organic no till soil toppings?

hyroot said:

The price of malted barley is ridiculous. $10 for 2 lbs. I get a pound of corn seed for $1.29 All you need is a dehydrator ($30) and you can malt your own seeds.

Sprout the seeds then put them in the dehydrator for a day and you have malted seeds.

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Whaaaa?? I get malted barley for $1.85/lb for under 10lbs and $1.49/lb buying a 10lb bag. This is at a local "brew shop/organic gardening" place. You're right, $5/lb IS ridiculous!

There is way more to malting than a dehydrator though. Very precise temps and times and such. Malters (?), generally just do malts and nothing else, because of the specialized equipment. Like, the entire 'malting floor' has to be precisely heated and it's not small.

For whole grain brewers, even the $1.49/lb amount would be considered 'spendy'. But, check out some brew shops for decent prices.

Wet

Wetdog said:

Whaaaa?? I get malted barley for $1.85/lb for under 10lbs and $1.49/lb buying a 10lb bag. This is at a local "brew shop/organic gardening" place. You're right, $5/lb IS ridiculous!

There is way more to malting than a dehydrator though. Very precise temps and times and such. Malters (?), generally just do malts and nothing else, because of the specialized equipment. Like, the entire 'malting floor' has to be precisely heated and it's not small.

For whole grain brewers, even the $1.49/lb amount would be considered 'spendy'. But, check out some brew shops for decent prices.

Wet

Click to expand...

Not really. Malting is just drying the seed sprouts before they develop at low temps. During the summer you can even malt seeds under the sun .. A dehydrator you can run at 110 degrees. You don't want to go over 140 degrees. You just run at 110 for 24 hours.


Most brew shops are pretty stingy with their barley. Unhulled barley is still pretty hard to get in california. I know all the barley farms crops were wiped a couple years ago. I though by now they would be easier to get.

Brewers just use larger machines because they're malting much larger amounts than we would be and they're making beer not seed sprouts.