Tax season was a bear this year so I didn't get to work on any projects, but nearing the end of it, I had been researching more and more about malting my own sorghum.  I had actually started researching a few years ago, but really ramped it up in the past month and finally made the attempt.

I won't go into the failure of the first attempt, but I will say that 48 hours into the process I knew something was wrong and had to start over.

What followed was a multistep process first steeping the grain, germinating the grain and then drying the grain following updated processes modified to what I could possibly do.

Step 1:  Sorting the grain.

After receiving the grain, I picked out approximate 2 pounds of sorghum and tried to pick out broken and odd looking grains.  I expect that a series of graded sifters would work better for this, but it's not likely something that I will have handy.  Broken grain, stones, twigs,  bugs.  These would not malt and could be quite detrimental to the process.  Thankfully, because the sorghum purchased from Pleasant Hill Grain was triple cleaned, all I had to deal with was the occasional broken grain.



Step 2:  Steeping the grain

Once I measured out my 900g's of sorghum, I did an initial wash, using the same metal bowl, filling it with water and running my fingers vigorously through the grain to clear any husks and floating non-viable seeds.  I scheduled out a soak/air dry schedule of 6 hours soak in 30 degrees C water, 3 hours air dry for 45 hours, plus a final higher temperature soak at 40 degrees for 6 more hours.
I soaked using a .1% alkaline solution.  Ideally, I would have been using sodium hydroxide (NaOH).  What I had to use instead was sodium carbonate(Na2CO3), derived from sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) by heating baking soda in the oven at 300 degrees for about 20 minutes.  I think I could have found the right time vs temperature formula for that though.  A 1% solution is 1g/100g water (and 1g water = 1ml water), so what I used was 1g/1L of water.  I used 4 liters of water per soak period.
In a comparison between a non-alkaline soak vs a alkaline soak, the alkaline soak showed the brownish result, either a reaction from the soda, or something being drawn from the grain.
*Note, ideally, after the final 40 degree C steep, I would have sterilized the grain with a 1% solution for a few minutes.

After the soak, the small chits (sprouts) are starting to grow.  (Image taken from a viability test.)

Step 3: Germinating the grain

I used my oven as a germinator, sterilizing it first by running the clean cycle a day before.  I spread the grain on a screen and used a plant heater to keep the oven at 40C, an ultrasonic fogger to keep 90-100% humidity and an air pump to keep new air circulating into the oven to prevent stagnation.  Germinating grain does use up oxygen, and it's been studied that the soak water also has oxygen taken from it, though aerating the soak water showed that grain sprouts too soon for malting.

Unseen in the photo was that I moved the airstone and heat pad under the bottom rack, moved the grain to the bottom rack and put a bowl and fogger above it.

Despite the high humidity, higher than what is used for other grains, sorghum quickly loses water, so its necessary to spray the sorghum once or twice daily, as well as to rotate and stir the grain to keep it from matting.

Germination day 4

Germination day two.

It took much, much longer than I had planned to just empty a container so that I could put the spiced beer into a total of 3 kegs.  This past weekend, I finally drew the final glass of beer from my orange-coriander beer.  With three empty kegs, one from Thanksgiving, one that I had to dump, and finally this one. I made sure to clean and sterilize the kegs and run the cleaner through the outlet on each of them.

It was an unfortunate turn of events for the one keg I had to dump out, and if it happens again, I will have to completely replace parts of it, since the beer had turned to vinegar with odd things in it.  I never figured out what it was, either.

I filled two of the kegs to the top, and put the rest of the beer into the third keg.  The third keg being the one that had issues last time.  This way, if I lose anything, I would only lose 2-3 gallons of beer.  The other two kegs were filled to have 4.5-5 gallons in them and I carbonated them all to at least 12psi.  I may consider going higher once I get a better test.

I taste tested it today, and it's very much like the one I had at Thanksgiving.  It's a little out of date since it is a spiced beer, but it's not one that I want to try to keep until next winter.  I will taste it again tomorrow to define the taste, since it is likely to not taste the same once I give it time to settle and to let the any yeast settle out.

Once the carboys were washed and sterilized, I then decided to rack the cranberry mead.   Apparently I didn't use enough water because there was 1/2 a gallon of space in the carboy that I had to use the plain mead I made last July to finish filling the carboy to the top.  

Another oddity persisted, and that seems to be that I either brought a lot of yeast, or I brought unfermented honey over to the carboy.  The liquid was pretty viscous at the end and it could be from either situation.  However, the measurement taken shows that the racked liquid before addition was 1.018.  I'll taste test this tomorrow, since I put the glass into the fridge to try to drop the yeast out.  I may have to find a different clarifier, and I may also have to find out if it's really sugar that is remaining.

This past holiday season was a prime season for people to do cookie exchanges, where several people get together and trade cookies so that each person receives a bag of everyone else's cookies.  This does mean that a baker needs to make at least 6 cookies for each person expected to go.  In my case, it was expected that we would have 15 people visiting, so we needed 90 cookies, a little over 8 dozen.

The crux of the problem though, was not only did these cookies need to be gluten free, since it's a gluten free group, but I knew that some people had dairy allergies, egg allergies and soy allergies, so I altered a gluten free recipe to fit this scenario.  Unfortunately, while I avoided soy based shortening, I did hit a spot since the shortening was palm oil, and palm oil is considered a tree nut.   At least though, no one in the group had a tree nut allergy.

My first batch didn't turn out so well.  Instead of rolling dough into balls, I sliced them off a log to try making a sort of biscuit cookie.  The shape didn't turn out too well, and the cooking didn't work quite right.  The second batch, created after some consulting, was much better.  The dough was chilled in log form, 2" in diameter, and 1/4" slices were cut and rolled into balls which were then rolled in a spiced sugar and then flattened into a cookie form.

This wasn't a complete loss at least, since my consultant took the first batch back to a second baker, who doesn't always do gluten free, and used it to create a crust that did quite well for cheesecake.

The recipe was modified from a gluten free recipe from serious eats for the use in a cookie exchange where there are other allergies, including gluten.

Equipment: mixer, measuring equipment, oven, parchment paper or plastic wrap, baking sheet, heavy flat bottomed glass.
Cookie Recipe

• 8.5 ounces (2 cups) brown rice flour
• 2 3/4 ounces (1/2 cup) sweet rice flour
• 2 ounces (1/2 cup) tapioca starch
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground clove
• 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 5 ounces (10 tablespoons) Spectrum brand Palm Oil Shortening
• 6.3 ounces (3/4 cup packed) dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup Libby's Pumpkin (plain canned pumpkin)
• 3 tablespoons molasses 
• 1/2 Tablespoon water if needed

It appears that despite all the mishaps, the pumpkin ale turned out pretty well.  After the taste tests it was decided that I'd bring the keg home for Thanksgiving.  It wasn't touched until most people went home, especially because most of the family doesn't drink.  For the members of the family that did, it was a decent drinking beer, and when the family poker game turned into a drinking game, it depleted very quickly.  All 5 gallons were done in by under 7 people in a span of 5-7 hours.

Because of this, I've decided to try to make another batch, or rather, a double batch which is sitting in carboys.  I do not know if it will be anywhere near done by the time Christmas rolls around though.  I started this on Sunday, 4 days ago.  I expect that it will take until at least Sunday the 11th to ferment, then I will add the settling ingredients and it will settle, outside in a shed where it's 40 or so degrees.  I don't know if it will be clear by the 18th or not, but between then and the 22nd I'll taste test to see where it is. If there's a chance, then I will keg it and bring one home.  I expect that I will have about 14 gallons, or 3 soda kegs worth.  I just hope I have enough kegs.

I also started a cranberry mead using 18 pounds of honey and 6 pounds of cranberries.  We'll see how that ferments and comes out.  I'll eventually be moving that into one of the carboys from the bucket it's in.   I used a bucket because I'd need the wide mouth due to the cranberries.  I hope that one of the carboys will be ready by the time I need to rack the mead, otherwise I'll have to stick it outside to keep it cold, or worse, spend even more money on a 3rd carboy.

Pumpkin Ale in a glass, cause it's hiding in the fridge

Throughout the month of October, I have been working on a pumpkin ale.  I didn't post my recipe up front like I normally try to, and perhaps it would have been a better idea to.  I'll explain why in a bit. 

For quite some time, sous vide has been a rising item in the consumer items for home cooks.  Most of us are used to cooking at a high temperature for a short amount of time.  Grilling a steak for a few minutes, or quickly cooking some burgers, putting a pork loin into the oven for half an hour, or stirfrying thinly sliced meat and vegetables for just a scant few minutes.  Our lowest temperature and longest time tends to be using a slow cooker for 8 hours.

The difference with sous vide is that not only is the temperature much lower, ranging around 135=145, but that the time to cook is much longer.  A cut of meat that normally cooks for 45-60 minutes in the oven will take 12-48 hours.  Why so long? The low, constant temperature will slowly cook the cut of meat, and will not bring the temperature above this, so the end result is that the cut will not be cooked over this temperature.  Great for cooking something to rare or medium rare, without being too raw on the inside and not too cooked on the outside.

There are a number of resources out there, and I'm not used to this enough to do a full explanation, however, I will explain the parts I'm using and the ingredients I've used used.

I hooked up my handy crock pot and filled it with warm water, then plugged it into a temperature control device that had cost me 75 dollars new, and that I use for a number of items including:  Making yogurt, incubating koji and now, using as a low temperature cooker.  The temperature control device consists of a thermometer probe and a unit that plugs into the wall.  The heating device, in this case the slow cooker, plugs into the temperature control unit, and the thermometer probe is set into the water.  I set the device to cut the power when the temperature reaches 140 degrees, and to start heating as soon as the temperature drops below 135.  

While the water was heating up, I've sliced up a single carrot, a small onion and added it into a ziploc freezer bag along with a small splash of cheap, but drinkable, wine.  Actually it was a Kroger special Pinot Noir.  Unfortunately, I didn't have any other wines to use at the time.  I seasoned a beef sirloin roast with garlic salt and freshly ground black pepper.  The particular cut (which I'll have to check which kind it is in detail), is a fairly solid slab of meat, with little to no marbling or connective tissue which would normally render out fat and flavor into the meat.  Because of this, I had decided to use the vegetables and wine, even at the risk of this becoming more like a stew.

I will be letting this cook over the next two days, and finish it up on a grill, or on my cast iron pan, in order to brown the outside of this small 3 pound piece of lean meat.

Ideally, what will happen tomorrow night, will be slicing some veggies (the remainder of the carrots, onion, garlic and a parsnip) and putting that into the hot water to slow cook, finishing it the next day in the oven.  Unlike meat, I'm of the opinion that root vegetables really need to be cooked at a higher temperature than meat.  Usually around the 185 degree range.  I'm not sure what heating the vegetables up to 140 will do for me