An Idea for roasting your own grain at home?

AHarper

AHarper

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I have an idea about home roasting grain that was triggered by something @Zambezi Special said in a recent post where she couldn't get the appropriate roasted grain at her local home brew supplier - well that's what I understood anyway - and also something @Trialben mentioned about the evenness in roast done by the traditional home method.

I got to thinking - How could you maintain an even roast in a small scale? What would you do to achieve it?
Well having some method of stirring the grain while it roasts would ensure some sort of even heat distribution. So how to stir the grain while heating it? What would fit the bill - with a bit of modification - to move the grain around while at the same time heating it with some sort of control so you don't burn everything?

What do I have that may work and do both tasks, stirring and heating, at the same time.

An old breadmaker!

Yes it does the stirring (mixing the dough) before baking the bread but it is electronic and I know about that. How difficult could it be? Well we shall see. It will be my next Homebrew Project. I will document how it progresses and let you know. It will be fun trying and the most difficult part will be determining the levels of heating and timing to get the various roasts.

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Has anyone else tried this? Any suggestions / examples of temperatures / times for particular types of malt?

There is this chart from John Palmer's How To Brew This would be a start.


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Nope but I've roasted /made my own crystal malt and roasted brown malt before more traditional via the oven type thing.
Results were great though well worth the faffing about.
 
AHarper said:
How difficult could it be? Well we shall see. It will be my next Homebrew Project. I will document how it progresses and let you know. It will be fun trying and the most difficult part will be determining the levels of heating and timing to get the various roasts.
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Who said that earlier that the difference between science and screwing around is writing it down? Having used one of those bread machines a couple of times I know that there is a manual kneading function that allows you to knead the dough for a given amount of time but I don't think that the heating coil Is at any high temperature to allow for the roasting so that's where you're going to have to figure out how and what to bypass. Sounds like a trip to the second -hand shop is in your future!
 
Ward Chillington said:
Who said that earlier that the difference between science and screwing around is writing it down? Having used one of those bread machines a couple of times I know that there is a manual kneading function that allows you to knead the dough for a given amount of time but I don't think that the heating coil Is at any high temperature to allow for the roasting so that's where you're going to have to figure out how and what to bypass. Sounds like a trip to the second -hand shop is in your future!
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I have such a bread maker in the garage just sitting there gathering dust. My wife makes her own Sour Dough bread by hand these days so it is totally redundant. I can bypass the built in timer/control circuits and build a new one to switch on the paddle motor and the heating element at the same time. I might even be able to make it programmable using a Raspberry Pi. That may take longer than building an analogue driver circuit though.
It may be easier to somehow wire up the motor and heater circuits to power up in parallel and control the whole thing from an external timer?
It needs some testing and development work - something to do in the next lockdown perhaps?
 
That’s pretty cool. I’ve been tempted to buy nothing but pale and do something like this
 
Oh my thoughts before kick-starting this build Allan.
1st things first dump some grains in that bread maker and make sure it'll actually roast them.

My thinking will the bread maker supply sufficient heat to get desired roasting results.
I'm imagining to get your 500+ lovibond roasted barley / chocolate malts you need se serious temps like 250 - 300c for like 20 mins.

I was thinking my thermomix would do this but then thought hey it maybe won't reach the high enough temp to heat right through the kernel.

This has been my delema in the past is getting an even roast through the kernel.
It'll be brown black on the outside husk but once cracked it would be whitish.
 
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philjohnwilliams said:
My air fryer (T-Fal Actifry) has a paddle that constantly stirs while it cooks, maybe something like this would be worth looking into.
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That sounds like a better idea than a bread machine.
 
@AHarper
Do a control sample in the oven as well, as per your Palmer chart. The big question: Can you really do better than an oven, with the occasional shake and stir method??

Lots of great ideas above. Good luck, seems like a great experiment.
 
I'll be trying stove top soon ;)
Awesome ideas and thanks for Palmer's chart.
Got the book, but I didn't remember the chart.
And while I am writing...
Maybe I should try some in my smoker?
Mopani smoked barley malt :D
 
Megary said:
@AHarper
Do a control sample in the oven as well, as per your Palmer chart. The big question: Can you really do better than an oven, with the occasional shake and stir method??

Lots of great ideas above. Good luck, seems like a great experiment.
Click to expand...


I have never done my own before - I like to leave these things to the experts normally but it was just an idea that popped into my brain in an idle moment. I don't even have a grain mill here so that would be another reason for me not having to do it.

I like challenges though and I have been meaning to throw out the breadmaker for a long time - to give me room to store something else I will probably throw out in a few years! - but if I could put it to use I would be doing my bit for the planet lol.
 
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