Kunze - "Whole Grain Conditioning" and "Steep Conditioning"

[caedus]

Hey guys, I was able to borrow a copy of Kunze and I found these methods (I paraphrased some things):

Steep conditioning:
During steep conditioning, use is made of the advantages of wet milling in that the malt is introduced for 50-60 seconds to 60L/100kg malt at 60-80C. In this short time only the husk is able to take up water and to increase the water content to 18-22% and will become more elastic.

Here is where I get a little confused - he says "the same amount of water remains stuck to the grain (15L/100kg malt), whereas the surplus amounting to 20-30L is drained off." I am assuming that when we says "stuck" that it means that the water is left in with the grains when being delivered to the mill.

Whole Grain Conditioning

Another method to prevent the acrospire from damage is whole grain conditioning. The water content of the malt is hereby increased incrementally to 12% before milling, thus increasing the elasticity of the husk. As a result no damage to the acrospire occurs during [milling], and this thereis...considerably reduced release of lipids.

Has anyone tried this (looking at you Bryan). Seems like more elasticity in the malt would be preferred, and I would imagine that reducing LOX activity can only help us.

[Weizenberg]

I condition my grain with water at 80C. However, wet milling is beyond a home brew setup and capabilities. So one needs to find the sensible compromise.

[caedus]

Do you do the 60L/100kg ratio like Kunze references? I am just trying to find if there is a better method than spraying down the grain with 2% total weight in water.

[Weizenberg]

[Big Monk]

[Weizenberg]

[Big Monk]

[Weizenberg]

Naturally, there is a temperature drop. Narziss pretty much recommends the water at 80C when it's sprayed.

The best method for my purposes is known as "Weichkonditionierung", I guess that would translate to steep conditioning? This is the only method that will properly inhibit LOX. If you just spray it on, then the water might just as well be of a much lower temperature. It won't be effective enough.

Unfortunately I have no means to analyse LOX in grain. If Bryan or you have these facilities, then I'd be very interested to hear what data you compiled.

[Big Monk]

[Bryan R]

No, I just went back to regular water and a co2 purged grist.