Beer Forum

Every post on home-smoking malt says the grain should be soaked, or otherwise moistened with water before going on the smoker. None of them say why. So why? Is this just one of those "that's how everyone does it" kind of things? I guess I could see if you're hot smoking it and don't want to inadvertently roast it further but I use a cold-smoke generator and see no reason to wet the grain. My experience smoking sausages is that they won't take any color from the smoke until the casings are dry. I'm not going to bother wetting my smoker-bound malt unless someone can give me a good reason.

(this all started when I noticed alder chips at the Home Depot today.)

The reason for moistening is to increase the permeability of the husk so it penetrates better.
I've cold smoked and hot smoked. Both produce a different result.
Personally I hot smoke at about 90-100 and it takes me about 6 hours for the desired result.

barls wrote:The reason for moistening is to increase the permeability of the husk so it penetrates better.

But does it really make it more permeable? I can blow air thorough a dry paper towel but not a wet one. My skepticism comes from my experience smoking sausages/bacon/salmon: You want the surface nice and dry before going into the smoker. Wet meat doesn't take the smoke as well. Why would malt be different? I guess a controlled experiment is in order.