The grain I am using here is called Merit. It is 9.5 protein 88 plump. This is really good malting barley. It is a standard 2-row variety that yields well and is easy to harvest. From the maltsters perspective, it is highly predictable and forgiving to those starting to malt barley.
Judging your own grain is very simple. Sight and smell are the best tools in your arsenal. If you have brewed beer, you know what smells you are smelling and you know what good grain looks like. I won't go farther than that. As far as taste goes, be careful, as unmalted barley is very tough. Almost like BBs. But, there is a slight taste of simple, bread-like flavors. But there is not much to taste. The thing to look for is any strong, fermented, or sour flavor. This usually means the grain has gone bad. Look through the rest of your batch to make sure it hasn't been contaminated. On to steeping.
Steeping grain is where the malting process begins to turn its gears. Once you apply water to the grain, you are telling it to start growing.
Step 1) Place grain in container and start filling!
-Start with a known quantity of grain. You will need this number at the end of the process. Place grain in a container with ample room for refuse to be easily collected (several inches). Start adding water. While you are adding water, stir the grain to get anything you might not want in the grain out.-Immediately, you will start to see various flotsam surfacing as you turn your grain in the water. This is all stuff you want to get rid of. Good stuff sinks-bad stuff floats. It won't do anything for your final product, and will most likely start rotting soon after it gets wet. It is just a place for bacteria to hide. Keep adding water and this stuff will just run off of the lip of the container. But, don't let this stuff go down your drain. Grain refuse will clog your drain and start rotting... no good.
-What you are looking for while you are cleaning your grain is for the water to run clear. If you have ever cooked sushi rice, this step is familiar. You will get cloudy, dusty water for a few minutes while your grain is cleaning. Be thorough with this step as you would clean homebrewing equipment. If you start with clean, healthy grain, you are likely to end up with a good product.
-Once you have clean steep water, it is time to let the grain do what it knows how to do. Let the grain steep for 2 hours, then replace the steep water. This is the point where the grain starts taking in water in order for the acrospire to grow and begin the creation of enzymes we want. This process requires various internal compounds to be broken down, built up, etc, which results in expelling certain compounds. These compounds don't smell particularly pleasant to the first-time maltster, but try to get through it. The only way I can describe the smell is that it smells like a well-activated compost heap after a healthy rain. It smells like growth, which is not a clean smell at all. That is the only way I can distinguish the smell from rotting. Take note of this and please comment if you know how to describe this smell! I've been wracking my brain over this. After the first water replacement, wait 6 hours before you change it again, and again after 12 hours until you have allowed the grain to steep for roughly 72 hours.
-The goal of this process is to plump up the grain to where it is soft, pliable, and easily squished between the fingers. There is no exterior signs of acrospire growth.
Notice the size difference between the dry grain and the steeped grain. There is also a darkening that has taken place.
And, if you look carefully, there is a separation beginning. A dark line separates the halves of the barley kernel. The barley kernel has a cleft in it that separates as it steeps. This is where the acrospire is going to emerge from.-Once you have steeped the grain, it is time to drain the water from the grain, and allow the acrospire to grow. You want an ambient temperature of roughly 50º-60ºF as the growing seeds will generate considerable heat, and we don't want to overheat the grain.
