39 replies to this topic

[rockyfungus]

So I've had past success with pearled barley.

I received some free brewers barley and I for the life of me can't find a tek that works. I've tried preparing it like WBS, rye, and even pearled barley but I'm always left with a cement like sludge on bottom of jars.

So I've tried soaking for 18ish hours in water with coffee/gypsum. I've tried washing till clear water and then bringing to a boil and shutting stove off and allowing it to sit in hot pot for a few hours. I've also tried just simmering til grains looked soak.

I know there must be some moisture moving from inside the grain back into the jar during the PC cycle.

 

Any tips for barley, or different teks for pesky grains?

[FunG]

When you say "peeled" barley I assume you mean "hulled".

If that is the case then you want to only use unhulled grains of any sort or you'll end up with the sludge everytime.

If I'm remembering this properly, the difference between unhulled and hulled is the outer shell of the grain is removed in hulled grains or something like that so they turn to mush inside a PC at 15psi.

[PJammer24]

I wouldn't use pearled barely... With the hull and germ removed it is going to be releasing a lot of starch will congeal when cool into a starchy mess/black like if you leave popcorn to cool without draining off the water and starches with it... If you have barely with the hull intact, this shouldn't be nearly as big an issue...

 

Pearled barley also is no where near as nutritious and will likely result in lower yields if you were able to find a way to use it effectively...

[coorsmikey]

To add to PJ's comment, a lot of brewer's grains have been "Malted" to convert some of the starches to sugars for fermenting. It's a process where they sprout the grain then oven dry it. I'm not sure that's what you ended up with, but for me everything that is sold at my local brewery store is malted.

Edited by coorsmikey, 27 August 2020 - 05:54 PM.

[Juthro]

I also think you have malted barley.  It has been germinated, and then dried to stop it from further growing.  This malting process is important in brewing, as during germination there are enzymes released that help to break down starches into simple sugars that yeast can then digest into alcohol.

[rockyfungus]

It looks like any whole grain. There is pearled barley for soups. Which I've had success with.

These are most likely malted barley as others have said. Can you use malted barley as spawn? I've had to towel down WBS before they hit jars. Maybe I just towel down the next load for a long time, don't want to waste free grain. (Hate the fucking smell though!)

[Juthro]

If it were me I would brew a batch of beer with the malted barley, its a good skill to learn.  

 

I'm not one to waste time, and materials reinventing the wheel, so I follow proven recipes, and that has given me good results in almost all my endeavors.

[rockyfungus]

I've brewed in my youth and really don't care for alcohol. Maybe I'll make some outdoor patches with the barley.

[Juthro]

Sorry I don't have any useable answers for you, but I do wish you luck with whatever you decide.

[coorsmikey]

I seen someone around here, maybe Pastyoureyes used spent brewers grain successfully in Myco-bags. He added vermiculite to the mix to help keep the moisture in balance but can't remember the ratio. I would bet that you could do something simular with the Barley in question. 

 

 

Ah found it. Here it is. 108686-notes-on-using-spent-mash-grain-from-brewing

Edited by coorsmikey, 28 August 2020 - 03:34 PM.

[rockyfungus]

Thanks for the link! Interesting, I don't know if it's worth the hassle. Probably could food process it and make some PF style cakes.

[pastyoureyes]

Its actually really easy to use spent grain from brewing, I did a 50/50 mix with vermiculite. The hardest part is having enough time to sterilize everything. I didnt even use all the spent grain from a 5 gal batch. The idea behind the vermiculite is simply to soak up the excess moisture. Next time I try it I might include something like wheat bran in the mix. With the 50/50 mix you wind up with something resembling a large PF tek block. I chose the 50/50 ratio arbitrarily as a starting point so it's not set in stone. It can fruit on it's own or be Spawned to bulk. In my test I fruited as a block, it didnt do great in the bag and i didnt have a proper FC at the time so my results were slightly less than average. If you have a martha I bet they'd do really well in there.

If you are going to try this stick to grains from lighter beers like whitbier or IPA. I haven't tested this but my hypothesis is that dark malts (porter/stouts) wont work as well if at all.

[rockyfungus]

It's just a random bag from a brewery and says "Malt Barley".

I ended up finding a cheap 50lb bag of oats, so I may just try the malt for an outdoor bed.

[pastyoureyes]

Oats are great, cheap and readily available almost everywhere.

Sounds like you have whole malted barley (not run through a grain mill). It should work as long as it's not too dark of a malt, too dark would look similar to roasted coffee beans.

I assume you'll be colonizing before adding to the outdoor bed?

[rockyfungus]

I need to try and get the mycellium to take to the grain. Hasn't really worked. Gels at bottom of containers even after towel drying grain.

Was thinking PC grain, dump in ground, throw a bunch of agar in there and see if anything takes.

[pastyoureyes]

If the whole oats are doing this they are too wet or maybe you have a lot of burst grains? Can you get a pic?

[rockyfungus]

Figured my oats out! Been playing with ground barley and vermiculite, basically a PF cake.

Not too shabby. Is the vermiculite barrier on top even important on PF cakes? Been years and forgot about it lol

Here's some lion's mane, looks different them I'm used to, but clean. Finally got non-surface growth!

[attachment=1184201:LMbarley.JPG]

[jrh]

I ended up finding a cheap 50lb bag of oats, so I may just try the malt for an outdoor bed.

 

I've been using an instant pot for my oats. Presumably one could use a pressure cooker at low pressure.

 

1. Put oats and water in instant pot (no soak).

2. Cook on manual for 15 minutes.

3. Drain

 

I actually cook them in a steamer basket, so I just lift the whole thing out to drain. Then I filter and sterilize the oat water for subsequent use.

 

15 minutes seems ok, but I'm going to play around with increasing the cook time by 1 minute increments, so my cook time may change.

[rockyfungus]

I have an Instant pot, are you measuring water or just doing a rough soak?

[jrh]

I'm not measuring water, just draining it after cooking