Making Red Rye Malt

I think it is 'seriously cool' too - because you can distill rye whiskey after you ferment these rye berries if you don't like rye bread :-)

I used your temp and schedule to base mine on along with my much, much greater experience at doing Barley Malt for beer.  You had said that you would go for lower temps and I think you were very right about that and it is the key.  I also wanted to speed up the process by increasing the temp faster while never going over 325 F.   Lower temps allow for better color control and not burn the berries.  I stopped when the berries got to the final color that codruta posted on your blog.  It is also nice to be able to document with decent pictures now too !

all work at getting the process and product better - while keeping it together in one place.  This rye malt makes all the difference to so many breads.  I love my new old camera.  Once I figure it out it will be awesome!  I've already heard from eliabel that red rye malt was fermented in Russia and may not have had anything to do with the color.  Now we need to find out how it was fermented, for how long and who knows what else :-)   This quest sounds like it is right up your alley and likely to be fun!

bread making and beer making go hand in hand.  I know that if you malt barley and ferment it by adding water and yeast (natural or no) to it you get beer.  If you do this with rye, you have the basis of rye beer or,  as George Washington knew (being the largest Rye brewer and distiller in the USA at the time), you have the fermented mash for making rye whiskey.

I have no idea if Russians fermented their rye before drying or not but if they went through the effort of fermenting rye like GW did they must have made Rye Whiskey from it but alas, all I remember from Russia is vodka distilling.

It was also my understanding that Rus, as in Russia, also means red and is derived from the Vikings who came down the river to Odessa and conquered it like they did many of the major cities in Europe of the age.  They called the Vikings Rus because of their red hair.  The Vikings spread their red hair color throughout Europe and are the reason the Irish, (and everyone else in Europe) have red hair and the Jews from Odessa, my wife's relatives,  have red hair even though they are so far apart from the Irish in every way.   They both have red hair because of the Vikings, their common ancestors, and the reason Russia got its name too. 

One thing I noticed is, that after 4 days of sprouting, the wild yeast on the rye berries, had started to ferment the grain slightly while it was sprouting because you could smell a tinge of alcohol, just like you can in rye sour mash or starter.  I'm guessing it naturally ferments and there is no way to stop it - until you dry it.

Do your Russiaian sources talk about how they fermented the rye berries, for how long before they were dried?

roasted, dry, rye but it is much deeper, rich and drier than that.  It also has a sort of lingering, nutty bitterness.  It reminds me of Armadillo Nectar of all things :-)  Can't wait to use it on my Multi-grain Challah, some Borodinski and possibly some Tzitzel - still working on a recipe for that though.  I ground them up in my spice/ coffee/ grain mill.  Works great for small batches.

I really like that new old camera.

malt since I raised the temperature over 220 degrees and killed off the enzyme that converts starch to sugar.  Had I kept the temperature between 120 and 200 F, I would have made diastatic malted rye.  If I had used barley then the low temperature would have made for fine malted barley for beer making.  The higher temperatures make for darker beer up to 220 F max.  My rye malt went to 325 F so it is non diastatic.

Bakers use both diastatic and non diastatic malt for different reasons.

From recipetips.com comes the below 

Diastatic malt, which contains active enzymes from the sprouting grain, is used to break down the starch in dough and convert it to sugar (maltose) so that the yeast can feed on the sugar enabling the dough to rise, especially in breads such as sourdough that require a longer time for preparation and fermentation to occur. This malt provides more nutrition, an enhanced flavor, a finer texture in the bread crumb, a fresher tasting product, and a browner crust appearance, all without excessive lengths of baking.

Non-diastatic malt, which does not contain the active enzymes, is most often used as a sweetener to give baked goods and cereals more flavor, a glossier appearance and a softer more consistent crumb. Bagels, breads, granola, cookies, salty crackers or snacks, gravies, and sauces are all products that commonly use non-diastatic malt.

I think I know exactly what they are doing  now.   It sounds like they are doing exactly what  beer and spirit brewers do with barley malt - they just use rye instead.  The thick layer of malted grains that brewers create after 4-6 days of sprouting is allowed to ferment for a few days.  The thick layer of malt has to be turned over and re-dispersed so that the increasing temperature, caused by the fermented grain, does  not go over 50 C to be safe.  This temperature control keeps the enzymes created by malting the grain - alive.    This is distatic malt.  These enzymes cause the starch and carbohydrates in the grain to be converted to sugar (maltose) that the yeast can eat to make alcohol and CO2 in the fermentation tank later.  

At this temperature only diastatic malted grain is created but, the longer the fermentation takes place the darker the malt will become.  What makes a darker beer like stout is that the barley is malted longer - not at a higher temperature but the temperature must be raised to around 50 C after sprouting to mallow the malting process to take place .  Brewers do this by placing a think layer of sprouted grain on the malting floor and let the temperature increase spontaneously.  When the correct temperature is met the grains are then stirred and turned to ensure the 50 C temperature but no more is maintained until the increasing darker color desired.  The grains are then slowly dried.  Schotch whiskey makers use peat to dry and lightly smoke their malted barley which gives scotch its unique taste.  Once dries it is crushed for beer and spirit making with its enzymes intact.

It sounds like red rye malt used in Russia for bread is produced exactly the same way and it is diastatic malt made red by fermenting for a few days at 50 C.  Sadly, I don't think you can make a small amount of red rye malt this way because of the thick layer of sprouted grain required - about 8" and large area to create spontaneous heating.  But you should be able to do to by heating the sprouted grain to 50 C and keeping it moist for 4-5 days and letting it malt to a darker shade of red.  You would have to spritz it and keep it moist though. 

Those with large grain sacks could probably do something similar by filling a 50 pound sack with sprouted grain and placing a thermometer with temperature alarm in the middle.  No heating would be required.   When the spontaneous temperature got too high, you would just dump out the grain to cool it and then stuff it back in the bag - until the temp got too high again.

The diastatic properties of the red rye malt make sense to me because these enzymes would turn the starch and carbohydrates in the flour into maltose that the yeast can use to feed on and make the bread rise and keep longer - while providing  the qualities of flavor the red portion of the malting process provides. 

is that it doesn't sprout at all well if the hull is removed and there is no way to separate it after sprouting for 4-5 days.  The reason it is used for beer making is that the entire malted grain will eventually be thrown away or sued for animal feed.  The 3 thin sprouts are the roots and not what you are looking for.   There will be a thicker, single sprout that will emerge and run down the length of the seed.  When it is as long as the seed the sprouting is done and it is time for drying - but I think you are stuck since the hull is still attached.  Or you could call it sprouted malt with extra fiber?,

3.5 - 4 hours to dry the wet berries back down to their original weight when making white diastaic malt with wheat  and use the oven to get the temperature way up there to make red rye malt.

The diastatic power of wheat is nearly identical to barley so no big whoop in that regard.  Rye only has abuut half the diasatic power of wheat so I wouldn't use it to make white disatatic malt

you can use the oven for red malt,  White diastaic malt requires the temperature not to ever exceed 136 - 138  F and drying a 105-115 F is best.