Increased Interest in Growing Malting Barley

The American Malting Barley Association press release (2/19/2014) titled "Increased Interest in Growing Malting Barley"  supports  the micro-malthouse missions!  Grow and support local!  There is a need for malting barley varieties throughout the USA.  Click the screenshot below to read the press release!

Second Batch Success & Barley Malting Equipment!

The second batch of malting turned out to be a great success.  I think it is important to note that through the malting process you lose some malt/weight along the way.  This is due to cleaning the barley and removing dirt and foreign materials, removing any floating barley and dehydrating it to a lower weight than the seeds you begin with.  For this batch I started with 1.15 LBS of barley and by the time I was done malting it weighed .960 LBS.  

Due to limited space in my food dehydrate I had to kiln the varieties of barley separately.  Thus they ended up reaching different conversion rates.  I started with the Moravian which was about 80% converted when I began kilning, the Metcalf I kilned the next day and was 100% converted.  Also, I got tired during the kilning process so for the Moravian I did it in two stages.  I kilned it for about six hours slowly raising the temperature from 95F to 125F until it was less than 12% moisture.  Then I let it sit and finished kilning the next day at about 140F until it reached my goal of 3-6% moisture.  

Both varieties are between 3-6% moisture, and are your basic pale malt.  I did not roast either of them. Here is a picture of the final product...

Next steps...

1. My husband will be taking some of the base malt above to his Raw Materials class to have the teacher try it out.  We will be doing a mini-mash to see how it turns out.
2. I'm preparing two 4'x4' plots to plant my barley in.  The temperatures are not cooperating, but I'm hopeful for gray skies (first time I've ever wanted overcast cool weather!).  I'll be posting updates as the barley begins to grow.  I'm planning to soak the seeds before planting to help keep them cool when in the ground.
3. I'm also beginning to look at how I can do larger batches of malting.  I'm learning that good equipment makes a difference in the final products.  I've been doing some research to see what is available commercially and unfortunately it is VERY LIMITED!  I've found two resources that caught my eye and if this is something I decide to continue to pursue I might be looking to post on kickstarter to get some funding so I can do larger batches, those who would donate to the cause would get a batch of malted barley!  Here are the two resources I've found so far http://osuminimalter.weebly.com/ and HDP Brewing Systems pilot malting plants (screenshot below).

Germination 24 hours later...

I've been rotating the germinating barley every 8-10 hours to prevent the roots from tangling.  During the rotation I provide it one light spray of water to keep the moisture content up, but not soaked. After 24 hours germination is doing exceptionally well...much quicker than last time!  The temperature of the barley this morning during rotation was 64º F.

After 24 hours

So far the changes I've made seem to be working!  Here are the changes I've made so far since the first batch.

1. Bought a grain moisture tester and got accurate beginning moisture content.

2.  Malted more barley at once.

3.  Steeped using colder water and for longer

4.  Germinated using enclosed aluminum pans with holes in lid to maintain higher moisture.

5.  Did not rotate germinating barley for first 12 hours.

When you see Chit...

Batch #2 is well underway.  I tested the moisture level of both varieties last night and it was at 42%.  45% was my goal so I allowed it to steep another 8 hours over night and this morning prepped for germination.  Nearly all the grains have begun to chit which is another sign it is ready to begin to germinate.

The next step is germination, which I'm making a few modifications to from my first batch.  Last time, I felt the barley became too dry and took longer to germinate.  This time I put the barley into containers with a moist paper towel at the bottom.  I put aluminum foil with a few punctures over the top to keep contaminants out and moisture in.  I am going to leave the barley in our cold room the entire time, unlike last time when I brought it out and it rose in temperature.

Batch #2

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm pleased to present my grain moisture tester!  After a few weeks of searching for one that I could afford I found this new one listed on ebay!  It works for barley and I'm starting to do my second batch of malt. 

The moisture content for the Metcalf is 10.9%, for the Moravian 115 it is 9.8%.  Both were lower than I expected and lower than what I had estimated it to be during my first batch.

I'm malting my second batch now.  I'm doing 1.150LBS each of the Moravian and Metcalf.  They are doing their initial steeping now.