Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

So i had my grain in my dryer overnight and half the next day. It didnt get it all perfectly dry, but its good enought until i get that warm sunny day. Ive got it in the foam box near the heater which also slowly helps. Just got to remember to give it a stir every now and again.

What are you milling it with?

Hey Sam... ive just put up a post of my mill, i made one myself. Im hoping it does the job.. for a while anyway. :laughing-rolling:

Sweet :handgestures-thumbupleft:

So i got half my malt dry enough to run through the oven and kiln it. You dont want to do this part of the process until you are sure your grain is fairly dry. I just weighed it and made sure it was the same or lower weight in total to when i originally weighed it. Another way to tell is the grain should have a bit of cruntch to it when you bite it.

I just spread out the grain on a couple trays about 2" deep, you might have to do it in a few batches if your malting a larger amount of grain. Then i just run the oven at 90-100 degs C (no hotter for a base malt)for a couple hours, stiring every 15-20 mins. Stiring regularly will get the heat through the grain more evenly. With my oven i cant get the temp low enough so i just leave the door ajar to let some of the heat out. I also recommend using a temperature guage of some sort to keep accurate temp control, the dial on the oven will be nowhere near accurate enought.



Once the kilning process is done i work on getting the roots off the grain while its still hot, they are very brittle and break off easily. To do this i put 2-3 cups of grain in a 4ltr ice cream container, put lid on and hold tight. Stand it on its side and shake it very vigerously up and down. You only need to do it for 10-20 seconds, then pour into sifter and the roots should all sift out. Re run process if not all the roots are gone. I know this seems like a bit of stuffing around, but it makes a very clean malt doing it this way I've found. Some of the fine chaff comes through the sifter too.


Once your malt is all root free, i just bag it up in a zip lock bag trying to get all the air out, then straight into an icecream container so its mouse proof. Because the grain has gone through the kilning process it shold be very clean of any bugs or unwanted critters and if kept in airtight storage, it should store for a fair while.


So thats it, the way im doing it at the moment. So far it's a fairly simple process and has worked well for me. Making your own malt does take time, but is very rewarding and makes the finished product even more enjoyable to drink.

Have you looked at drying air with zeolite seems some clothe driers and dishwashers are using zeolite seems that when it absorbs moisture it heats up and after it absorbs the water from the air by heating up again it drys out so can be reused they use it in spill kits to absorb chemical spills so not hard to find and also used to remove water from alcohol to get to 100 % but i think that type is more expensive.

wynnum1 wrote:Have you looked at drying air with zeolite seems some clothe driers and dishwashers are using zeolite.

Yeah rightio... haven't heard of it. Worth a look at down the track, just work on getting the other fundamentals going well first and i want to get a good mashing process happening.
Thanks for the suggestion... sounds like good stuff. The quicker you can get rid of some of the moisture the quicker it will dry. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Low humidity would also help its 44% in Brisbane today in winter in summer its warmer but high humidity so winter may be a better time dryer lower humidity.

wynnum1 wrote:Low humidity would also help its 44% in Brisbane today in winter in summer its warmer but high humidity so winter may be a better time dryer lower humidity.

Im thinking the drying process should be a piece of cake when it gets more into spring with the warmer afternoons. The summer would be even better as far as drying the grain, but i reckon i might have a fun time keeping the grain wet enough without checking it very often during the germination stage. With the warmer temperatures you would have to be mindful of potential mould growing too.
Its amazing how much you need to wet the grain often even with the cooler days, the grain itself absorbs a fair bit of the moisture.

How do you keep the critters at bay while its drying?

bluc wrote:How do you keep the critters at bay while its drying?

Shotgun usually works :D

Sam. wrote:

bluc wrote:How do you keep the critters at bay while its drying?

Shotgun usually works :D

Sure does! I didnt really put anything over mine, i just risked it.

dans.brew wrote:

Sam. wrote:

bluc wrote:How do you keep the critters at bay while its drying?

Shotgun usually works :D

Sure does! I didnt really put anything over mine, i just risked it.

To be honest I don’t think I have seen a bird once try to eat the drying grain but I did think it was going to be a problem

Sam. wrote:To be honest I don’t think I have seen a bird once try to eat the drying grain but I did think it was going to be a problem

Yeah ive seen a couple sparrows having a crack... not really that big of a problem, here anyway.
If you can snag a really sunny, warm day it wont have to be out there for very long anyway.

So I'm in the process of getting another 12kgs of malt ready to go. All that is left to do is kiln it and it will be ready to go.


My last batch i turned into a AG whiskey and i plan to do the same with this lot. I was thinking i might kiln some at a different temp to make a small amount of specialty malt.
There are a few different options ive found... anyone got any suggestions?
I know this comes down to personal tastes, but im happy to hear about others experiences.

Sorry, but I am yet to try different malts other than base malts... but I bought a kilo of choc & a kilo of Cara malt as that seems to be to my taste.

EziTasting wrote:Sorry, but I am yet to try different malts other than base malts... but I bought a kilo of choc & a kilo of Cara malt as that seems to be to my taste.

Same here, haven't really experimented much yet. I was thinking of trying something along the choc/ caramel lines. :think:

Have done choc and caramel malt both give nice flavours. Want to try heavy roast malt next :handgestures-thumbupleft:

bluc wrote:Have done choc and caramel malt both give nice flavours. Want to try heavy roast malt next :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thanks bluc... ill give choc and caramalt a go then. Did you use both together or seperate?

Together and seperate. I find flavour is strong but fades fast with age..