Grain in the Membrane

Greetings.

So, I'm going to talk about grain. I have changed the way I approach brewing. I am looking at how these ingredients get to our fermenters and I feel grain is a good place to start.

I began malting my own barley our of shear curiosity. I was asked if I could do it, and I figure I would try. Now... I'm not sure how many people out there have tried this, but the literature out there regarding the process is about as archaic as homebrewing info was in the 70's. There is cryptic info at every step regarding "correct completeness" with the "steely/mealy" test being the most specific (I will get to that later).

On top of the terrible info out there, NO ONE DOES THIS! To add insult to injury, I am next to positive that the amount of people out there who have malted at home, is inversely proportional to the amount of people in NYC that have done this.

This is my challenge.

The basic premise of malting is much like brewing: steep grain, sprout grain, malt. Simple, right? Well, everything gets complicated after that. Starting with grain, there are ALL kinds of varieties that span across the country (amber waves of grain and such) but there are only a few out there that are suitable to brewing (2-row and 6-row come to mind). Then comes the steeping. Again, simple right? Think temperature, contamination, and infection. Sprouting is the same... until you STOP the germination process. When do you stop? Then comes kilning. What about temperature? What about humidity? What about grain location in relationship to the heat source?

Stay tuned.