least I can whack the grain in the oven over the weekend.

 

[wynnum1]

Ice bricks i find using 5 litre containers work the best the ones used for bleach liquid soap fertilizer and other chemicals as long as what was in them is not highly toxic there safe to use after a clean out change before they defrost completely.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

That sounds like a good idea wynnum. Bigger bricks, the longer they will last.

I think too because I am leaving the esky bags open to allow respiration/ gas exchange things are warming up more quickly than they would otherwise. Anyone doing this on a larger scale would be better off using a thermostat controlled fridge/ ducted cooling.

Thought bubble: Ducted Cooling: I was thinking the other day a hose running from my keg fridge to a sealed cupboard with a electric solenoid valve would work. The valve hooked up to a thermostat which opens/closes when temp inside the cupboard gets above or below a certain point. These solenoid valves can be had for $20 or so. ... hose is pretty cheap. That way you could run a number of fermenters/ germinators set at different temperatures, with multiple cooling coming off the same fridge (also being used as a kegerator).

 

[Benn]

Might be worth checking out the latest Beersmith Podcast, has a bit of info regarding small scale Malting.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

All's going well this-afternoon. The acrospires appear to be around 1/3 to 1/2 way along the grain.

I finally figured out how to check the acrospires - instead of cutting the grain in half, just peel back the long (back) side of the hull and you can see the acrospire inside.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

I have noticed there are a few threads on here covering this, don't know if you have checked them out.
Smoked peat if it could be incorporated might be the go, only need a small amount of grain to add to a brew, wife may cause a fuss if done in your conventional oven in the kitchen, my wife doesn't allow me to grill kippers in the house. Or microwave.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Thanks weal. Fortunately I have access to a big computer controlled drying oven at my work. The boss is a good bloke and the company owe me a few weekend hours from past work, so they said I could use it if it's not being used.

 

[wynnum1]

How is the malt dried would think that if the temperature was high enough that the enzymes would denature and if the temperature was too low that flavor would not be good.

 

[mr_wibble]

One of the reasons malting is not recommended for home production of brewing grain is due to production of nitrosamines.
The potential production of these strong carcinogens was mentioned at the latest ANHC meeting by Bert Van Hecke, from the BOM maltbakery/ brewery.

You (home maltsters) may want to review his talk from ANHC 2016 and perhaps check if he provides reference material before making yourself crook.

Is it possible to see a video or audio-recording of his talk Les?
There doesn't seem to be anything on the ANHC website.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

How is the malt dried would think that if the temperature was high enough that the enzymes would denature and if the temperature was too low that flavor would not be good.

It is usually a stepped process - incrementally raising the temperature, drying the malt down gradually. Depends on the type of malt you are trying to create. I'm yet to decide exactly the program (advice welcome for a basic ale malt).

The acrospires are moving slowly (at 72 hours) mostly at 50% of the grain length, so I have 2-3 days germination left yet I think before the grain is ready .

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Had a closer look today and it looks like we are ready for the kiln. Acrospires 80-100% of grain length. Would have liked the germination a bit more even but it will have to do.
Spread 4cm or so deep onto 8 alfoil trays and into the oven. 33 degrees for a couple hours then 50 degrees for 24 hours. I'll check them tomorrow and see how it's looking.

Note: The grain really 'fluffs up' as it germinates so don't overfill your trays or they will spill over like mine did. 2 full trays of grain became 8 for the kiln.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Looking okay today. The trays on the top shelf with slightly less grain have dried out more rapidly as you would expect.

I've raised the temp to 65C for a few hours and switched the top trays to the bottom and visa-versa.

Next increment to finish will be 85 C - I'll have to do this last step at home in the kitchen as the work oven will be needed tomorrow (Monday morning).