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Malting Barley In Mexico II

Here are some updated pictures of the sprouting barley after several days of growth. There are a significant amount of grains that do not show any rootlets or even chit and this has me concerned. I will be giving this growth period another two days before starting the drying process but I will dissect a couple of the grains to confirm the acrospire growth before that step. As I turn the germinating grain by hand, I keep finding a variety of beans.


No me gusta frijoles!

Grains with rootlets .











Keeping the grains moist and cool.
The weather here has been cloudy with intermittent showers and I'm hoping that the clear warm weather returns for the drying step because my plan was to spread the grain out on the floor of the upper deck rather than trust the inconsistent temperature that my oven provides. More of the drying step in a later post.

In the mean time I returned to Cerveza de San Miguel last night to sample some ales and get in touch with the owner Matthew Carrol. He was giving a short lecture on brewing along with a beer tasting, to a small group of us and will meet with me on Monday to talk about a possible small scale brewing collaboration. He may also be a good source for malted barley.


Aside from these projects I'm anxious to get started brewing but have had some setbacks as far as getting the equipment together. I have everything I need except the large boil pot and the gas burner to use on the deck, but I'm expecting to brew within a few days. My first beer will be a repeat of a well received recipe from last year, "Hibiscus wheat".
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Comments

Chemgeek said…
Go, gibberellic acid, Go!!! You can do it!!!!
December 4, 2009 at 9:59 PM
mark said…
Chemgeek,
tell me about this gibberellic acid.
December 5, 2009 at 6:15 AM
Chemgeek said…
Check out: http://homebrewandchemistry.blogspot.com/2007/03/brewing-chemistry-part-1-gibberellic.html

Briefly, it is the plant hormone that activates the formation of the amylase enzymes that we will utilize in the mash. When a seed germinates, it first uses it's readily available carbohydrate supply. When that runs out, it starts making amylase to start breaking down the starch. That process is triggered by the gibberillic acid. The goal of a good malting is to get the barley to create a lot of amylase, but not let it break down too much of its starch.
December 10, 2009 at 10:29 AM
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