Malting machine working prototype

I have used many malting solutions so far, including a drum malting machine I built, but this works best so far for various (gluten free) grains. These grains need different temperature and soaking, aerating regimes, so while a drum malting machine may work very well for barley it is not the case for various gluten free grains.

Finally some good progress was made on my home malting machine. The idea is to minimize labor but have great control for better germination. And be able to do it in a condo/ appartement. So the grains are in one container during the whole process. The modified cooling box can heat and also cool, about 12 C below or above ambient. Heating is neccessary for successsful fast germination of rice for example. The stainless perforated container can be used for kilning and roasting too, and it's easy to give it a spin every 15 minutes so the malts roast very evenly. No transferring grains from one container to to the other during the process which can make malting a pain in the butt. And the temperature control helps avoid mold. It produced 2 kilogramms of rice malt, but a bigger container (working on it... ) could fit 2-4 times more in the same cooling box.

Next version will be smart, with sensors and wifi connection. Please give feedback. I am considering making plans available for open source DIY-ing, but also developing this to a product at the same time.

 Stackable perforated trays:

 

Soaking in temperature controlled insulated box (foodgrade):

After repeating soaking and aeration:

 

Drying (altough it works, it need a little work for an amended version, with more conentrated airflow): 

 

Roasting in the oven:

 

Final product:

 

(About the acrosypres... it's easiest to remove them after roasting. In fact shaking the malt in the plastic container removes them and over time they collect at the bottom of the box. I find that an additional step to remove them is not necessary, altough I was doing it as a beginner)

Spruce beer

Original post on Zero Tolerance forum: "I was enjoying some of this spruce beer this week. It's a story of not giving up. I brewed it in may, but it didn't smell and taste nice at all until october. I wanted to throw it, but realized that I wasn't going to brew anything anyway, so I might as wall just let it sit and see what happens. To my big suprise it turned out to be very good. I took it to test with wheateater friends and they had no objections to drink all five liters of it while all sorts of regular beer choices were around for them too. Yeast was S-05, ingredients were rice malt, honey, molasses, and some negligable leftover from buckwheat and lentil malts. My guess is that it was either the molasses that made this take so long, or I might have messed up something with the water chemistry. Almost forgot... the spruce is awesome. "

Gluten reduced beer vs Gluten free beer interactive infographics

 

To educate yourself or others on the case of Gluten reduced beer vs. Gluten free beer, please visit my clickable infographics, developed with the help of Zero Tolerance members. 

 

http://bit.ly/glutenreducedbeer

alternative link: https://fldptr.github.io/gfbeer/