Describe the malting process of barley

• First, you need to select raw barley that is suitable for brewing. Look for large plump kernels of 2-row barley. You also want the kernels to be of fairly consistent size to encourage a consistent germination rate later.
• Soak it in water. You want the water content of the barley to get up to about 45%. The soaking process will take you a minimum of 40 hours, or at least two days.
• This time you need to change the water at least daily, and preferably every 8 to 12 hours. You could also devise system whereby the water is constantly but slowly drained while being replenished by some type of slow sprayer.
• After your barley is soaked, you need to germinate it.
• The traditional floor malting method should work fairly well
• To do this, spread your soaked barley on a clean floor to a depth of about 8 inches. The temperature in your germinating room should remain consistent at about 60 degrees F. (16 oC)
• It will take about 8 to 15 days for the barley to germinate.
• During this time, you will need to turn and move the barley about every 12 to 24 hours.
• You should also spray a light mist over it to keep it moist, though not wet.
• Note that the time the barley takes to germinate properly can vary widely. Less than 8 days is possible, though sometimes as much as 24 days may be required.
• Examine the barley to see when germination is complete. Neither under nor over modified malt is desired. Undermodified malt still has starch in the grain that could be converted to sugar. Overmodified malt has already started consuming the sugars during the normal plant growth cycle.
• When the malt is fully modified, you need to "kiln" it. This is a 2-step process: drying and curing. In the first step, you are drying the malt at a low heat over a long period of time to drive off the moisture. This is typically done at 32 to 38 degrees C with constant air movement, and takes about 2 days. The grain is done drying when the moisture content drops into the 4 to 5% range.
In the curing stage of kilning, the temperature is raised to 172 to 220 degrees F (78 -104 oC) for another day and half to 2 days.
If you are producing lighter colored pale ale malts, your malt is now ready. However, if you want darker colored malts, you would increase the temperature during the curing stage to produce what are called "high kilned malts".

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Titany answered the question on April 22, 2022 at 07:39