Howdy from Yarmouth

[BrewRide]

Vids like this are great to show my wife that I'm not that crazy about making beer.


Sandy

Thanks, that gave me and the wife a smile. Malting your own is crazy, explaining it to family, friends and the people at the feed store (which is the side of a cow barn..lol) that's the interesting part..

Me: no no I swear its great beer..

followed by puzzled looks..

Them: why dont you just buy beer from the store..

then I think they are crazy.. its a visious cycle..

On a serious note, I am glad you shared the video, and that you can use it to look more sane to your wife, I at least hoped someone would watch it. thanks.

Thanks for the cool video. It looks like a pain in the ass, but I'd definitely try it at least once just to see how it goes.


-Keely

Thanks for the compliment. The process is a pain in the ass, I really hate debearding the grain, it takes a long time. I have yet to construct a device to accomplish it for me.

If you do end up making beer this way, please send me a message on here, or comment on the video, so that I can hear how you made out. I know there is plenty of room for improvement in my technique, and methods, I would welcome input from someone else who has done this. Plus I always like hearing how good a beer is..

As I was watching your BIAB video, I was wondering about kilning your own malt. Have you tried that? I know you need to get it very, very dry before putting any heat to it, was curious if you'd tried that.

Your technique for the boil is intriguing, as I'm usually shooting for a specific gravity on things, whereas you are shooting for a specific taste from the hops. Will give me something to think about the next time I brew! What I'll do is set my timer for 60min (or however long I've calculated the boil to be), and then if I know I don't want a lot of bitterness, I'll hold off on adding the hops until later in the boil.

Thanks again for posting the videos, looking forward to watching number 3!

I have not kilned any malt, but I have the tempurature and heat settings in case I wanted to try. I didnt know it needed to be really dry to kiln them, but now that you say it, it makes sence. I guess in that case I would wait until after you let it sit in a paper bag for a few weeks, then kiln it. Except for the cystal malts, as I believe they are made from green malts, and would be done before the drying process. I was thinking of trying it, small batch wise start with 4lbs and make a pound of each crystal 30, 120, 240. Now I see a video coming, pale malt, amber, chocolate.. some crystal 240.. make a batch of beer outside my normal, store bought clone.

I like how you alerted me to my technique of the boil being different, I mean I knew I did it differently from other videos I have seen (I have never seen another person make beer in real life) but I never realized that because I have just adapted from tasting every step, I bite the grains, I have drank hop tea, I tasted the can from the kits I used to make. I usually hit a consistant number for specific gravity when I brew from store bought grain, and that is why I just taste the hops to finish it, and never worry.. this is the first time I have gotten a lower O.G. reading (so bad in fact I left it out of the video). I assumed it came from my home malting process not being as efficient as store brand.. Now looking back on the video I am not sure I had 8 pounds of two row.. I dont have a large scale so I measured smaller amounts, and I am not sure I counted right, I may have only used 6 pounds of two row.. O.G. 1.041. I figured it out from a new batch I did that filled more paper bags. I need a better scale to get my specific gravities back in check, but I will always taste the beer to know when to stop the hops, just because it works for me, and it is just my opinion. I should have boiled longer too, so I like your idea of boiling and the late hop addition.

I guess the point of the video was to not introduce too many new terms, or hard techniques, to use the least amount of equipment and make a beer, outside taking readings and logs (all of which I do, by the way..lol) to open beer making up to people that may not know that we all on here make beer so easily, with so much time and effort and attention to detail, that not only does it taste better than store bought, but it is more finely crafted than any other beer in existence (until we make it to the next brewer's house).

I appreciate the responses and questions keep them coming

.. cheers

[BrewRide]

Just finished watching it. Great!

Thanks..A third video is to follow once I film the taste test.. I am waiting for the beer to finish in the bottle, it is almost clear and I bottled it Friday, and its only Monday morning, but I want it to be crystal clear for the video..

[LeafMan66_67]

Great videos and attitude. Keep it up!

[BrewRide]

Great videos and attitude. Keep it up!

Thanks for taking a look at them, and I appreciate your compliment of my attitude, I realize quite often when I see my kids being kids.. Patience and mild temperament takes time and effort..lol.. Truth be told, I am just grateful for a lot, and I show that by speaking honestly without pretense.

[mr x]

Will watch the whole videos when I get back to wifi. But the couple seconds I watched were hilarious.

[BrewRide]

I toasted some chocolate malt today and filmed the taste test of my horse feed beer. all three videos are posted

The Cheapest Beer You'll Ever Like

Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFJPHvH4eZo

Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOMXLkPHBDs

Part 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtDVDt3dOaA

[GAM]

Nice.

Sandy

[GuingesRock]

^ Yes! I've seen all three now. Interesting ideas and innovations.

[chalmers]

Good stuff! Thanks for posting the videos.

[LeafMan66_67]

Nice job on the videos - and the math!

[BrewRide]

Nice.

Sandy

^ Yes! I've seen all three now. Interesting ideas and innovations.

Good stuff! Thanks for posting the videos.

Nice job on the videos - and the math!

Thank you all for the great response to my videos, I am a very quiet and keep to myself type, but I love showing people the things I have learned. I really wasn't sure I should make videos at first because my knowledge is minimal, and I am not a great speaker. I know there are better videos, and I am sure anyone of you has more skills in home brewing than I do. I still published them regardless, good or bad, just to have the information out there..

I tip my hat to you all for making me feel better about my decision to post the videos, and for my obvious lack of confidence.

I am halfway through kilning some pale malt, and then on to the Munich malt, now that I have finished making crystal 20 and 60, and chocolate malts.. I will be making it into beer in a couple weeks. If all goes well, I will post that as well.

Thanks again

Chris

[BrewRide]

Howdy once again. I finished another video, where I kilned some grains, this one is my attempt at a Munich Dunkel. It came out clear and tasty, but a little light in color due to my light chocolate malt, next time I am going to kiln it at 450F for an hour, to try and get a darker beer. I like the flavor of it, nutty, and with a creamy head.

Hope you like the video. thanks in advance for giving it a watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km0qW0MBdDk

[GuingesRock]

BrewRide, This was in my inbox the other day, and I thought of you.

Malting Barley Grain at Home

For the adventurous home brewer who wants to take all grain beer brewing to yet another level, you can malt your own grains at home. While most micro and home brewers start with malted grain, it is possible to purchase unmalted grains and go through the malting process at home. The equipment required is modest, and bulk unmalted grains can be purchased at a fraction of the cost of malted ones.

Unmalted barley is widely used for animal feed, so a good place to purchase unmalted grains in bulk is likely a local feed store. Usually it is sold in large quantities – typically 50lb to 100lb bags. Smaller quantities can be purchased from some brew stores, pet stores or equestrian specialty shops.

There is a lot of variation in unmalted barley quality. If possible, you want to choose a barley that is low in protein as high protein will result in cloudy beer. Inspect the grains if possible before buying to look for minimum broken grains, absence of mold or bugs, consistent color and general overall quality.

Steeping the Raw Barley

The first step in home malting is to steep the barley in water to begin the germination process. Start with a large bucket that can handle the grains plus enough water to float all of the grains. Add water until all of the grains are floating, and let the grains sit in the water for 2 hours.

Remove the grains from the water (a strainer is good for this) and let the grains air out and dry for about 8 hours. This step is important as if you leave the grains in the water they will drown and eventually die.

After the grains have dried for about 8 hours, steep them again in a clean batch of water for another two hours, and dry them again for 8 hours. You will likely have to continue this for a third cycle. Within 24 hours of starting, you should see small roots start to grow from the base of the kernel (called chits). Stop your cycles of steeping and drying once you have 95% of the grains germinated.

You should have added approximately 40-45% moisture (water) at this point. Assuming you started the dry grains with ~9-10% moisture content, adding 35% moisture will result in a weight gain as follows: 1 kg of grain has ~100 g of water before steeping. Adding 350g of water (45% water content) results in a total of 1.35kg. So if you started with a given weight of grains, you can stop steeping when the grains weigh 30-35% more than when you started.

Germinating the Grains

The grains must now be germinated in a cool, slightly moist, but well ventilated area to grow the small leaflet inside the grain called an acrospire. This generally takes 2-5 days. The ideal temperature for germination is 64F, or about 18C.

You want to keep the seeds cool, spread them out well and moisten them periodically with a little spray mist. The germination process generates heat, which can lead to bacteria or mold growth so its important to aerate the grains and turn them every few hours in a cool location to avoid infction. Many early malters actually spread the grains on a concrete “malting floor” to keep them cool and make it easy to turn them periodically.

You continue malting until the small leaf (acrospires) within the grain is approximately 80-100% of the length of the grain. Note that the acrospires is inside the grain, so you need to actually split the grain open with a knife or razor blade and look for the white leaf that is part of the endosperm and attached to the rootlets. Typically the external portion of the rootlet will be about 2x the length of the grain when it is finished, but checking the actual acrospire length is the best method to determine when to stop.

Drying the Malt

Drying the malt can be difficult as it requires a steady temperature of between 90-125F (31-50C). Drying at a higher temperature will destroy the enzymes needed for mashing. If you are fortunate enough to have an oven with temperature control that can go this low, then leaving it in the oven for ~24 hours is an excellent way to go. In some cases, even the oven light is sufficient to reach the 90F temperature needed, though it may take some time to finish.

If you live in a sunny dry climate, sun drying is also an option. Some care is needed to keep birds and other small scavengers away, but you can leave it out in the sun for 2 days which should be sufficient to dry the malt.

A third option is to use an actual food dehydrator. Inexpensive home food dehydrators are available for as little as $30-40 and work quite well.

You are targeting a finished moisture content of approximately 10%. Assuming you have not lost much material in the first two steps, this would mean the finished weight of the grains with their rootlets attached should be close to the total weight of the unmalted grains before you started the steeping process. Recall that we started with about 10% moisture content in the original unmalted grains. Therefore you can stop drying when the grains plus rootlets weight are back to approximately their original unmalted weight.

Finishing the Malt

The last step is to separate the dried, malted grains from the rootlets growing out of them. After the grains are sufficiently dry, the rootlets will simply fall off them with a little agitation. You can use a colander or some screen to shake the grains around and separate the dried rootlets. Note this is a bit of a messy process, as the rootlets tend to get on everything, so you might want to do this outside.

At this point you have pale, malted barley equivalent to that which you would normally purchase from your brew supply store. You can crush it and use it just as you would any pale barley base malt.

If you wish to make specialty malts from your pale barley, you can toast the malts in the oven to make varying shades of crystal, toasted, brown malts. For the lightest of crystal type malts, try toasting at 275F for one hour. For a medium crystal, try toasting at 350F for 15-30 minutes. If you toast at 350F for an hour you will come close to a commercial brown malt. You can also get different variants by toasting wet vs dry malts. A wet toasted malt will impart a slightly sweeter toasted flavor.

For more on home malting, her is an article on Bodensatz by Dan Carol which I used when malting on my own for the first time. Geoff Cooper also has a short article on roasting malts.

Thank you again for your continued support!

Brad Smith

BeerSmith.com

Follow BeerSmith on Twitter and Facebook

Will try to look at your latest video when not at work

Howdy once again. I finished another video, where I kilned some grains, this one is my attempt at a Munich Dunkel. It came out clear and tasty, but a little light in color due to my light chocolate malt, next time I am going to kiln it at 450F for an hour, to try and get a darker beer. I like the flavor of it, nutty, and with a creamy head.

Hope you like the video. thanks in advance for giving it a watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km0qW0MBdDk

[homebrewcrew]

Welcome

[BrewRide]

That is a great read GuingesRock thanks for sharing. I wish I had that when I started doing it, that's more info than I had at the time.

I will say this. I am pretty certain, I will always malt some of my own.. $17 bag, and beer flavors are unlimited.

The Dunkel is very tasty.