malt

[asakiyume]

This entry repeats some of the stuff I said about brewing chicha in this entry, but consider this the revised, improved, and expanded version ;-)

In the rhyme "this is the house that jack built," there are these lines:

This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built. (etc.)

The picture always is of a sack. For example...


(Source: New York Public Library Digital Collections)

I never actually knew what malt was.

Fast-forward to my project with my tutee to make El Salvadoran chicha. The first step involved sprouting corn--keeping it warm and moist so it would put out a root and a little shoot... at which point, so my tutee told me (receiving instructions from her mother), we were supposed to wash the corn and... take off the root and the shoot. Well then WHY are we growing them? I wondered.

The answer is that when the corn starts sprouting, it makes an enzyme that turns starch into sugar, and we want this in the brewing process. I discovered this after my first attempt at getting the corn to sprout resulted in a moldy mess. I searched "sprouted corn brewing" on the interwebs and discovered this fact... and that sprouted grain is called malt. And that it keeps. So after you have sprouted it and taken the root and shoot off (this feels so cruel--poor corn just wants to make a corn plant, and you're stymying it), you can put it in a sack in your attic to feed a rat ... or for future brewing.

(Photo I sent to my tutee, in distress about my mold problem. You can see all the white roots, but also the strong yellow shoots, e.g. in the kernel directly above the red circle)



Take two was more successful. (This photo is earlier in the sprouting process--showing just roots, no shoots)




After washing, derooting, and desprouting the corn, you put it in a big old container with a tight lid and feed it water and--if you're making El Salvadoran chicha--panela (sugarcane juice that's been boiled down and thickened) each day. And for the first three days, you throw the liquid away each new day, but from the fourth day on you keep it and keep adding to it: more water, more panela, and, for flavor, you put in the rind of a pineapple.

during the first three days


from the fourth day


I decanted on day six or seven. It is only very mildly alcoholic--it would have gotten more alcoholic if I let it sit--but it did have a yeasty bite and a definite flavor of the panela and pineapple, very rich and sweet. I have NO IDEA if it tasted right, and how's this for humor: my tutee is very strict about no drugs, no alcohol, so she had never had it, so she wasn't sure if it was either. But her roommate is also from El Salvador and promised us it tasted just right. Maybe she was just humoring us? But maybe it really was right! La chicha salvadoreña de Lorena, mamá de S, my tutee :-)



total produced


The moldy malt I dumped into the compost bin, and it flourished:



I've transplanted it and now have some good-looking corn plants. In my experience, corn never does well with me--I get tiny ears with a couple of weird monster kernels and nothing else, but maybe this year will be different! We'll see.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Traditional English style top fermented beer requires large amounts of malt!

[asakiyume]

Well now I know how to create some!

[wayfaringwordhack]

You are one determined woman! It seems like a pretty tedious process.

I know what you mean about those weird corn kernels; that is what a lot of mine were like back in the day. We have a few tomato plants on our balcony and they make me sad with their wimpiness. I hope the season is long enough here for them to actually do something.

[asakiyume]

It was actually very fun! It was frustrating that the first attempt to sprout the corn got moldy, but actual daily work was minimal, and the magical transformation into something mildly fermented was exciting. It's like seeing dough rise or cream become ... whipped cream (yum).

Fingers crossed for your tomato plants. Isn't the climate Mediterranean? Hopefully that means a long growing season.

[wayfaringwordhack]

Yeah, the tedium I was imagining was removing all the rootlets, but maybe they fall right off when you rub the kernels through your hands. :)

I made a clafoutis with plum yesterday and was telling the people I made it for that it is very quick dessert. The only thing that takes time is removing the stones from the fruit. That is why, I believe, the traditional cherry clafoutis is supposed to use cherries with the stones in. :P

The climate is Mediterranean here, but a) our balcony is not exactly south-facing, so the plants aren't getting a lot of direct sunlight; b) the month of June has been abnormally cool this year. And of course, c) the plants were not that big when we got them and planted a bit late. I will start my own seedlings next year if we decide to grow stuff again.

However, the upside of having the plants (and the lemon trees and qumquat) is that one is perhaps more interested (or so says J) in the life happening on your tiny balcony, in your elevated flat, in a city, where it is a more rare* and precious thing than you are, say, when you are living in the countryside, taking it for granted because of its abundance and the fact that it is your spouse taking care of everything. ;)

____________
* I hope to make a post soon about the flora around here

[asakiyume]

Well and you're right: taking off the root and shoot was the most tedious part, and I did wonder, while I was doing it, how my tutee's mom does it, because it seemed very time consuming and I was wondering if there was a faster or easier way, or if she just doesn't mind giving it the time because the payoff is so good.

Leaving the stones in the cherries is a way to get around the problem of taking them out! I picked cherries last year with mallorys_camera, and the healing angel helped me take the stones out ^_^

Do you know what exposure your balcony is? North would obviously be the worst...

Lemon tree and kumquat as I would spell it, but probably there are lots of ways)! Fabulous! Having little citrus trees makes up for many things <3

And in J's comment do I read something about his approach to the homestead???

[wayfaringwordhack]

*nods*. fiddly jobs=tedium :P Like to have the smoothest, silkiest hummus, they say you have to take the skins off all the chickpeas. I don't have time for that. :P

Our balcony, which is recessed into the building, faces south south-east, so it isn't bad; and frankly, given the hot summer temps and two solid storeys of windows on that side, I am glad we don't have the full sun pounding in on it. :P

If you read into it that the garden and flowerbeds and hedges (and chickens, mostly, but we always harvested them together) was my domain while he did the 9-5 (which, with his schedule was actually 12 hrs shifts plus 2 hrs of driving) "paid" job, then yes. :P However, he was my willing helping hand for digging ponds, mowing, brush-hogging... He did lots of moving and cleanup while I did the buying, planting, nurturing, harvesting, processing. ;) His main job was firewood: Harvesting the trees, cutting them down to size, stacking... :D

It is a very different life, this apartment living in another country!

[pameladean]

This is so cool! Though I admit that my favorite parts are the picture of the rat apparently trying to read upside-down print, and the corn happily sprouting in the compost.

I've had fine luck with sweet corn but very bad luck with raccoons. It comes to much the same thing in the end.

P.

[asakiyume]

I like the rat too--I like the way his little hands are placed in the first part of the illustration, as if he's hoisting himself up.

And things sprouting in the compost is one of my favorite things about having compost.

[pameladean]

(very belated response, but time is behaving oddly for me right now)

Yes, the rat's little hands! OMG.

I love that about compost too. Mostly I have gotten vast, sprawling cherry tomato plants with very nice sweet tomatoes on them, but once or twice I got volunteer phlox, white-eyed pink sports of Phlox David as far as I can tell (Phlox David has white flowers) and a couple of times an amazing net of black nightshade.

P.

[asakiyume]

Compost is such a wonderful mystery-present giver. I've gotten cantaloupe, butternut squash, ground cherries, and now corn!

[radiantfracture]

This was delightful! I don't think I even quite realized that I had no idea what malt was until right now.

[asakiyume]

I'm glad I'm not the only one!

[conuly]

Cool!

[asakiyume]

:-) it was fun

[sovay]

The moldy malt I dumped into the compost bin, and it flourished

Hooray for the independent malt!

(I believe I learned about malt because of malted milk. I like most malt-flavored things I have encountered, except for beer, because I do not at all like the taste of hops.)

[asakiyume]

Hooray for the independent malt --if it establishes a republic in my backyard, I'm swearing allegiance

[sonia]

How lovely! I thought I knew what malt was (a dark syrup, "malt syrup"). Now I know more!

I believe your corn kernel problem is a pollination problem. Each kernel needs to be pollinated, and you're not getting enough of the right pollinators. All this is vague memory of reading about other people's attempts and I need to go to bed, but maybe that will be enough info to spark further research.

[asakiyume]

Whoa each kernel! That's fascinating! I'll go read more. Maybe it's a thing where, growing such a relatively small amount as I do, I could hand pollinate. Thank you for the tip!

[minoanmiss]

this feels so cruel--poor corn just wants to make a corn plant, and you're stymying it

You have the most tender heart in the hemisphere. *hugs you*

And yes, now you have malted and brewed! Congratulations on joining the ancient practice!

[asakiyume]

You have the most tender heart in the hemisphere.

--Hahaha, it's definitely misplaced sentiment, but I'm just so impressed and thrilled by things that sprout and grow that it seems like a waste not to let them keep growing... mmmmm, but I can overcome the feeling, fortunately.

And yes! I'm so pleased with myself! And I'd definitely be keen to try again.

[mrissa]

Ah, a gluten-free malt! Useful for if you have someone with celiac who desperately misses malted things in addition to your current use, possibly?

[asakiyume]

Wow I hadn't thought! But yeah, corn is gluten free, unlike barley and rye, etc.

I'm still ignorant on how else one uses malt besides in brewing--sovay mentioned malted milk, which I've drunk, but I have no idea what it is or how it's made. And sonia mentioned malt syrup, but I also don't know how I would get that. Fun research ahead!

[amaebi]

Brava! Brava!

[asakiyume]

*low bow with a flourish of my ostrich-plume hat*

[amaebi]

Thomas Malthus came from a family of maltster, you know.

[asakiyume]

I did not! But I guess his surname says all.