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).