Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

sam_and_liv wrote:

bayshine wrote:I believe a food dehydrator does a good job of drying out malt
Would be worth a crack I recon :think:

How much could you do in one lot you reckon? and how long would each lot take?

You can get extra trays for the one I borrow of me old girl but I have only just done jerky so far
It takes about 4 hours to do ten trays of meat(up to 5kg) but you have to keep swapping the trays around every hour or so as the bottom ones dry first, if you added a little heat from a fan heater it would go faster I think and have thought maybe even rig up some peat smoke to blow through it :think:

This one looks like it would hold a bit. :drool:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/10-Tray-Food ... c79&_uhb=1

Really want to malt some corn one of these days.

res wrote:This one looks like it would hold a bit. :drool:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/10-Tray-Food ... c79&_uhb=1

Really want to malt some corn one of these days.

The sieves are way too big for grain but I guess you could put something finer on them :handgestures-thumbupleft:

sam_and_liv wrote:

res wrote:This one looks like it would hold a bit. :drool:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/10-Tray-Food ... c79&_uhb=1

Really want to malt some corn one of these days.

The sieves are way too big for grain but I guess you could put something finer on them :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Yeah figured some fly screen and your sorted :D Be good to have the spin dryer as well to knock off the roots and such. Always more toys hey. :violin:

Once dry the rootlets come off easy, putting it in a sack or pillow case and giving it a few belts would do the job :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Not sure i would have a full breakdown over a bit of smoke, ppl smoke meat all the time and AG beer brewers smoke grain. I think it would have to be smoking pretty bad to get a complaint :-B

Get that shit off the pool table :violence-smack:

Bushy wrote:Get that shit off the pool table :violence-smack:

:laughing-rolling: don't worry mate it's only there temporarily and there is a proper fitted thick vinyl cover under the sheet so it's safe :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Sam. wrote:Once dry the rootlets come off easy, putting it in a sack or pillow case and giving it a few belts would do the job :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Do all the rootlets and chits need to be removed? Is there any harm in leaving them there?

vqstatesman wrote:

Sam. wrote:Once dry the rootlets come off easy, putting it in a sack or pillow case and giving it a few belts would do the job :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Do all the rootlets and chits need to be removed? Is there any harm in leaving them there?

Everything I have read has said to get rid of them. Wether that is because they contain something bad or is just a waste of space/weight or an annoyance during the mashing process I'm not sure.

One of the beer guys may be able to shed some light?

The rootlets havent caused me any issues other than i think they can add a slightly bitter taste :handgestures-thumbupleft:

There is a protein in the rootlets that contributes a bitter taste
If you can, get rid of them, if not and you don't mind the taste that much, you'll be right

I have given malting a go for the first time with 3kg of wheat and 3kg of barley. All bought from the grain store, so no idea what variety it was. :think:

The wheat finished quicker, but was an absolute bugger to dry - I had it in the kitchen oven at min temp and it took forever to lose the damp feeling, then very quickly became almost too cooked. The barley took longer to finish growing (an extra couple of days), but dried much more evenly and felt and looked right at the end.

Taking off the rootlets - the wheat rootlets came off easy. I didn't use the pillow case, simply swished them around in a kitchen sieve and they all came off without drama.

The barley roots were stuck up with super glue! They are dry, and come off when rolled in the fingers individually, but the sieve, the pillowcase, rubbing groups of them together in my hands, nothing worked easily. Ended up rolling them in small batches in the sieve with my hand.

Would I do this again? Maybe - it was easy up until the drying, so a solution there would be handy. Is it easier to buy malt? Definitely, but there is a satisfaction about doing this yourself. And the process is simple to follow.

I intend to supplement the malt with enzymes when I use it in a mash shortly, because I have no faith that I haven't killed of the malt enzymes in the grain with the heat during the drying.

My plan for summer is to try and time it for a 40+ degree day when its time to dry and spread it out on a trampoline in the sun with fly screen over the top to keep the birds out :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Same grain as last time 16kg hopefully drying is less of an issue now that the weather is better.

Had to split into two containers as the grain swelled with the soaking and I couldn't turn it properly without losing some grain, everything happened quicker than last time as it is so much warmer now.



This is the a acrospire inside the grain sorry for the shit pic by apparently you want this to be 80 - 100% the length of the grain inside.



Drying on the old tramopaline on a low 30's day is a thousand times better than rooting around with ovens and tumble dryers :handgestures-thumbupleft:

All local barley, Sam? There'd be plenty of it around your way...

Yeah mate same gear as the original post, it stores quite well dry ;-)

Trampoline has got to be better than the pool table Sam for drying :)) nice flow of air through the grains. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

1 2many wrote:Trampoline has got to be better than the pool table Sam for drying :)) nice flow of air through the grains. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Yep outside in the sun at 32 is better than inside at 15 :handgestures-thumbupleft: