Pattahabi
Well-Known Member
Sprouted Seed Tea v2.0
Jon Stika of Brew Your Own Magazine describes malt as “barley that has been sprouted to the point where enzymes are produced that will convert its starchy interior to sugar.” After the grain has been malted, the sugar is fermented by yeast to make beer.
This is an accurate overview of an article he wrote for those who want to make their own malt and here’s the Reader’s Digest version:
Weigh out 2 oz. of Barley seed and remove any foreign matter by the seeds into a large jar and fill it half-way with water and agitate to wash the barley. Pour off loose husks & dirt that float to the top. Drain in a colander. Repeat until everything has been removed.
Soak the seeds in water for 8 – 10 hours. Drain the seeds and weigh after completely draining the water off. Assuming you started with 56 grams, you want to hit a minimum of 84 grams at the end of these processes.
Let the Barley rest for 8 – 10 hours and then soak for another 8 hours, drain and weigh. Repeat if necessary but that’s not too unlikely.
Take a piece of cloth and you want to use something as ‘raw’ as possible like hemp cloth, organic cotton, linen, canvas, flax, etc. – just check with a large fabric store. If you buy a piece that is a square it probably helps or doesn’t.
Wet your cloth, wring out and fold it 2 times. During the rest cycles this is where you want to let the seeds rest. You want moisture surrounding the seeds but not water.
Once you hit 84+ grams, spread your seeds again in the middle of this folded piece of fabric, place that in a brown paper bag – 55F – 65F ambient temperatures will move this along quickly.
When the shoots inside the seed have grown the length of the seed you’re done. You’re not growing sprouts but rather activating the enzymes and the compounds in the endosperm as described in the post above.
Take these seeds and put them in a blender and some water and get it to a puree to the extent possible. Using 56 grams to start will give enough puree to make 5 gallons of tea.
Water your plants with this diluted tea. This will give you far, far more enzymes than the straight sprouting method. One thing about beer brewers is that they live & die by enzyme levels extracted from seeds and this article is cited on several home brew forums.
hth
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