Malt is the main ingredient used to make beers and ales, but what is it exactly? Malt is mainly made up of barley grains that has been made to slightly open making it easier to break the starch inside down to other sugars. But how is this made? Lets first go over the basics of how a pale malt is made. Malt consists of partially germinated barley seed that have been dried and crushed. During germination enzymes are produced that convert the starch in the seed (flour) to sugar (maltose) which the yeast converts to alcohol. These enzymes are what we are using in the mash to extract the maltose and are destroyed at high temperatures which is why it is kept down below 70 degrees C. The first step
Storage of ingredients is important, whether you are buying 10kg of malt or one of our kits you want to make sure it is kept in the right conditions. These will be general tips to make sure your ingredients don’t deteriorate and you get the best homebrew possible. The most important thing with storing malted grains is making sure it stays dry. If wet for long periods the grain will start losing quality (as everything we want is being drained out) and is more likely to rot. Our kits come in vacuum packed bags meaning they are a lot less susceptible to this, but it is still wise to keep them in a dry area. Malt can be stored in a fridge, they will be perfectly fine in there but it is not neces
