Two days later, this is germination:

And here’s how I’m going to dry it:

Next stage is to incubate at around 40°C for 24 hours, to drive off the moisture and make crystal malt. The inside of the kettle reached 52°C this afternoon, which is a little bit warm, but rain is forecast tomorrow and I’ll leave the vents open.

The trick is to dry the grain, not to cook it (which kills the enzymes). Even if it does get that hot, I’m not too worried because the actual mash step (when the maltase converts the starch to sugar) is supposed to be at around 55°C, and the grains already taste sweet. This means that even now the malt has a fair sugar content. If it wasn’t forecast to rain, and if I wasn’t worried about rats and possums (spit. Bastards) I’d just leave the lid off to sun-dry them.