When I started this project I never thought that malting would be as interesting as it actually is. It really is a hobby in itself. If you can find a good source of barley I would definitely recommend trying it, at least for your own unique specialty malts.
There are endless possibilities when it comes to malting. Every factor in the process may change the final outcome of the malt. Some of these factors are 1: Temperature, from the germination temperature to the kilning and curing temperatures. 2: Humidity and moisture content, this includes the initial moisture content of the steeped grain to the amount of ventilation in your kiln. And 3: Time, how long you subject your barley to each step in the process.
This week I wanted to make more caramel malt but this time using my Harrington 2-row barley and a different procedure. What I came up with looks and smells very unique and I’m really excited to try brewing with it. It was a seriously happy accident because I don’t really know what I’m doing. I call it my Chocolate caramel malt. It is a sweet caramel malt but with the added bonus of having more chocolate aroma and colour.
Here’s the procedure I used:
Green two row with the acrospire at 75 to 100% the length of the grain stored in a bag with no oxygen for 24 hrs at 5-10 C ( I had to do this because I was kilning my pale malt during this time and there was no more room in the oven. Removing the oxygen and replacing it with CO2 if you can, will halt the growth of the barley. This is called couching.
Stewed it at 120-130 F in a dutch oven type pot with the lid on for 12 hrs. Also kept it damp by spraying water on it 3 times during the 12 hrs.
Raised the temperature to 150-160 F for 3 hrs. Still in the pot.
Dried it on a screen at 175 with a fan for 10 hrs. The temp. went up at the beginning to 200 F for 1 hour accidentally.
Cured it at 325 for 1 hour.
Here’s what it looks like:
Brewing Beer The Hard Way 
Graham Anderson
April 27, 2012 at 6:07 am
Do you think that the long protein rest at 120-130F has the effect of breaking down the aleurone? For the Munich malt you made, you did a 16 hour rest at this temp, but not followed by the saccharification, correct?
I wonder if when you do the long protein rest followed by saccharification, the sugars are able to leak out of the grain, causing the stickiness you observed. When you kiln, all that sugar coating the outside caramelizes, turning the grains dark brown. What do you think?
jfdyment
April 28, 2012 at 3:35 pm
Your theory on the chocolate caramel malt is probably correct. I’m sure the protein temp. does break down the aleurone but the sugars will leach out anyway if too much water is present (just by osmosis) and I definitely added too much water that time. When I took the grains out there was about a third cup of sweet wort in the pot, which unfortunately went down the drain. I was worried the starches wouldn’t convert so I kept spraying water in the pot to “help” things along. So this started out as a mistake but ended up with a malt that has a lot of character. You can really taste it in the beers.
starrwulf
June 24, 2013 at 10:53 pm
i wonder if you should have sprayed the wort on the barley while you were drying it so it would not loose what went down the drain….