BernardSmith
Senior Member
I am less interested in making classic or standard beers and far more interested in making beers that kinda reflect traditional and ancient folk approaches to brewing (although I certainly like a good stout or IPA)... My question: I see the claims that archaeologists make about ancient beers and how they think that the grains were first germinated, even in Ancient Egypt or Sumeria or early Europe, before they were crushed /cooked, much like grains today are malted. Does anyone on this forum know what happens if you simply make a flour of the grains without first germinating them and then bake cakes or bread from the dough and then mash that cooked bread/cake in hot water?
I think that books about brewing all talk about how enzymes are released when the seeds are germinated but beers like the Russian kvass (albeit very low alcohol beer made from rye bread) don't seem to require any germination of the seed. How important is the germination of the seed for the conversion of starch to sugar? Could I , for example, simply use more baked loaves to increase the quantity of sugar /gallon of wort or does one really need to begin with germinated seeds to obtain the kinds of enzymes needed?
I can certainly experiment by taking a few cups of say barley or millet or sorghum seeds and sprouting them before baking them into cakes and comparing the sugar I can get from that mash to the amount of sugar I can get from simply baking cakes of the flour from those grains... but if anyone already has the answer that would save me a great deal of time..
Thanks
I think that books about brewing all talk about how enzymes are released when the seeds are germinated but beers like the Russian kvass (albeit very low alcohol beer made from rye bread) don't seem to require any germination of the seed. How important is the germination of the seed for the conversion of starch to sugar? Could I , for example, simply use more baked loaves to increase the quantity of sugar /gallon of wort or does one really need to begin with germinated seeds to obtain the kinds of enzymes needed?
I can certainly experiment by taking a few cups of say barley or millet or sorghum seeds and sprouting them before baking them into cakes and comparing the sugar I can get from that mash to the amount of sugar I can get from simply baking cakes of the flour from those grains... but if anyone already has the answer that would save me a great deal of time..
Thanks
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