About
Welcome, this blog is dedicated to the art and science of growing malting and brewing your own beer. I’ve been a homebrewer and gardener for years and finally my two favorite hobbies have merged into one big all consuming obsession, to brew beer with barley and hops that I’ve grown myself. Why bother? you may ask when you can buy a 50lb bag of malt for $30. There are plenty of reasons, it’s fun (yes I have a strange idea of fun) I like learning the science behind things (especially beer) and maybe because you can get 50 lbs of malt for $30. Is it wrong to think that this is too cheap? I live in Langley B.C. Canada, feel free to contact me in the comments section. Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy reading these posts as much as I’ve enjoyed making them.
Brewing Beer The Hard Way 
jacobiblack
August 23, 2012 at 10:12 am
Hey Francois!.. In a short while I will be moving to a house that actually has a garden! I’m very excited indeed and very keen to get a veg patch on the grow! I have a small amount of experience growing my own veg in the past and have been entertaining the idea of growing my own hops and barley this time round too. I’m a dab hand in the kitchen (used to be a chef) but I’ll admit that I’ve never attempted to make my own beer. However, what I lack in experience I make up for in blind optimism! Plus the idea of having the resources in my backyard is more than appealing to me! Any advice for a complete beginner??
Thanks for your time!
Keep up the good work!
Rob ^-^
jfdyment
August 23, 2012 at 4:56 pm
Hey Rob! As far as growing goes 800 sq. ft. will produce approximately 50lbs of grain which will give you 20 gallons of beer, but when you’re laying out your garden remember to plan for crop rotation, you don’t want to keep growing barley in the same spot. I would highly suggest remay row covers as well after you plant your seeds until the plants come up, to discourage birds. Also, I planted Robust barley in the fall and lost All my current crop of nearly ripened barley to birds in the spring (upcoming video) There isn’t much food around at this time of the year so the birds will go after anything. Planting in the spring to ripen in the fall works better in our area. Basically do anything you can to discourage pests like birds rats mice etc. When growing such small amounts you can’t afford to loose any. As far as brewing goes, if you’ve never brewed an all grain batch just be prepared to make some awesome beer! Also be prepared to have a lot of equipment – mash tuns, fermentors, burners etc, the sky is the limit. The beers I made in these videos where very small, 1-2 gallons each. Brewing small has pros and cons. The pros being smaller equipment, and the ability to make them on your stove top. The bad part is with small batches is there is a greater risk of contamination since the volume of beer to surface/air contact is greater. This year had I not lost my entire crop I would have only made specialty malts, these were a lot of fun to experiment with and I ended up with some very unique and flavourful malts. Best of luck and keep us posted!
Henry
August 24, 2012 at 12:55 pm
Francois, as a fellow home brewer and aspiring “hard” brewer, I was curious to know what kind of quality/consistency you’ve been able to come up with by malting your own. Have you brewed a beer made with commercial malts and your own malts for comparison? Did you, or do you have to alter your recipes for the malt you’ve made, i.e. efficiency levels and/or flavor contribution. You might have touched on this (I have more of your blog to read) but I am very interested in following in your footsteps and commend the work you’ve done thus far. Keep up the good work!
-Henry
jfdyment
August 24, 2012 at 4:04 pm
Hi Henry, I think the main difference with the malts I made and commercial malts was the conversion times. Mine took longer to convert probably due to being slightly undermodified. As far as quality of beer goes I entered all 5 beers in a local home-brewing competition (video about the results is coming soon). Most of my faults had to do with my brewing practices ie. sanitation/ oxidation. The Golden Strong however won 1st place for it’s category. I’ve posted all the recipes so you can check them out.
SouthCreekBrewer
April 23, 2013 at 1:06 am
Just ordered my first pound of robust to plant on about 480 sq ft of ground. Also starting cascade and centennial. Excited to find another scratch brewer!
jfdyment
April 23, 2013 at 2:23 pm
That’s awesome I hope you make some videos, it’s always good to compare notes. Cheers!
Arlyn
May 30, 2013 at 3:23 pm
Curious as to the source of your barley seed and the varieties. Thanks AW
jfdyment
June 1, 2013 at 6:39 am
Hi Arlyn, I’m growing Conlon and Robust this year. I’ve added some seed sources on the “malting resource” page. Cheers
Jeremy Stocks
January 3, 2014 at 2:24 pm
Hi there! I was interested to read your blog! I live in Bavaria, Germany, and ironically the variety of beer here is declining, as breweries amalgamate and the range gets narrower.
i have some hops growing in my garden and usually some Americans from Munich come down in October to take my hops for brewing. this year however they couldn’t make it so I began researching methods of beermaking and I like you malted my own barley”Grace” variety from a local farm supplier. I fermented it with some hops and made a beer which is drinkable but not that nice…yet.
I need to blog about the attempt some time soon!
jfdyment
January 3, 2014 at 5:03 pm
Oh no, Bavaria of all places! Your blog post about the Grampus is hilarious. I also thought your post about malting was very interesting, I like the water bath method for the caramel malt, that’s a good idea. I just bottled the diastatic brown malt porter and I’ll write a post about it soon, the taste is quite unique. Francois
Jeremy Stocks
January 3, 2014 at 6:37 pm
Here, you may be interested to read what we foreign expats think of what is happening to German beer. I am to be honest bored of supermarket German beer. It always tastes the same.
http://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=147210
jfdyment
January 3, 2014 at 9:22 pm
I had no idea German brewing was heading in such a sad direction. As a fan of craft beers I think owning a small brewery in any German town would be a dream job. The “local” movement is still going strong here, a lot of local breweries are using hops grown in the Fraser Valley. There are even a few micro-malt houses that have opened in the states.
Jeremy Stocks
January 3, 2014 at 11:33 pm
No! My small town Holzkirchen has also been taken over by a larger company. I have the feeling the real innovation in what we eat and drink – the so called food revolution – is actually taking place in the country many Europeans think as being so unhealthy – you very own America!
I have lived here 13 years and let me tell you Germany is like some cog spinning with Germans as hamsters within – every year is the same here. They never take risks, they never do anything new. The irony is that most of the books which have influenced me the last few years – Michael Pollan (food), Sando Ellix Katz (fermentation), Toby Hemmenway (permaculture), Michael Ruhlman (food) – get the connection? they are ALL American!
Jonathan
February 5, 2014 at 12:18 pm
Great site! I’m in the South of France but English. I grow all my own hops and malt my own barley. I have a 3 keg 40 litre all grain setup. Your site is really useful and informative, so I am having a good read with a beer, cheers!
jfdyment
February 5, 2014 at 3:20 pm
Hi Jonathan thanks for the comments! I’d love to see some pictures, what kind of hops do you grow?
Jeremy Stocks
February 5, 2014 at 4:04 pm
Hiya! I’d also love to see some pictures of your operation! I see you are in Provence! I am in southern Germany. How did you set your brewery up?
Ed
February 26, 2014 at 1:42 am
I just found your blog and its great. I love when I find that other people have already done the crazy things that I was thinking of: it saves me the time of actually doing them myself! 🙂 You are in Vancouver? Have you ever brewed with the Granville Island hops? Do you ever go to any Vanbrewers club meetings? I’d love to talk to you about your malting!
jfdyment
February 26, 2014 at 2:34 am
Hi Ed! – thanks for the comments – too funny. If you mean those hops that grow by the pedestrian overpass, I did pick some one year but they were so small and pale I didn’t use them. That spot doesn’t get a lot of light but I have heard of people using them. I compared the acid levels with a pH meter to store bought hops and they were very low. I live in Langley now which is too far for me to go to the Vanbrewers meetings, looks like fun though, are you a member?
Ed
February 27, 2014 at 5:10 am
I live near those hops and I haven’t brewed with them either. I’ve grown cascade and willamette the last 3 years and I’ve only brewed with them a couple times as I wasn’t happy with the quality and they have full sunlight. The club meetings are great. Its too bad you can’t make it out. You’ll never find a better group of obsessed people to nerd-out about brewing with!
Alex
February 28, 2014 at 11:42 pm
Francois, I’ve been experimenting with home malting over the past year. The beer’s I’ve produced all develop a vegetal off flavor. I’m thinking it is DMS, have you encountered this? My next batch I’m going to increase my boil time from 60 minuted to 3 hours to see.
Here is what I do with my set up. The barley is feed barley from a farm here in Wisconsin, not prime malting barley but the price is right…free. I soak the grains for 6-8 hours and then drain and leave out for 6-8 hours and repeat until they start chitting out. Next I’ve got a modifying bin they go into until the acrspire is 3/4 to full. To dry the malt I build an oast using 3 removable screen shelves inside a wooden box with the front of it on hinges to allow access. 3 lightbulbs provide heat for the oast and a box fan sends air across the screen shelves. It doesn’t get up to 80-90 in my oast but the green malt dries out in a day or so pretty well. Next I roast it in my over at about 175 F for 8 hours.
Anyway your blog has been a great help, any advise on what I’m doing right/wrong and how I can improve my home malt-aside from using malting barley.
jfdyment
March 1, 2014 at 3:54 am
Hi Alex, sounds like bacterial contamination at some point in the process, are you malting below 16C or 60F? Do you notice any strange odours when you are kilning? It sounds like you have a good set up and you’re roasting the malt for a long time so I’d be surprised if it’s your malt. Infected malt really stinks, you would notice it if it was. I guess your best bet is to eliminate all the factors that may promote contamination even in the brewing process. What is your modifying bin made of? If it’s plastic you may want to sanitize it. I have tried feed barley and the stuff I got was so dirty I can’t imagine where they were storing it, I malted it at room temperature and it stunk up the house for days, smelled like a barnyard. You can’t be too careful with bacteria, I’ve been brewing for 20 years and I think I have good sanitation practices but it can still be an issue, it doesn’t take much, the last yeast starter I made I had to chuck because it was contaminated. I might get a better idea if you make a youtube video of your process, you can always privatize it if you don’t want it public. Best of luck, Francois
Alex
March 1, 2014 at 5:47 pm
I’m malting in my basement which stays around 58-64 F. When I kiln the grains it smells a little like mashing but not as strong, I haven’t had any strong odors coming from the grains in any of the stages from seed to malt. You are right about the dirty feed barley. I try to rinse it really well before I start the soaks. I’m going to try a small batch of malt at a longer boil after the mash is done today and see if it is just DMS that didn’t get released during the boil. I do use a plastic bin for modifying so I’ll start sanitizing it between batches.
Making a few video’s is a good Idea. If I get it done I’ll drop a link to them on here.
Matt Maz
March 4, 2014 at 5:26 am
Hello Francois, I’ve been following you for a little while now and I have a query. I see that you’ve done a smoked malt, but have you thought of trying a peated malt? I’ve been toying with the idea of using a peated malt in my brewing (I’m a huge fan of heavily peated scotch) but can’t get anything up in Northern B.C. The obvious solution, at least to me, is to try and make some myself. Any tips, tricks, or pointers would be appreciated.
Anyway, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this blog, keep up the good work. Incidentally, I’ll be growing some of my own barley this summer. We have a short growing period so I’m going with some Robust, and I’m trying a small amount of Harrington in my greenhouse and outside. We’ll see how it goes…
jfdyment
March 4, 2014 at 5:29 pm
Hi Matt, thanks for the kind words and yes I have thought of doing a peated malt, it’s on the list. The challenge for me is getting the peat without digging a hole in someone’s backyard, or not getting arrested for suspicion of digging a hole to dump a body. The peat that you want is the deeper more compressed stuff and not the loose stuff on top that’s used for gardening. You’ve probably seen these already but here are a few very informative youtube links
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDmgqXcWzd8 "
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufwvFOXUCnc"
In the Highland Park video he mentions burning at 60 C for 18 hrs with peat for the first stage. I wouldn't go this hot at home where you probably wouldn't have as much control over the temperature and your malt bed is not a foot and a half thick. If your malt gets too hot (over 50C when the moisture is over 10%) you may destroy the enzymes. I think the best way to dry green malt at such a low temperature is with an offset smoker of some kind, there are plenty of ways to do this, it's the same process as cold smoking meat. You just don't want the fire directly under the malt as it would get too hot. You can also smoke malt starting with a finished pale or pilsner malt, just soak it in water for an hour or two and then smoke it. Let me know how it turns out. Cheers Francois
Matt Maz
March 5, 2014 at 5:06 am
Thanks!
Yes, that Highland Park video was helpful. I have a smoker which was deliberately built tall. It’s about 6.5-7 feet tall, with the fire box being right at the bottom. I generally use charcoal as a heat source and use wood shavings as the smoking material. I figure to change out the shavings for peat. I can get some fairly consistent temps by adjusting the height of my smoking product with this method. The smoker is about a foot wide by a foot in depth. I think I can get two trays at roughly the same temperature-ish.
I like the suggestion of starting with finished pale malt. I can experiment with small batches and see where that takes me.
Now, obtaining peat… That’s another question. I know I can find some, it’s just a question of if I need a permit and, if so, which one?
jfdyment
March 5, 2014 at 3:35 pm
In most garden stores they have peat pellets, made by compressing the loser surface sphagnum moss. They’re used for starting seeds. If you can find some without added fertilizer or lime they might be worth experimenting with. I’m surrounded by peat bogs here in the Lower Mainland which were all harvested for peat at one time, there’s Burn’s bog, Langley bog and a big chunk of Richmond is peat bog. They’re all mostly protected areas now. You can still see the rows that were carved out of them in ariel photos.
Jazphx
July 21, 2014 at 1:45 am
I recently found some good malting info in the book Brewing, science and practice (2004). Found a PDF online of it and has a very good chapter on malting. Descriptions on making Vienna, Munich, Brumalt, and more. Worth checking out.
jfdyment
July 23, 2014 at 4:46 pm
Jazphx – Wow, great find! Thanks for this, I’ll include it on my resources page.
Edward
November 2, 2014 at 2:29 pm
Hey, are you going to the Ron Pattinson event in Vancouver? http://www.vanbrewers.ca/archives/7557
jfdyment
November 2, 2014 at 6:27 pm
Whoa! I am now, thanks for the notice Edward!
Edward
November 3, 2014 at 7:40 am
If you have any beers with homemade brown malt, bring them! I’m sure he’ll want to try them and me too:)
jfdyment
November 3, 2014 at 11:33 pm
I wish I still had some, that would have been nice. They went really fast, coincidentally I’ll be making more brown malt tomorrow. I’m planning to make 5, 1/2 lb sample batches to see how dark I can go with it. Cheers!
Jazphx
November 14, 2014 at 1:26 am
Here is some stuff I found on Briess’s website/blog:
http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/blog/part-iv-do-you-like-yours-kilned-roasted-or-both/
http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/blog/is-it-crystal-or-caramel-malt/
I’m going to take a shot at grown some Conlon this year and make some malt. Maybe.
This is a great website. Keep up the good work!
jfdyment
November 14, 2014 at 1:45 am
Hi Jazphx, thanks for the links I’ll be sure to put them on my reference section. Happy malting!
Curtis
December 18, 2014 at 7:39 pm
Hello Francois,
I have a nanobrewery (3 bbl system) in Ecuador. In my past homebrewing, I learned to make my own malts, and had built my own gas fired oven for drying and roasting. As I increased my brewing volume, I decided to increase my malting volume as well. The main reason is that I appreciate the fresh malted and roasted flavors that infuse my beers.
I am attempting to design and build a working miniature model of an olde english malt kiln. When I say miniature, I am planning for it to be able to dry and kiln approximately 100 pounds of malt, or be loaded with 150 pounds of green malt for drying. This is a pilot project, and if successful, I will next attempt to make a similar kiln with a 500 pound capacity.
Because the combustion gases actually pass through the grain to heat and dry it, I am considering the use of charcoal fuel because it burns cleaner than wood. It is readily available here, and of good quality made from hardwood. It comes in chunks up to 15 cm dimension, but is easily broken up.I understand that this will give me some smoke flavors, but I am hoping that I like the effect on my finished beer.
I am a huge fan of rocket stoves for their efficiency in combustion, so I would like to use a rocket type burner configuration. The kiln must burn for 12 plus hours continuously, so I am thinking of a self feeding design which can burn without much attention over a period of up to 4 to 5 hours between loading if that is possible.
Do you have any advice, or can you refer me to online resources that would be helpful to me in the design of my little project?
jfdyment
December 19, 2014 at 12:16 am
Hi Curtis, wow you’re living my dream. A rocket stove is a great idea as it does burn off secondary gases – so less smoke and I imagine you can control the heat with the oxygen intake. You can also use the exhaust piping to your advantage to disperse the heat indirectly as well, so you could potentially control the amount of smoke the malt is exposed to. I just tasted my 1804 porter and it’s not smokey at all, I was kind of disappointed. This is because I air dried this malt initially and as you know most of the smoke flavours happen when the malt is wet during the early stages of drying. Early malt kilns were very simple in their design and consisted of a furnace, a hot air chamber to disperse the heat, the floor (sometimes 2 or 3) and the flue in which fans were later mounted to help the draught. What you’ll have to determine is the amount of space needed between your furnace and your malt which depends on the size of your furnace. From what I’ve read kilns were loaded with 40-50 kg per square meter, more for dark malt and the ideal depth being 4-5 inches for pale malts. This would mean for your small kiln 4×4 ft. would be plenty. Most of my information comes from older books like A Textbook of Brewing by Jean De Clerk and Malting and Brewing Science by Hough, Briggs and Stevens. I’ll try to put links to online books on my resources page. Will let you know when I find some on this topic. Best of luck and keep us posted on the progress!
Curtis
December 19, 2014 at 3:25 am
Francois
Thanks for the quick and encouraging response. It is great to have someone to bounce ideas with.
Please see my brewery Facebook page by searching FB for “Sol del Venado”. Look at the video of my rolling dryer; go down through the photos to see details of it and of some of the other equipment I have designed and built in my shop.
For my new English Kiln, I have a piece of perforated steel measuring 1 M by 1.1 meters. This will be the floor. It will be framed by angle iron and have sheet metal sides to hold the malt bed and the roof / chimney will sit on top of that. The floor will sit upon a set of four small brick walls with a brick floor and the furnace will also be mostly brick. The furnace will consist of a vertical slanted sheet metal chute for charcoal with a heavy steel burn grate at the bottom ; an air inlet valve from the front, and a horizontal brick combustion chamber out the rear to the center, where it will turn up to a solid steel deflection plate (50 cm x 50 cm x 3 mm ) at about 25 cm below the perforated floor.
I plan to crush the (natural mesquite-like) charcoal before loading the chute. It should be self feeding, much like a pellet burner, with the air inlet valve controlling the rate-of-burn.
I started drawing the plans today and will see if I can post them for you to review when they’re done (Saturday?)
Best regards, and thanks for sharing.
Curtis
December 19, 2014 at 8:23 pm
Please let me know how I can send you a .pdf file of the plans…they are now done, and I am very excited about starting construction soon. 🙂
Steven
February 23, 2015 at 11:07 pm
Hello,
I just found your site and it seems we have some things in common. I have been looking for some malting barley seed one of which is Maris Otter. I have been looking through your blog and cannot find where you got your seeds. I was wondering if you might share with me where you got them? Maybe some other good sources of seed as well?
Thanks so much, keep up the good work. Maybe when I can make time and start my blog you will enjoy it as well.
Steve
P.S. My email is not a reflection of my formal education. It is simply a nickname I was given.
Steven
February 23, 2015 at 11:09 pm
Sorry, I changed my email, so forget about the P.S. comment.
Eike Hinz
June 6, 2015 at 10:57 pm
Hi Francois,
I was thinking of putting in some grain this year – I know its a little late but I want to try anyway. Where do you buy your grain? (I am in Vancouver frequently)
What kind of barley/variety do you grow? I was hoping to get some Marris otter seed.
Let me know,
E
jfdyment
June 7, 2015 at 7:20 pm
Hi Eike, There are a few places to get some seeds, Salt Spring Seeds and Johnny’s are two. Johnny’s sells conlon (two row) and Robust (6 row) I’ve grown both, out of the two I’d recommend Robust- huge yields and the mice left it alone. Salt spring has Alba – a variety used by the Skagit Valley malting company among many other interesting varieties. Maris Otter is owned by Robin Appel Ltd. They own the rights so you won’t be able to buy it. In fact anybody making money from it that’s not under contract could be sued, but if you’re in Langley I could give you some Maris Otter seed. I have some from last year. How much do you need?
Eike Hinz
June 7, 2015 at 7:29 pm
Hi Francois,
I looked into both of those after leaving the comment – salt spring seems to be a good bet. Johnny’s is in the states if im correct, according to their website I would need a phytosanitary certificate @ $100. This is more than the bag of seed I would buy so it doesn’t make sense.
I will be in Vancouver late next week, heading back to the interior on the 15th/16th and would love to come by if you have time. My email is in the ‘info’ box below (I assume you can see the info). Send me an email, I would love to work something out. As for how much, as much as you are willing to share – I want to get some experience so that I can do more next year.
Thanks,
Eike
Gary Woods
February 21, 2016 at 8:11 pm
I’m looking to grow some barley to malt this summer, and Johnny’s is my go-to source for a lot of stuff (I met Rob Johnston at the Seed Saver’s Exchange summer campout a couple of summers ago). Looks like “Robust” is my starting point, and reading these posts I realize how little I know about the chemistry. Just what I need, another obsession!
jfdyment
February 22, 2016 at 1:06 am
I know what you mean! I’ve had really good results with Robust and for some reason, maybe the hairs on it, but the mice left it alone and it really produces. How much are you growing? and where are you growing it?
Gary Woods
February 22, 2016 at 7:41 pm
A followup: I’m going to get a pound each of Conlon and Robust with my usual order (sugar snaps, etc) from Johnny’s. I’ll likely plant 8X15 feet of each and see how they do; meantime, I’ll try some brewing with store-bought malt. I have a couple of hills of hops: Nugget and Willamette on poles on the southeast facing rear of the house. They usually climb strings to a second-story window.
jfdyment
February 22, 2016 at 9:09 pm
Nice! send me some pictures when it’s growing and I’ll put them on my blog. It’s a good idea to seperate them by 10 ft just to make sure they don’t cross polinate. Cheers!
Gary Woods
February 22, 2016 at 9:07 pm
Apologies for the incomplete followup; I’m located in upstate New York, in a “hill town” west of Albany. 1400′ elevation; zone 5/4 (but the past few years, pretty solidly zone 5, barring a couple of really cold nights).
Martin Gross
September 9, 2015 at 8:11 pm
Hi
Just got wind of your site. Fantastic. I recently started sprouting barely for our chickens and have now realize maybe I could mash that $15 bag of feed barely I sprout? Worth a try. Also, I brew over a fire pit and its not that hard. See my youtube post on that. The “mad fermentationist” came out and fairly reviewed our process. We were making Gruit too! No Hops, rather Wormwood, Yarrow primarily.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pNJ_LvwEFk
firepit video
Martin
Alex
October 8, 2015 at 3:40 am
Hi Francois,
I am from Australia and with a hot summer coming up I thought of maybe drying my malt outside (it can get up to 45c where I am). Additionally I thought maybe using a greenhouse kilning could be done inside it, have you heard of this method?
jfdyment
October 8, 2015 at 3:35 pm
Hi Alex, yes you can absolutely dry it outside and in the greenhouse. I’m currently making some wind malt with a fan and at room temperature- the video is coming soon. How hot does it get in your greenhouse? I wouldn’t be surprised if it reached curing temperatures in there. Wind malt that was traditionally used in Belgium did not go through the curing stage, it was dried in “lofts” and spread very thin. When it’s not cured the malt will have a grassy flavour and cannot be stored for very long but it has more diastatic power. Make some videos I’d love to see your set up! Cheers
Ryan
January 27, 2016 at 6:57 am
Thanks for all the information. The malting recipes you have researched have been a big help. I’m a barley farmer from Montana. Also been malting 20 lbs batched. If I can figure out how to post pics I’d share my kiln. Some technical questions… What is your procedure for the jar color tests? How do you measure moisture? If you pass through Montana I’ll fill your suitcase wiht barley.
jfdyment
January 27, 2016 at 5:11 pm
Right on! I just might take you up on your offer, Montana’s a beautiful state, I drove through there when I was 18 and always wanted to go back. For the colour tests I’ve been mixing 1.6 oz. in one cup of boiled water. I thought that ratio would sort of mimic brewing conditions – it’s not based on any industry method, because I’m just comparing malts to each other I didn’t think it mattered as long as each sample is treated the same way. For moisture content the standard method is to dry out a crushed sample (.2mm crush if you want to be really accurate) at 223 F for 3 hours. If you use one ounce you just subtract the dried weight from the original one ounce and that difference is your moisture content percentage. For example if my dried weight is .9 of an ounce my barleys moisture content is 10%. I usually just put it in a ceramic dish and have my oven at 225F. I have a video “Pale malt” where I talk about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uN9vvhDd7M It’s somewhere around the 2 min mark. I’d love to see some pictures of your kiln and your farm. Here’s my e-mail if you want to send them jfdyment@yahoo.com Hope this helps, Cheers! Francois
Steve
January 5, 2017 at 10:00 pm
I’ve been malting my own barley for the past 6 months or so with a lot of help from your blog and have had decent success. I’m looking to extend my germination time to increase the enzymes developed during germination. I figure germinating on the cooler side, 12-14 c will help with this, but what about relative humidity? Keep it dryer, but how much dryer? I’m looking to make a temperature and humidity controlled environment for steeping and germinating similar to what people are doing for curing meats and aging cheese at home.
Thanks,
Steve
jfdyment
January 5, 2017 at 11:24 pm
Hi Steve!, according to DeClerck when floor malting there should be a relative humidity of 95% (I would assume he’s talking about a minimum). For pneumatic malting where there is air passing through the bed during germination Briggs states the importance of an RH of 100%. However, I have noticed that some barley varieties seem to grow more or faster than others and that’s why I’ve suggested “drying” out or withering the roots a little, to slow down the growth when it’s very active to extend the germination time. I live in a very humid area, on the west coast of Canada so I imagine the opposite is true for most places and keeping things humid is the challenge. What variety of barley are you using? and where do you get it? How is the beer you are making with it?
Cheers, Francois
Steve
January 6, 2017 at 1:19 am
It’s 2 row conlon barley that I have a local animal feed supply order for me out of Utah and shipped over to me in Iowa in 50# sacks. Its fairly clean with very few broken kernels, but does have probably 1% green kernels which don’t germinate. I usually rinse two or three times and then proceed to steeping. Steeping goes 8 wet, 8 dry, etc up to 42-44% moisture content for pale base malt. Dry at 35 degrees with ventilation for 12 hr. Dry at 45 degrees for 12 hr or until 10% moisture content. Cure at 85 for 2.5 hr. I have done mostly session pale ales so I can really see how the home malt will work. Typical mash in around 65-66 degrees. Efficiency has been in the 60’s where I typically run 75%+. As far as my rh goes, I have been germinating at ambient basement rh and temp, 12-14 c and 35-50% rh depending if it’s snowing out or not. Do you typically try to slow germination down around the 3rd or 4th day? Or does it just depend?
Thanks,
Steve
jfdyment
January 6, 2017 at 4:54 pm
Yes, it depends. The idea is to draw out the germination for as long as possible without having the barley overgrow. A small percentage of overgrown kernels are ok. The longer you can draw it out the more enzymes you will develop in the malt, and the more modified it will become. I try to aim for 7 days, but that doesn’t always happen. The most growth usually happens on day 3 or 4 and then it slows down after. Also judging modification by the acrospires can be misleading, it’s better to do the “rub” test.
Francois
Matthew Ford
January 16, 2017 at 10:14 pm
Love the blog. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
jfdyment
January 17, 2017 at 1:59 am
Thank you!
Eve
July 6, 2017 at 11:25 pm
Where did you get your Maris Otter seed?
jfdyment
July 7, 2017 at 1:27 am
A few years ago I got a sample from the USDA for research purposes, just a couple of ounces, it only takes a couple of years to get enough seed for a large plot.
Jonathan Shockley
July 9, 2017 at 4:29 pm
Hi Francois,
I have a question that I can’t seem to get clarity on and was wondering if you could help. For brewing, we need to use malt, because barley by itself does not contain enough enzymes, particularly alpha amylase to convert the starch in the barley to sugar. We could also apply this to wheat and other grains. Now, for bread baking, we take raw unmalted wheat flour, combine yeast, salt, and water, and can clearly observe fermentation taking place within hours. Where is the sugar coming from? Why is it that we do not need malted wheat flour to make bread?
In an attempt to answer my own question, here is what I think is the correct answer but am still not sure. First of all, we all know that bread and beer are closely related. The science behind bread baking and brewing however seem quite different. If you are an all grain brewer, chances are you have performed an iodine test at some point. The iodine test allows us to determine if there is starch present. Put a drop of iodine on a potato and it turns dark purple. Place a drop of iodine on some properly mashed wort, and it turns a light brown color. Now, if you’re asking the right questions, what happens if you place a drop of iodine on some bread? It turns purple. That’s right, there is still a tremendous amount of starch left in bread. That’s not the case with beer.
When we make beer, we go through the trouble of making malt so that we can produce tremendous amounts of enzymes (alpha amylase) to convert not some, but all (or at least most) of the starches to sugar. With bread baking, we are more concerned with leavening, which doesn’t seem to require nearly as much fermentation as beer does. The reality is that there is a lot more work via fermentation going on when making beer than when making bread.
So back to the original question. Where does the sugar come from for the yeast in bread baking? From what I’ve read, wheat flour consists of about 3 percent sugar, and actually has a small amount of alpha amylase. It must be that the small amount of alpha amylase present in the flour is enough to produce the sugar needed for leavening.
I apologize for the long-winded question, but I can’t help but be a little intrigued by this.
Thanks,
Jonathan
jfdyment
July 9, 2017 at 6:49 pm
Hey Jonathan I remember reading in some old textbooks about brewing with unmalted barley, I’ll see if I can dig this up, there was also something about chit malt (barley that has just begun to form roots) I agree with your answer- that it’s just a matter of degree, beer ferments for weeks whereas bread can ferment for a day or two and then the yeast will stop having an effect. I think brewing with unmalted barley will give you a low alcohol and very cloudy beer, which would be very susceptible to contamination. Barley’s also hard to crush. This sounds like my kind of challenge! Cheers Francois
jfdyment
November 20, 2017 at 6:42 pm
I found one tidbit of info on brewing with raw barley here https://archive.org/details/brewinganddisti00stewgoog If the link does not work search: Brewing and Distillation. With Practical Instructions for Brewing Porter and Ale. W. Stewart, T. Thomson 1849 pg 15-16 describes how small beers were made this way in Edinburgh. He suggests a long mash with the addition of oat hulls for better filtration. He also describes how their trial beer made this way was transparent which indicates to me that they did not kiln it at all. But if you want to add a little flavour I think a little kilning would help or maybe just toast a portion. I’m going to try this myself, sounds interesting – sorry it took so long to find, I know there is more info on this in another old text, I’ll keep my eyes open for it. Cheers!
jfdyment
November 26, 2017 at 4:38 am
Thanks to this awesome blog http://www.beeretseq.com/mashing-without-malt/ here are a few more:
Brewing with Raw Grain Thomas Lovibond 1883
https://books.google.ca/books?id=9fhAAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA61&dq=lovibond+unmalted+grains&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=lovibond%20unmalted%20grains&f=false
The Maltsters Guide Edward Skeater White 1860 pg 46-47
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31175002990920;view=1up;seq=48
Tim
December 10, 2017 at 5:58 am
Hello Francois, I’m rather late discovering your fascinating website. Hats off to you with your approach utilizing scientific method. I liked your wind malt post in particular. Have you ever brewed with straight green malt? Kind Regards, Tim
jfdyment
December 10, 2017 at 5:21 pm
Tim no I haven’t tried that yet, I know distillers often do this. I’ll put it on my “to do” list. I just recently made a small beer using unmalted barley, it’s 2% abv I’ll make a post about that soon. Cheers!
Anibal
January 13, 2018 at 1:06 pm
hi there,
The website is wonderful, I am from argentina and i am making some reserch to start malting and all roads leads me to the book: Malting and Brewing Science: Malt and Sweet Wort, Volume 1. I dont have the money to buy it and i wonder if it is possible to download it someware?
Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Regards
Anibal
jfdyment
January 13, 2018 at 5:34 pm
Hi Anibal, thank you for the kind words! It so happens that I’m publishing my book today which will be available at amazon tomorrow. I’ve compiled a whole bunch of recipes from various sources. As far as textbooks go they’re all very expensive and they do a good job protecting their copyright but there is alot of information in the older books that are available on google books for free. Take a look at the “Information on Malting” section on my blog for links to these. Cheers!
Ben
January 30, 2018 at 8:25 pm
Francois,
Thank you for documenting your ventures with barley production and malting. Due to your efforts, I’m making preparations to start malting experiments of my own. I think you’re an inspiration for many more homebrewer’s than you may realize.
Quick question, in some of your gardening videos you mention a couple of varieties of barley you’ve grown. I think Robust 6-row and Maris Otter. Have you tried others?
Thanks
Ben
PS: Looking forward to picking up a copy of your book!
jfdyment
January 31, 2018 at 12:22 am
Hi Ben, thank you for the kind words! I have tried other varieties, Conlon, Harrington, unfortunately my Bere barley was munched by racoon. I also just grew a test batch of Chevalier which I’m very excited to plant next year – It’s been the most impressive so far, I haven’t brewed with it yet. Surprisingly the Conlon and Harrington, the two newer varieties were the most disappointing in size and yield. Robust was excellent, a very good producer and the Maris Otter although, ripens quite late has been very consistent. You might want to check out what these guys are up to https://www.sprowtlabs.com/2017/03/07/the-harlan-society/
Cheers!
Ben
January 31, 2018 at 1:45 am
Thank you for the link.
Here’s a couple of things I’ve been looking at recently.
https://scholarworks.alaska.edu/bitstream/handle/11122/2287/RPR%2026.pdf?sequence=1
Click to access C135.pdf
jfdyment
January 31, 2018 at 4:07 am
Thanks for the links I’ll include them in my blog, do you live in Alaska?
Ben
January 31, 2018 at 4:53 pm
Yes sir. Fairbanks
jfdyment
January 31, 2018 at 7:39 pm
Cool, ever considered growing Bere barley?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bere_(grain)
Ben
January 31, 2018 at 8:21 pm
As I’ve never grown any barley, the short answer is no. 🙂 Thank you for the suggestion. I was considering 3-8x10ft plots of Robust. One smaller sample plot would be for other varieties, like Maris Otter, to gather seed for the 2019 growing season. I’ll start looking for Bere as well. 90 day barley sounds perfect for my short summer.
Troy
April 16, 2018 at 7:52 am
Hey mate, I just stumbled across your site from youtube. This is great stuff. I was able to get ahold of about 50 kg of unmalted latrobe and flinders malting barley (i’m from Australia) and have been getting into malting my barley at home. I agree that its great fun. I was just wondering what technique you use to remove the rootlets from the grain. Could it be that its just not dry enough? I have had it drying in the sun at 30 C for 3 days. I am gonna plant my first batch over the weekend, I only have about 10 sq feet fo its gonna be a real small batch but I cant wait. Anyway, keep up the good work, ill be buying your book very soon!
Cheers for your good work.
jfdyment
April 16, 2018 at 6:52 pm
Hey Troy, to get the roots off you need to cure it, put it in your oven at 175-185F for three hours. This will make the roots more brittle and will easily come off when you rub the malt over a screen. Cheers!
Jef
May 12, 2018 at 8:28 pm
Francois, I came across your blog when searching the web for information about where or how to get chitted wheat, which I found listed in some new recipes for grisette in the latest Zynurgy. There are substitutes, but after seeing your video on malting spelt and emmer, I was inspired that I might be able to make what I need but cannot buy. After looking at your video a few times and reading the corresponding blog, I have a few questions. First, for your steeping procedure, what treatment is applied between the two steeping treatments you use? Just drain and refill, or do the drained grains sit for a while before the second steep? Second, I know the use of wheat that is chitted will mean use of under modified grain. It is clear to me that I will simply be stopping the malting early, and I will need to dry the wheat after It has chitted, but (naive question) will I need to also cure it? Thanks, Jeff
jfdyment
May 13, 2018 at 2:24 am
Hey Jef, I did use an 8 hour air rest in between 8 hour steeps to get to that moisture content, however you’re only wanting to chit the grain so it’s not that important to get such a high moisture content. I would just soak it overnight 8-12 hours and then allow it to germinate. The purpose for curing is to drive out the moisture within the grain, to give it more flavour and to make it more friable (for crushing). You don’t have to cure it but it will be kinda bland if you don’t. Also because it’s not fully modified you can expect it to be pretty hard and will be hard to crush. Also remember to use lots of rice hulls! Let me know how it turns out.
Cheers Francois
Jeff
May 13, 2018 at 9:06 pm
Thanks Francois. Your response is very helpful, as was all the material you posted on malting ancient wheats. I have obtained raw wheat from a home-brew supply store. After soaking 8-12 hours, how long would you expect it will need to germinate? What scheme would you suggest for curing? I imagined drying on screen with a fan, as you showed in your video, and then curing in an oven, perhaps using the scheme you posted for the emmer. Thoughts?
Jeff
PS – thanks for the reminder about rice hulls…
jfdyment
May 13, 2018 at 9:26 pm
Yep, only it will take only a day or two to chit and then you can dry it with a fan at room temperature, just spread it out so it’s an inch deep. then follow any curing schedule. If you want it to have some colour go up to 185-190 if you want it light stay below 175F.
Jeffrey Dahlseid
December 23, 2018 at 7:29 pm
Hello Francois. So, I have finally gotten to working on the project with the raw wheat that I had asked you about. Here is what I have done. Inspired by your video on unaerated soaking for the malting of barley, I soaked 3 pounds of wheat berries for 72 hours at 13ºC, with one change of water and no air rests. At the point of water change, they were 4 pounds 9 ounces, and after 72 hours, they were 4 pounds 13.5 ounces. I then put them in a 2 gallon water jug/cooler for 26 hours, to mimic the standing period in the “couch.” That finished today. I saw good evidence of chitting, with ~96% at this point showing slight to obvious sign (excluding berries that had been broken). I have now placed them back at 13ºC to allow those that had only slight indications to complete chitting. I would value any input about how long I should let the berries stand before drying. I have photos to share, but don’t know how to post them here.
jfdyment
December 24, 2018 at 1:28 am
Hey Jeff, depends what kind of malt you’re making. For a basic fully modified malt it’s going to take a while because of the unaerated steep, probably 10 days maybe longer, not sure what your moisture content is. But just keep an eye on it, pour it into another bin carefully so you don’t break the acrospires and when the spires are 3/4 and your grains are chalky/pasty you can dry it. Don’t be surprised if the roots start to wither after 7-8 days, that’s normal.
jfdyment
December 26, 2018 at 11:15 pm
Hey Jeff, I’m probably too late since you’ve probably already started drying this malt, but a day or two growth is fine for chit malt (according to Briggs in Malts and Malting) You might be better off doing a more modern steeping method for chitted wheat, by that I mean steep it at room temperature as the water uptake will be much faster and the germination rate may be higher (according to some studies) but 96% is really good. Also you only need to go to 38-40% moisture. Cheers, and happy holidays!
Jeff
December 24, 2018 at 6:18 pm
Hey Francois, Thanks for the quick reply. I am going for chitted wheat for use in a grisette (my posts under “Jeff” just prior to my last one). The wheat berries gained 59% weight after steeping. After one day in the 2 gallon water cooler “couch” 96% where already chitted. I let them set one day longer at 13ºC in a even 1.5″ layer. I maybe could have given them one more day, but decided to start drying them now. We’ll see how it goes.
Guillaume
July 15, 2019 at 6:45 pm
Hello François, in first sorry for my english. I am a french homebrewer and i would like to expériment home malting. In first i try this with wheat it was a good expérience, i use a food dehydrator it was a good issue to kilnd the malt. So i have the material to home malting but i am afraid to use my own malt bécause of the mycotoxines and fungal infection.. I have read a lot of Times the potential risk of bad malt for health. So i Would like to know If There is a process to identify this infection.. to prévent it and to check if the malt is safe for brewing.. think you. Merci bonne soirée
Guillaume
jfdyment
July 16, 2019 at 1:53 am
Hi Guillaume, in grain growing areas there is often a lab that tests for various things in your malt or grain. Farmers often use these services but it usually costs a few hundred dollars. There are such things as aflatoxin test kits but I am unable to locate any to buy. The effects of mycotoxins is scary stuff, it’s the reason I don’t malt sorghum which is very susceptible to aflatoxin. If your worried about your process you can keep your temperatures very low 5-10 C for steeping and 10-15 for germinating. The barley will still germinate but it will take a little longer and will discourage mould growth. You can also disinfect grain with a dilute lye solution which you can see on my “malting sorghum” post to kill any mold on the grain. Hope this helps.
Cassou
July 18, 2019 at 7:59 pm
Think you for your answer !So if it is complicate to have access to a lab process to identify aflatoxine, when you malting do you have any sensory test ? like if the smell is good ? Identify any problem by smelling or a visual identification of a mould ? A way to check if it gonna be good ? Thanks !
jfdyment
July 19, 2019 at 1:30 am
For barley it will smell musty, visually look for pink or black kernals, if there are too many of these and you can’t pick them all out, then start over. However with Sorghum I have read that certain moulds can live under the surface layers of the husk so it would be impossible to tell without proper testing.
Jose
June 4, 2020 at 6:33 am
Dear Francois,
Impressive blog about malting “everything malteable”. Surprisingly, there is no category deboted to Wheat in the blog… But awesome in any case!
Question: apart for a longer time for kilning, what consequences do you think an overhydratation in the grains could have into the final wheat malt…? A lower peformance in terms of fermentable sugars available for brewing, perhaps?
I started malting wheat at home but I was taking stabs in the dark on many aspects…
Then, when I weighted the grains in different steps I realized (a little) what I was doing…
For example, I used steepings schedules of: 8h wet / 4h rest dry / 8h wet / 4h rest / 8h wet.
Germinations of three days at 18-19ºC (~65F). And I got germinated wheat with a 63% increase in weight…!
Kilning of 12 h in the domestic oven at 40-50ºC (~105-120F). A final reduction in weight of 7.5%.
However, the wheat had only 8.9% of moisture content (initial). So now I have an excessively dry wheat malt after having been overhydratated…
The wheat malt smells fantastic, but not sure what performance or what effects the overhydratation and overkilning could have…
Thanks a lot in advance,
Jose (Spain)
jfdyment
June 6, 2020 at 2:19 pm
Hi Jose, you’re right I do not have a wheat section on the blog! Thanks for pointing that out. I think because I’ve talked about wheat in other posts I had neglected to make a post just about wheat. I’ll put it on my “to-do” list. As you’ve found out grains without husks absorb water much more rapidly. Oversteeping can either kill the grain or affect your germination and growth rates so some grain will overgrow very fast and some will hardly grow at all. So yes this will in turn affect your enzyme levels. You may also have a higher malting loss (too much growth) which would affect your final moisture measurement. What was your germination rate? I usually count a few 100 grain samples after a few days of germinating and average them out to find out my germination percentage. You will still be able to make beer out of this malt, you just might have to mash it a little longer or do a step mash.
Jose
June 8, 2020 at 10:08 am
Hi Francois:
Thanks a lot for the reply.
In fact, my wheat was somewhat old (it was harvested two years ago, although well preserved) and the initial moisture content was low (below 9%). So the “excessive” steeping seems to have been beneficial in starting germination.
I have not detected overgrowth of the grains. And aparently 100% of the grains were germinated. Average modification of around ~75% (in terms of length of acrospires). Around 10% of grains with 100% length. Not measured, it was only my perception by observing a few handfuls of grain on my hands. Next time I’ll try to take a sample of 100 grains for a better classification.
And yes, I planned to do a step mash: first, a ferulic acid rest, for ~15 minutes; then, a protein rest, for ~10 minutes; finally, maltose rest for ~50 minutes; mash-out at 162-163°F/72-73°C.
Thanks again,
Jose
Gautier
June 4, 2020 at 2:12 pm
Hello François,
Thank you or all the great stuff you share here! French farmer-distiller here. I wonder if you had any dormancy issues with you home-harvested barley and if you did, how long did you wait to get a good germinating ratio and/or did you find a trick to get past dormancy?
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experiments!
Gautier
jfdyment
June 6, 2020 at 1:56 pm
Hi Gautier! I’ve never had a problem with dormancy, mostly because I have to wait until the temperatures drop before I can malt in my garage, which is usually about 2 months, but I have read that a period of warm storage, 40C for 3 days will lower dormancy rates.
Judson
June 29, 2020 at 1:06 pm
Hello Francois, I just subscribed. Thank you for your excellent blog. I have some special circumstances and my first batch of home malted beer is not fermenting. I need to read your book. Can I buy a pdf or kindle version?
jfdyment
June 30, 2020 at 1:46 am
Hi Judson, unfortunately, I don’t have a kindle version. What’s going on with your beer?
Judson
June 30, 2020 at 6:58 am
Hello Francois, thank you for asking! I am an expat in a desert country trying to make things work with what I have available. Let’s chat by email.
jfdyment
July 23, 2020 at 4:21 pm
Sorry for the late reply, I’m not getting notifications for comments for some reason. My e-mail is jfdyment@yahoo.com
Judson
June 30, 2020 at 1:34 pm
I’m originally from Bellingham!
Jan Mesaros
July 16, 2020 at 3:00 pm
hi, i just made melanoidin mal by your recipe, it works, thx
Nick
August 4, 2020 at 1:20 am
Hi there! I also live in Canada, and have been growing out various malting barley strains. I started malting last year and are just completing my first kiln.
I’d love to compare notes etc. There is a lot more to what you’re up to than I think you write about and put on youtube.
jfdyment
August 4, 2020 at 3:32 pm
Hi Nick, where abouts in Canada are you? Have you joined the Home and Professional Maltsters group on Facebook? Not sure what you mean by your last comment, do you have topic suggestions?
Greg
December 31, 2020 at 1:47 pm
Hello François,
Another Canadian joins the fray. I’m in Merville on Vancouver Island. My first malt (20 kg of seed barley) is just coming off the woodstove and out of the oven. I’d ultimately like to be growing the barley and have started eyeing an unused patch of ground back of the house. Maybe next year. Just putting together an electric kettle as well so definitely lots of irons in this large, diverse, and fascinating fire.
Thanks for all you do. Your work is a constantly referred to reference for myself and leagues of others I’m sure.
Cheers, Greg
jfdyment
December 31, 2020 at 3:37 pm
Hi Greg! you’re very welcome, I’d love to see your set up, let me know how your beer turns out. Are you on the Facebook group Home and Professional Maltsters?
Greg
January 2, 2021 at 2:42 pm
I’m not on Facebook François. I put a video detailing the controller build here:
I might do something similar for the malting process showing. A smarter person would wait to see how the beer turns out but…
Rob
April 19, 2021 at 10:14 pm
Hi. Thank you for publishing all of this content on your home malting journey. I stumbled upon [this information] (https://www.hielscher.com/ultrasonic-malting.htm) on speeding up the malting process using ultrasonic vibrations, which would make for an interesting home malting experiment. There are various stainless steel ultrasonic cleaners available for sale that might do the same work as the laboratory equipment. It looks like it has the potential to germinate a higher percentage of kernels, and a couple days faster. It could also speed up the mash enzyme conversion process, but that’s another story.
Gabriel Liviu Fusaru
May 29, 2021 at 1:32 pm
“bere” is the Romanian word for beer.
Evan Villarrubia
December 18, 2021 at 4:31 am
Francois, long time listener, first time caller! I live in southwest China where I run a small distillery. I’ve read your entire blog and bought your book on malting, because we live in a barley growing region. I’m about to build a kinda biggish kiln (2 x 3 meters) for making mostly whiskey malt. I was wondering if you have any resources about how to direct rammed air airflow under a malt bed. I feel like a baffle or plenum is warranted, but I don’t know how to design it. Anything you have would be appreciated! Thanks and definitely keep up the good work.
jfdyment
December 18, 2021 at 4:57 pm
Evan, thank you for the kind words! Do you have a Facebook account? There are quite a few small-scale maltsters working kilns your size on our group “Home and Professional Maltsters” You might get some ideas there. From kilns that I have seen baffles are not necessary, the airflow is directed sideways into the kiln (not upwards toward the grain) This increases the air pressure under the bed. As long as the bed is of a consistent depth the air will flow through the bed evenly. Air will choose the path of least resistance. My little kiln, for example, has a few gaps between the tray and the box so my corners tend to dry faster. If I built another one it would have a better fit. An important factor is how much airflow and your ability to control the airflow, sometimes you want to dry slowly depending on the kind of malt you’re making. The depth of the bed also plays a role in how much air you need, of course, and this depends on how much malt you want to produce at one time. Your project sounds very interesting, I’m sure everyone would love to see some pictures on the Facebook group. Cheers!