The message
from "David W.E. Roberts" contains these words:

This is not something to attempt lightly if you mean *REALLY* from
scratch. You need strictly controlled temperatures when chitting the
barley and malting it, also it must be turned (gently) regularly or it
goes sour.

Not rocket science - at one time loads of smallholders made their own beer.

But they were there 24 hours a day, and probably had a family to help.
Making malt and turning it into alcoholic drinks was a way of using
profitably surplus grain that rodents might otherwise nosh. Beer doesn't
keep too well, but when distilling was discovered.......

Malting the barley is a difficult part of the process because you need to
control the temperature and humidity and turn the grain over a long period.
Not something you can do in a couple of hours, or leave for a few days then
come back to.
However there is an excellent description on how to malt barley on page 69
of "The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency" by John Seymour ISBN
0-7513-0426-3
This description implies to me that 'kilning' the barly (cooking it at above
120 F but below 140 F to prevent it growing further) is more difficult than
the initial malting.
It is also important to get the colour right, from pale to dark, depending
on the beer you want to produce.
You will also need some kind of mill to crush the malt before brewing.

Old mangle with wooden rollers... Wish I still had it!

So you will need a certain amount of infrastructure - a plot to grow the
barly, a floor to malt the barley, a suitable kiln or oven to cook the
malted barley, and a coarse mill to crush the malt.

You will also need to dedicate quality time to it - malting seems to take
about 14 days.


Then when you mash it, the maltose has to be extracted within a very
tight temperature band, about ±1°F for lager malt and ±1°C for English
type beer malt.

Here is where Rusty/Jaques and I part company.
Real home brewers use fresh malt, and can make outstanding beer with home
mashing. You can get mashing tubs with electric heaters and thermostats
which can turn the art into more of a science. You may not get the same
extraction rate as a commercial brewery, but then you just accept that you
are going to be a little less efficient and allow for that in the
quantities.

I don't see why we part company here - I'm talking about mashing cracked
malt grains. Mashing tubs aren't that easy to get hold of - at least, in
this part of Norfolk no hooter has one in his catalogue.

If the growing and malting is too complex, find a supplier of organic
crushed malt.

e.g. from http://www.beersunlimited.co.uk/grains.html

"Also offered is the organically grown Golden Promise, primarily grown for
distillation but which produces excellent beers."

It is much more sensible to buy spray-dried malt extract.

The (not good but vaguely competent) brewer in me recoils from this heresy
:-))

I, on the other hand, aged fifteen and having started by drying hops
from the garden and buying a sack of cracked white malt from Romford's
Ind Coope Brewery (and split it into smaller portions to take home on my
bicycle) would still recommend the beginner to begin with the extract.
Success with that may lead to better brewing. Failure with a traditional
mash and boil brew may nip interest in the bud.

I *HAVE* made beer starting from barley and going through the whole
process, but that process took several days to make ten gallons of beer.

snip

Cheers

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/