All Grain Brewing - Preparation for a Local Suppy

A couple of our brewers have used the advanced all-grain method of brewing, using malted barley grains, hops and yeast.  Each brewer has created an all-grain smoked porter using the slightly smoked malted barley donated by Rick from the Copper Fox Distillery in Sperryville.  These porters will be tested out in our next meeting/tasting event towards end of January (more info on that to come).

Here are some photos of the process.  Involves removing the dried rootlets from the malted grains ("malted" means germinated & dried).  The rootlets will give off flavors to beer if not removed.  Next is grinding the malt (cracking/crushing husks) to prepare for boiling (mashing).  This releases the interior seed components of the grain from the husks - necessary for extracting the sugars and starches for beer making.  This puts us further along in our goal to use a local supply of malted barley grains, yeast, and hops to make quality locally crafted beer.

malted grains with dried rootlets attached

sifter (shaken and stirred to break up rootlets from barley grains)

rootlets sifted out of barley for disposal

barley grains being crushed/cracked

close up of cracked barley - ready for mashing