polecreek said: Very cool Vern, looks like you have been worken your butt off. Are you going to kiln all of this into base malt? By the way, I may have an idea on a heater to try next time. Click to expand...

Yes, it will all be base malt as I'm not set up to do any crystal yet (Need more heat, could do small amounts in an oven outside), most other specialty malts are made from base malt (except perhaps Rauchmalt which I'd like to try on the next batch along with Crystal, still studying the process on both these because there is conflicting information)Here's an update, The burner ran good all day yesterday and the temp was perfect when I got home at 111F, perfect for drying that is. The first half of the batch is dried enough (growing is halted, roots dried up and falling off) to start on the second half, so the first half transferred to a bucket and the second half transferred to the kiln. Here's a pic of the first half, almost malt.And a closer pic:Looks almost like what I started with except some of the grains look darker than others like almost green, all are dry. It is tasting malty but I still need to perform a higher temperature curing kiln run, hopefully it will be fine until the second half is dry.Observations to date:1. Need more hoards for the dryer/kiln.2. Hoards must be stiffer, they sag where not supported, maybe a frame of some sort.3. Need capability for more heat and possibly more air flow through the kiln for better efficiency and ability to do crystal and other specialty malts/grains.4. Need a valve to drain the steeping bucket easily.5. Capacity at this point is possibly limited by Kiln size, may be able to do 100lbs. max.6. Would need another (or larger) malting floor if doing more than 50lbs.7. Rauchmalt should be easy enough, just re-connect the original smoker firebox. (Would have tried this but ran out of time).8. Eventually it would be nice to have one or more rotating cages in the Kiln to slowly and automatically turn the malts as they dry, etc. Shouldn't be too hard to rig and would save alot of labor.That's all for now, Vern.Edited: PS Chad, what is your idea for a kiln heater, Thanx!