INTRODUCTIO
to
By George de Piro
ON
m alting your own grain is labor intensive, time consuming, and infinitely more fun and edu-
cational than reading a book (or magazine article!) about it. An in-depth knowledge of
malt is key to formulating outstanding beers. To truly understand the malting process one must get one’s
hands dirty and actually do it.
Like commercial malting, home malting can be separated into three basic steps: steeping, germina-
tion, and kilning.
Steeping is performed to bring the relatively dry grain to a moisture content of about 45% so that ger-
mination can commence. During this phase the grain will be alternately submerged in water and then
drained and allowed to rest. The sequence and timing of these phases vary based upon the character of
the barley and the preferences of the maltster. Monitoring the moisture content of the grain is critical
during this phase.
During germination, growth of the tiny barley plant begins inside the seed and roots sprout and grow
on the exterior. Physical and chemical changes take place during this growth that make the kernel suit-
able for use in brewing. While moisture content is still important during this phase, the goal will be to
achieve a certain degree of growth. This is assessed by checking to see how much progress the acrospire
or barley shoot has made in growing from the root end of the kernel toward the tip. In low-modification
malts, it will cover only one-half to two-thirds of the distance; in well-modified malts, three-quarters or
more will be covered.
MALTING
nations. A scale with larger capacity can be
EXAMPLE STEEPING SCHEDULES used to measure of grain and malt.
Steep tank: This can be a 5-gallon, food-
For German 2-row Barley 1 grade plastic bucket with holes drilled into the
bottom placed into another 5-gallon bucket
Time/Temp Moisture Content at end of step without holes drilled in the bottom. The old
“Zap Pap” lauter tun works perfectly!
Wet Steep 4 hr @ 54° F (12° C) 32% Malting floor: Aluminum roasting pans
work well, as would any shallow, flat pan or
Couch 20 hr @ 63° F (17° C) 34%
plastic container. If you have a particularly
Wet Steep 4 hr @ 54° F (12° C) 38% clean basement floor, you could try just
Couch 20 hr @ 70° F (21° C) 40% spreading the malt on it. Most home malt-
sters will opt for a container of some sort.
Wet Steep 2 hr @ 59° F (15° C) 44%
Household space heater: Useful for
low-temperature kilning. For small batches,
Home Malting of Harrington 2-row Barley 2 food dehydrators can be used.
Household fan: A fan is useful for drying
Time/Temp Moisture Content at end of step malt at low temperatures prior to kilning.
Kiln: A kitchen oven can be used suc-
Wet Steep 11 hr @ ~50° F (10° C) 35% cessfully, but temperature control is likely
to be laborious and imprecise. Still it is the
Couch 3 hr @ ~70° F (21° C) —
best most of us can hope for. There are
Wet Steep 6 hr @ ~50° F (10° C) 38% reports of people using clothes dryers, but
Couch 5 hr @ ~70° F (21° C) — I have no experience with them (other than
their obvious use).
Wet Steep 11 hr @ ~50° F (10° C) 42.5%
Thermometer: An accurate thermome-
Couch 3 hr @ ~70° F (21° C) — ter with a temperature range of at least 45-
Wet Steep 4 hr @ ~50° F (10° C) 43.5% 212º F (7-100º C) is very useful. A higher
range will enable you to make more accu-
In all schedules, wet steeps must include aeration every one to two hours. Couch phase must include rate temperature measurements when mak-
CO2 removal every two to three hours. ing crystal and roasted malts.
Commercial and home malting are the-
oretically similar, but there are some impor-
tant differences. While each lot of barley
must be treated differently regardless of size,
small-scale maltings can germinate much
faster than larger batches. This may be due
1: Adapted from Kunze, W. Technology Brewing and to the intensive aeration that is possible
Malting. VLB. Berlin. 1996. p 124. when malting small amounts of grain. Malt-
ing schedules must therefore be looked
2: Data provided by Ray Daniels. Overgrown malt upon as guidelines rather than gospel. It is
important to use your senses of taste, smell,
touch, and sight to determine when to move
Kilning dries and toasts the grain, halt- malt is in large part dependent on the on to the next phase. The one objective ana-
ing growth and imparting many of the fla- amount of malt you wish to produce. You lytical tool that can help you monitor the
vors we associate with malt. In most cases, can make a pound or two using small plas- progress of your malt is moisture content.
drying occurs first at lower temperatures tic containers and other common kitchen Before we move on to discuss the three
(100-120º F or 37.7-48.8º C) and toasting items. For larger amounts, up to 15 lb (6.8 phases of malting, let’s discuss this impor-
tant procedure.
PHOTOS BY RAY DANIELS
proceeds only after moisture content has kg) or so, your malt can be made using stuff
been reduced to about 10 percent. To a that most all-grain brewers already possess.
large extent, the temperature of toasting Here is a basic equipment list: MOISTURE CONTENT DETERMINATIONS
determines the final character of the malt. Scale: A scale with the ability to accu- The moisture content, also referred to as
The equipment you need to accomplish rately measure mass up to 200 g in 0.1 g the degree of steeping, can be determined
each of these steps and produce your own increments is useful for moisture determi- in two ways. The first is to take a sample of
32
ZYMURGY JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2001 WWW.BEERTOWN.ORG
grain from the batch, weigh it, dry it and
then weigh it again. This technique can be
order to do calculations using Equation 1
during the malting process, you will need to
THE MALTING PHASES
Now that you are familiar with the main
used at any time and at any phase of the calculate the dry weight of your sample
quantitative measure used to aid in malting,
malting process. Short of burning the ker- using equation 2.
we are ready to discuss the individual phas-
nels during drying, it is fairly foolproof. We’ll
Equation 2: sample weight x (1 - moisture es of the operation.
call this the “drying method.”
content as a decimal) = dry weight of sample Steeping is performed to bring the rela-
The second method that can be used is
tively dry grain to a moisture content of
to entrap a small sample of grain in a per-
Once you begin the malting process, you about 45% so that germination can com-
forated container (called a Bernreuther
will be able to remove the Bernreuther appa- mence. Water uptake will be influenced by
apparatus) that is included in every step of
ratus from the batch, open it, weigh the several factors including: steeping time,
the process. By weighing the grains before
grains and then return them to the appara- temperature of steep water, kernel size, bar-
processing begins and knowing their initial
tus and the batch in process. The weight you ley variety and character.
moisture content, you can directly deter-
determine each time will give you the Steeping consists of two stages: wet
mine moisture content by weighing them
“weight of moist grain” needed for use in steeps and air rests. During the wet steeps
again at any point in the process. This tech-
equation 1. You will use the value for “dry the grain is covered with clean, cool water.
nique depends on two things. First, you
weight of sample” from equation 2 for the During the air rests, the water is drained
have to maintain exactly the same popula-
“weight of dry grain” value in equation 1. from the grain to allow for respiration of oxy-
tion of kernels in the container throughout
The primary value of the direct method gen and removal of carbon dioxide.
the process. Second, the grains in this sam-
is that it allows very rapid assessment of The length and number of steeps and
ple must receive exactly the same treatment
current moisture levels during malting rests can vary widely based upon the char-
as the rest of the batch so that they are rep-
whereas the drying method requires a three- acter of the barley and the maltster’s pref-
resentative of the whole batch. We’ll call
hour delay. Also, when small batches are erences. Indeed, most maltsters conduct a
this the “direct method.”
being produced the drying method may series of pilot maltings on small samples
In both systems for assessing moisture
result in the loss of a significant amount of before beginning to malt a production-size
content, we will be working with the same
grain by the end of processing. batch. This helps (continued on page 58)
equation:
Equation 1: (weight of moist grain – weight
of dry grain) / weight of moist grain x 100 =
% moisture content
Using the drying method, a sample is
accurately weighed and then placed in an
oven on a baking sheet or similar device in
a thin layer and heated at 212-220º F (100-
104º C) for three hours. (Note the grain
should not become brown or burnt during
this procedure – if so, your oven may be too
hot.) After the drying is complete, you weigh
the grain again and use the values you have
obtained in the equation above.
Using the direct method, you would first
determine the moisture content of your bar-
ley using the drying method. The sample of
grains used for this purpose would be dis-
carded. Next you would put some barley in
your Bernreuther apparatus (the perforated
container), remembering that during steep-
ing the grains will swell to occupy nearly 50
percent more space than when dry. Once
you have selected the sample, weigh it and
then return it to the apparatus. You will now
know the moisture content of your barley
and the weight of your initial sample. In
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WWW.BEERTOWN.ORG ZYMURGY JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2001
Roast, Toast (from page 29) Home Malting (from page 33) as high as 30%. After the grain has been
pine, spruce, or other softwoods, as they’ll them to determine the best steep/rest sched- steeped, the water is drained off, the grain
impart resiny, creosote flavors, resulting in— ule and germination conditions. Figure 1 turned, and is then allowed to remain in the
technically speaking—yucky beers. shows some steep schedules that have proven steep vessel without water for the first air rest.
As for wet or dry wood, I haven’t yet successful with US-grown Harrington barley. During the air rest the grain continues to
seen the value of soaking my wood. It’s just Now, here’s my basic procedure for absorb the moisture adhering to it and ger-
going to dry up and burn eventually, isn’t it? steeping using a Zap-Pap double-bucket mination begins. The respiring grain will
If you wish, you can heat things up a bit style mashtun. The grain is placed in the generate a fair amount of heat and carbon
and let your malts toast while they smoke. Just bucket that has holes drilled in the bottom. dioxide and may become dry to the touch.
stir the malt every now and then to keep it This bucket is then placed into the “unholy” Frequent turning and rinsing with cool water
from scorching, and observe the waiting peri- bucket. The grain is covered with cool water will keep the grain aerated and moist.
od noted above before using it to brew a batch. (50-55º F) and rinsed with a continuous Be sure to smell, feel, and taste the grain
Once you start roasting and smoking overflow of water for about 15 minutes to during this process. The grain should not
your own, you’ll find that these techniques remove debris. After the grain is clean smell or taste sour or rancid at any time. It
can be a valuable tool in your search to cre- enough for your tastes, it is left covered with should taste clean and grainy. As germina-
ate unique, delicious, homebrewed beers. cool water to steep. After an hour, the inte- tion begins it will take on an odor similar
I wish you happy roasting, smoking, brew- rior bucket is removed from the other and to cucumbers or unripe apples. This is your
ing, and of course, drinking! set down. The oxygen-depleted steep water sign that everything is going well.
Randy Mosher has been a homebrewer for is dumped out and the wet grain is poured Near the end of steeping, the grain will
seventeen years and a National Beer Judge for back and forth between the buckets several show the first signs of germination, namely
more than ten. Author of The Brewer’s Com- times to ensure thorough aeration. It may chitting. Chitting is when you see a small
panion, and the homebrew columnist for All then be covered with fresh, cool water again. white spot or bump at the broad end of the
About Beer magazine, he has lectured on beer This aeration should be performed every barley kernel. This whitish structure is the
and brewing around the country. In real life he hour for the first few hours of the first wet rootlet beginning to emerge.
does branding and packaging design, special- steep. The moisture content of the grain can Once your grain achieves the target mois-
izing in small breweries. be assayed at the end of the steep and may ture level it is time to move on to germination.
Germination in traditional maltings
occurred on a malting floor. At home, you
BREWING COMERADE are not likely to want to spread malt all over
your house to allow it to germinate. Not only
BREW LIKE THE PROS ON THIS would this be of questionable sanitation, but
MICROO-MICRO BREWERY. ALL the people you cohabitate with may be jus-
STAINLESS STEEL BUILD tifiably annoyed, and your dog will find the
INCLUDES: ONE S/S TOWER malt delicious.
RACK DESIGN FOR GRAVITY Y Shallow aluminum roasting pans or plas-
TRANSFERS, ONE HOT LIQUOR tic bins (available at fine supermarkets and
TANK WITH TEMP. CONTRO OL, hardware stores everywhere) are ideal for
MASH AND LAUTER TUN, germinating small quantities of grain. Trans-
BREWKETTLE, UNI TANK fer the moist grain to the malting pans in lay-
FERMENTER, HEAT EXCHANGER, ers about 2” (5 cm) deep and watch the
PUMP, HOSES, CONTRRO
OLS AN
ND
D fun unfold.
MAIN BREAKER READY TO BREW During germination, the rootlets which
1/2 BBL RE
ECIPES. began to emerge in the steep tanks grow
rapidly. To keep them from tangling into
“ $ 3600.00 “ an inseparable clump, the malt must be gen-
PRICES MAY CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE
tly mixed and turned at least twice a day.
STAINLE
ESS STEEL SPECIALIISTS T.. L. inc. Also, the grain must be misted with cool
of brewing equipment (5 to 100 BBL)
Fabrication and installation of
water frequently to maintain the desired
509 B Papinneau Street
moisture content. Finally, the temperature
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Tel: (450) 979-6733 Fax: (450) 979-6733 range from 55-65º F (12.8-18.3° C).
Web: stainlesssteelspec.com The temperature during germination has
E mail info@stainle
esssteelspec.com a big effect on the quality of the malt. Those
practicing floor malting tend to keep the
58
ZYMURGY JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2001 WWW.BEERTOWN.ORG
