Author Topic: Malting barley +making beer (Read 3100 times)

RUSTYME · « **on:** December 22, 2011, 07:05:26 pm »

Ok , although i am a non drinker , i would like to make my own small beer , ie almost alcohol free beer/ale.
I will be growing barley and hops , and want to do the whole process including malting the barley .
Does anyone know how to do it ? , or know of a good book that covers the process .
As always i want to do it as it was done years ago before modern chemicals .

Cheers Russ

Dan · « **Reply #1 on:** December 23, 2011, 08:08:32 am »

Try Self-sufficiency Home Brewing

I've wondered about growing our own hops, but from what I've read malting barley is a tricky process to get right, and difficult to do with any consistency without good equipment. I guess years ago consistency wasn't as important as it is now though!

benkt · « **Reply #2 on:** December 23, 2011, 08:18:29 am »

We tried this year from some of the barley we'd grown - you can read about our effort and see some pics here http://www.hempsalsfarm.com/2011/11/begining-brewing/
To cut a long story short, it didn't work, so we'll be trying again with malted but unground mash to check the grinding stage and slowly trying to figure out which bit we're doing wrong...

robert waddell · « **Reply #3 on:** December 23, 2011, 11:29:41 am »

a neighbour used to grow malting barley the main thing is the nitrogen content of the barley in very good productive years the nitrogen content had to be low or it was rejected in bad years they were glad to get the volumes that they required and even poor samples were accepted wheat has a similar rejection system

RUSTYME · « **Reply #4 on:** December 23, 2011, 12:25:13 pm »

I am only on an old payg mobile with 2 meg download per day . Most web sites won't load on my phone , and those that do tend to use up the 2 meg instantly . No money means no extra download !
I have found a very good site covering all aspects of brewing , from equipment needed to recipes . I can't go back on it yet , not enough download left , but will put the address on asap .
There are many different recipes on there , including medieval ones , my particular interest .
William Cobbett explains how to make beer , the small beer i want , in his 1820's book 'Cottage Economy' . An excellent book , his views on tea are brilliant . A must read , if ever there was one .