Sprouting Grains at Home

[joechianti]

If anyone has access to the BYU channel on TV, I see this coming Tuesday, June 3, I think, there's a cooking show called Chef Brad Fusion Grains, at 3 pm CST, where he's going to show how to sprout barley. This might be something interesting. I know some folks get upset when the same post is in more than one place, but since I really don't want anyone who's interested in sprouting their own grains to miss this, I'm gonna post it in two places and beg forgiveness.

[Tabasco]

By "sprouting", I guess they're talking about "malting". The process where barley is held in warm water for a while, and "starts to sprout" (malts), so that it's "malted barley" (has the starches and enzymes need for conversion to maltose in the mash). My friend upstate did it once and said it was a big PITA, not worth the small $ you save.

[joechianti]

I got the same impression about it being a PITA when I was researching it in the past. But it's one of those things that would be fun to try at least once just to see what it's like and to appreciate the process behind the malted grains we use. Actually, I probably would have never even given it a second thought if it wasn't for the fact that gluten free malted grains are so hard to find. It's more of a curiosity and a niche interest than a matter of practicality. As lazy as I am, I may never get to it, but if I do, I'll certainly share the experience.

[The_Professor]

I tried to check out RickBeer's link in the other thread.

I found the malting barley show but it would not play for me.

By "sprouting", I guess they're talking about "malting". The process where barley is held in warm water for a while, and "starts to sprout" (malts), so that it's "malted barley" (has the starches and enzymes need for conversion to maltose in the mash).

Almost. Sprouting is the first part of malting but sprouted barley is not malted barley. For malting, the sprouting barley is dried at a chosen point to halt the sprouting. The drying may or may not be followed up with additional roasting.

As far as "is it worth it", is concerned, home malting is not something one MUST do to make beer now-a-days. But it certainly is interesting, and one can malt anything that can be malted then.

I was very happy with a recent beer that was made entirely from home malted barley. I called it an "Olde Style Porter". I found an old book that suggested pale/amber/brown malts for a Porter. Modern Brown malts are meant to be an adjunct rather than a base malt. So I malted my own.

I was quite surprised by both the color and flavor I got from my homemade malt. Here.

I have been doing a little home malting for 3 years now. It is fun for some brews.