Home Smoked Malts

Here's a primer on how to smoke malts. This process worked well for me but like skinning a cat it's far from the only way to do it properly. The most important aspects of the process are simple as is the whole process.

Important Items:
• Moisten/soak the malts in cool water.
• Build a small smoke source as avoiding cooking the malt is very important.
• Smoke according to your tastes. If you enjoy heavily smoked foods, go heavy, if not smoke lightly.

The Process:
• Measure out the desired weight of base malt. There will be no weight loss/gain during this process.
• Soak the malt for 15-30 mins in cool water.
• While grains are soaking start a small fire in your grill using 8-10 charcoal briquettes. If at all possible do not use lighter fluid to start the briquettes.
• Scoop grain out of water and place in aluminum pan. I used brownie pans which were great.
• Place chunks of your favorite wood onto the small mound of charcoal and place pans on grill, close lid.
• Keep a careful watch on the grill to ensure it is smoking.
• Open the lid on the grill every 15-25 minutes to stir the grain, stir well.
• Any time the grill stops smoking, adjust the wood/fire to produce smoke. This is an important step to keep your time to a minimum and gauge the correct amount of smoke you want.
• Once the malt has reached a level of smokiness, 20 mins to 2+ hours, remove the grains from the grill.
• Spread the moist grains out on cookie sheets and place in the oven on lowest setting, under 200 F.
• Stir the grains every 10-25 minutes, more frequently as the grains get drier.
• Once dry, allow to cool and place in a good quality storage bag.
• It's VERY important to allow the malts to rest before using for at least 2 weeks, preferably a little more. This allows the smoke character to mellow avoiding harshness.

That's the whole process. It looks like a lot, but it's SUPER simple as the most work is building a tiny fire & stirring grain.

Pictures of the process
Sorry for the poor pic quality - my fault and sorry for pics being the wrong size - photobucket glitch.