How to Dry Malted Barley

Barley is one of the main ingredients in beer.

Drying malted barley is a stage in the beer-brewing process. There are many different ways to dry malted barley, but the barley needs to be kept at a steady temperature between 90 and 120 degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature can be kept steady in a home oven that has temperature controls that will go that low. If the temperature is not kept steady, the enzymes that are needed for mashing will be destroyed.

Things You'll Need

• Oven
• Cookie sheet
• Oven mitt

Instructions

Oven Drying

1. Preheat the oven to 100 degrees. Preheating the oven will allow it to reach the correct temperature before the barley is placed in the oven. One hundred degrees is a safe temperature for drying.

2. Place the malted barley on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Place the cookie sheet in the oven, in the center of the middle rack.

3. Leave the barley inside the 100 degree oven for 24 hours.

4. Turn the oven off. Use an oven mitt to remove the cookie sheet from the oven.

Sun Drying

1. Place the malted barley on a cookie sheet in a single layer.

2. Set the cookie sheet in direct sunlight.

3. Keep the birds and insects away from the barley.

4. Let the malted barley dry in the sun for two days.

Tips & Warnings

• In some cases, having only the oven light on can give the oven a temperature of 90 degrees.

• A food dehydrator can also be used to dry malted barley, although these can be expensive.

• Use the sun dry method only if you live in a dry sunny climate.

• You can stop drying when the weight of the grains returns to a similar weight as the unmalted grains.

• The moisture level of the finished barley should be at 10 percent.

• The malted barley can also be air dried, but this process can take three to four weeks.

References

• American Malted Barley Association: Harvesting, Drying, and Storing Malted Barley