My millet experiments from 2012

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oldbloke
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My millet experiments from 2012

Post by oldbloke » Thu Apr 03, 2014 7:50 pm

The dates must be wrong on one of these...

Experiment 0:

2012-03-16
14oz of millet (from Haji's) given a 4hour soak
Spread over muslin stretched aross a cooling tray over a roasting pan
Rinsed approx every 8 hours for nearly 2 days,
didn't look great so rigged sprouting jars from 4 Kilners with muslin across tops, transferred to them
At 4 days(ish) long roots and some acrospires as long as grain - others not sprouted at all, etc
2012-03-20(21?)
Dried in batches @ 50 in oven, stirring regulalrly, about an hour each batch.
2012-03-27
Half(approx) roasted @ 150 mins: a little darker, not hugely.
Ground, not particularly finely, in pestle&mortar.
Actually ground too fine, I realise after reading my books.
Added to nearly full small saucepan at about 30C.
No idea what the pH is.
Heated to 40C for beta-Glucanase rest - overshot to about 44.
At least 1 commercial glucanase wants 45 anyway.
Left 30 mins - no idea how long the rest ought to be. Fell to 40 in this time.
Missed the protease rest at 50 - didn't check notes, thought it was 60...
Some time at around 63 when incorrectly trying for 60 for protease - will do for beta-amylase.
Heated to 65C for amylase rest; bit easier to keep it about right, here.
Cycling between 62 and 68 - the two amylases.
Added tiny bit of amylase halfway through, JIC.
This rest for 90mins-2hrs.
Up to 78-80 for mashout. Need to lose about half a pint to get wort to 1 pint.
Went up to 85 occasionally.
Strained into jug: couldn't be bothered to sparge.
Left to cool; added 1/8tsp isomerised hop extract.
***Should have boiled it at this point.***
Gravity 1020 @ about 28; added sugar to get it to about 1037.
Added pinch of amylase, pinch of pectolase, pinch of nutrient.
Split between 500ml PET and 333ml PET: each about 2/3 full.
Pitched bit of Munton's Gold ale yeast
Not looking promising - lots of solids settled to bottom immediately.
8 hours later, yeast beginning to work, but...
Decided it needs that boil. Will kill the yeast and enzymes, otherwise shouldn't be a problem.
Boiled 1 hour (extra water from kettle). Great smell!
Reading Wiki during the boil I see that the earlier rests aren't really needed in a malted grain.
They may be useful, though.
Cooled, pitched more yeast.
Fermenting nicely.
At some gas releases, giving it a good shake to get that stuff on the bottom mixed in a bit.
Subsequent gas releases are lifting some of the bottom stuff anyway.
2011-05-21 (9 days from yeast pitch, could have bottled at least a day earlier)
Bottled. Sneak taste: very thin, lacking in flavour, but definitely beer-like.
Definitely try a larger scale experiment
2011-05-28 (1 week's conditioning)
Top came off bottle like a grenade! Didn't stir up the sediment though, phew.
Pleasant drink!!! A little thin, a little lacking in flavour, but definitely beer-like.
In fact, definitely beer. Not entirely unlike the blander continental lagers, but with a slightly creamy finish.
Absolutely must experiment further!

===============================================================================
Experiment 1:

2012-03-16
14oz of millet (from Haji's) given a 4hour soak
Spread over muslin stretched across a cake cooling tray over a drip tray
Rinsed approx every 8 hours for nearly 2 days,
Didn't look great so rigged sprouting jars from 4 Kilners with muslin across tops, transferred to them
At 4 days(ish) long roots and some acrospires as long as grain - others not sprouted at all, etc
2012-03-20(21?)
Dried in batches @ 50 in oven, stirring regulalrly, about an hour each batch.
2012-03-27
Half(approx) roasted @ 150 approx 45mins: medium brown inside (at least some) grains
Rubbed round a metal sieve to strip off rootlets
2012-03-28
Ground in coffee mill. Finer than it should be but hey.
Into small pan with 1l water
Into oven set to 50, left 30 mins (protease rest) hit this more or less
Bit of amylase added
Oven to 62, 15 mins (beta amylase) Would have been longer but overshot
Oven to 68, 30 mins (alpha amylase) Trouble holding it here, went over and under
Oven to 78 (mashout) Overshot...
OVEN AS HARD TO CONTROL AS HOB!!!
Strained through muslin-lined sieve, that also sparged with 1.5l near boiling water from kettle
***WASTENOTWANTNOT:
Spent grain chucked in gallon bucket with 13oz sugar, 3ml hop extract, pinch amylase, some stale Munton's Gold yeast
Brought to boil, 18g hops added, boiled 45min
Sieved into large pan, made up to 4.5l (some water refridgerated, cold break?)
SG only about 1.010 at 28 (1.012 corrected) - bit of a surprise. No proper trial jar.
Stirred in 8oz sugar over low heat.
Into demi with 1/4tsp hop extract
Gravity still looks low but some of the sugar may be on the bottom...
Left to cool.
tsp nutrient, 1/2pkt Munton's Gold yeast
2012-03-30
Topped up with half litre water with 1oz sugar dissolved in it
2012-04-20
Not clear yet, but bottled anyway (500ml Coke bottles).
1/2tsp sugar per 500 ml
Thin and very bitter
Improved rapidly
2012-09-28
A little over 5 months in bottle: a pleasant ale, slightly lemony.
Could maybe use more hop, preferably a touch more body.

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Jim
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Re: My millet experiments from 2012

Post by Jim » Thu Apr 03, 2014 8:45 pm

So have I got this wrong or have you been malting millet? :shock:
NURSE!! He's out of bed again!

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oldbloke
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Re: My millet experiments from 2012

Post by oldbloke » Thu Apr 03, 2014 8:47 pm

I did. Only a small amount, which meant it was a fun blokish tinkering sort of thing.
I keep meaning to buy some better quality millet and do a bigger batch but there's always something else to brew...
It is the closest in taste to barley malt of any non-barley thing I've tried.

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6470zzy
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Re: My millet experiments from 2012

Post by 6470zzy » Thu Apr 03, 2014 8:47 pm

Good on you for doing the experiments. I haven't the patience to malt the millet on my own, but am glad to see that there are others with more perseverance than myself :D
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oldbloke
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Re: My millet experiments from 2012

Post by oldbloke » Thu Apr 03, 2014 8:52 pm

As you're in Cape Cod... ISTR hearing somebody in the USA was malting it commercially now

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6470zzy
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Re: My millet experiments from 2012

Post by 6470zzy » Fri Apr 04, 2014 8:38 am

Yes that is true, a touch bit too far away from my house though unfortunately.

http://coloradomaltingcompany.com/Glute ... Grain.html
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jmc
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Re: My millet experiments from 2012

Post by jmc » Tue May 13, 2014 1:52 pm

oldbloke wrote:I did. Only a small amount, which meant it was a fun blokish tinkering sort of thing.
I keep meaning to buy some better quality millet and do a bigger batch but there's always something else to brew...
It is the closest in taste to barley malt of any non-barley thing I've tried.
Just wondering if you think this millet from Holland & Barrett could be malted?
Image
.
Its cheap at the moment at 99p/500g & no delivery fee

Will any unprocessed millet work?

Cheers John

oldbloke
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Re: My millet experiments from 2012

Post by oldbloke » Wed May 14, 2014 12:16 am

Hard to say - it may have been processed in some way to make it a food product. 2 quid a kilo is quite a good price though, worth blowing 99p on a bag just to see if it malts.
There's good millet all over ebay, but it tends to cost a bit more than that and then there's p&p on top
This sort of thing: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2Kg-Millet-Fo ... 4179c8b6f1

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