Growing Corn/Barley

[Panama Jack]

Anyone out there growing their own corn and/or two row barley and sending it out to be processed/malted, or does everyone who grows their own do their own processing? If you are processing it yourself can you point me towards information on what is involved. If you send it out is there anyone on the East cost processing the grain and can you give me their contact info? I figure corn is easy to deal with probably just grind it, but malting barley is clearly more involved.

[PeteB]

I grow and malt my own rye. Search for a recent thread called "malting rye"

Barley can be malted in a very similar manner, except the barley acrospire is hidden under the husk and so the growth stage is not quite as obvious.

[Clarity]

Valley Malt is located in Western Massachusetts and we do contract malting for folks. Price of the contract depends on a few things: how much, how clean it is when it gets to us, and how you want it back (tote or 50 lb bag). You can contact us through our web-site (www.valleymalt.com) or email us at info@valleymalt.com. We typically charge for malting of 1500 lbs as a minimum.

You can contract through the big malting companies as well, but it is usually a 100,000 lb minimum and it can only be for your own use - you can not resell it to someone else. This is what Sierra Nevada and others have done in the past.

Cheers,

Christian

[bradocaster]

Pete, are you loudering and using a wash, or fermenting on the grain? the "malting rye" post was very good info.

Thanks.

I grow and malt my own rye. Search for a recent thread called "malting rye"

Barley can be malted in a very similar manner, except the barley acrospire is hidden under the husk and so the growth stage is not quite as obvious.

[Panama Jack]

Thanks all. I have to produce on my farm what I process so I am looking at the options of Corn, Barley and also considering Rye, honey and a few other options.

[PeteB]

Firstly to answer Bradocaster's question. I have a lauter tun so I ferment and distill without grains. I have a direct fired still. Runoff through the grain bed is extremely slow with 100% rye. Up to 24 hours!!

Panama Jack, good luck with your farm distillery. Sounds very similar to what I am doing. About the only thing I bring onto my farm is yeast, and waste cooking oil to fire my still. The only thing that leaves is whiskey and fat pigs and cattle.(just talking about the distillery part of my farm)