by WicketNut » Thu Nov 06, 2014 9:20 pm
I have given malting a go for the first time with 3kg of wheat and 3kg of barley. All bought from the grain store, so no idea what variety it was. :think:
The wheat finished quicker, but was an absolute bugger to dry - I had it in the kitchen oven at min temp and it took forever to lose the damp feeling, then very quickly became almost too cooked. The barley took longer to finish growing (an extra couple of days), but dried much more evenly and felt and looked right at the end.
Taking off the rootlets - the wheat rootlets came off easy. I didn't use the pillow case, simply swished them around in a kitchen sieve and they all came off without drama.
The barley roots were stuck up with super glue! They are dry, and come off when rolled in the fingers individually, but the sieve, the pillowcase, rubbing groups of them together in my hands, nothing worked easily. Ended up rolling them in small batches in the sieve with my hand.
Would I do this again? Maybe - it was easy up until the drying, so a solution there would be handy. Is it easier to buy malt? Definitely, but there is a satisfaction about doing this yourself. And the process is simple to follow.
I intend to supplement the malt with enzymes when I use it in a mash shortly, because I have no faith that I haven't killed of the malt enzymes in the grain with the heat during the drying.