So I have a question for the all grain brewers out there. I'm making a gluten free beer and this time I decided to try doing a mash or partial mash of teff. I'll be using sorghum extract, molasses, and honey for most of the fermentables. Teff is the smallest grain on the planet...I actually have to look at it through a magnifying glass to see if it's germinating. I've done some experiments and can get some, if not most of the grain to produce an acrospire, so I'm pretty happy with that. Then I decided to do another experiment to see what kind of flavor I can get out of them by roasting. I did one batch with just a light drying roast, another with a medium brown longer heat roast, and a third with a longer and higher heat roast. I then made a tea from the three using boiling water.

The first one had a slightly sweet taste and was quite cloudy, the second was clear and tasted nutty, and the third was clear and tasted a bit like burnt chocolate (in a good way). I'm wondering if the first one was cloudy and sweet because it was actually mashed. Does anyone out there with experience in malting/mashing have any guidance?

My current plan is to dry roast 1 1/2 lbs, medium roast 1 lb, and dark roast 1/2 lb. Place all the grain in 3 gallons of water at 150 degrees ( I don't know how much time yet...more advice would be welcomed), remove the grain and bump the temp up to 170 degrees. then add the extract and go from there. I figure I'll at least be steeping, but I do hope to actually mash some (convert to fermentables).

My ignorance is overshadowed only by my optimism, so please tell me how much I have right and wrong.

Also...I just noticed that my bed of teff that I'm trying to malt (right now it's soaking in a cookie tray with a towel over it) smells a bit like bread; is it possible that yeast is already eating away at some sugars there?

Thanks for any and all responses.

My question is does it have the enzymes needed for conversion. Wheat for example does not and you have to mash barley with it to get the starches to turn to sugars.
You could put some amylaze enzyme in it during mash to get conversion. Thats how some people do all corn whisky mashes. I do have some amylaze for sale if needed. Just a thought and maybe you have even more questions now!!
Good luck, sounds like a great idea!!