G'Day Guy's,
Well it is that time of year to start a new single malt and this is my setup, I just do 4-5 kg's at a time as thats all my old bucket with holes in the bottom will accommodate.
I soak the grains for 24 hours in the grain bucket and I use a 10 litre bucket to hold the grain bucket, when it's time to drain I just put a couple of bits of wood so the grain bucket can sit on and drain. I leave the grain bucket in water overnight then prop it up to drain so i can check on the plumpness of the grains, then if they need a bit more then they soak for a few more hours.
Now I use a dual purpose SS trough as it lets the grains sprout then when it's time for drying what I did last year was put the grains in a oven I made for another project and put a 2 ring crab burner under and over the course of 3 hours the chits were starting to part so the first process was done. Last year I just put the trough outside with the fluro cover on and in days the grains were fully dried.
I made a cover from fluro lenses which on the final drying process does a great job.
5 kg malt trough.jpg
Now as we can see in that pic I have put a cover over so the sunlight won't hit the fluro cover and heat up the trough which will dry out the grains. Every day after work I check the moisture content and use a spray bottle to add more water ensuring all the grains are kept damp.
grains.jpg
As we can see there is a 2" drain on the side of the trough and this year I'm going to go on a different tack to drying the grains, I do have a few fans on my shed fire to warm the whole shed so my idea is to fab up a manifold and blow warm air thru the drain so it acts just like a dehydrator. As I will be there I'll keep mixing the grains around as to not burn the one's closest. As this will be a new process it will be interesting see how it works.
Now the barely I'm using was $17 for 20kg's at the local hardware and last year it cost a heap more for the same stuff off the same supplier at a different fodder store. Now everyone that has tasted last years AG project say money can't buy this as it's just so nice.
So i must be doing something right which is always learning to make the best drop one can and the research goes on and on and will never stop as one can say everything can be better.
Cheers Bryan
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