My Free 6-Row Arrived!

So, last week I was in Brunswick, GA working at a Grain Handling facility. The last two days I was there they had a ship in from Panama that was being loaded from railcar with some Canadian 6-row. The ship was heading to the Dominican Republic and the barley was going to be used to make El Presidente beer. I was chatting with the guy from Wisconsin that was in charge of making sure the barley got from point A to point B safely and I was telling him I brew. After a few minutes of BSing he said, "So how much barley do you need to make a batch?" I said, "Oh, 10-15 pounds." He said, "Oh, that's nothing! Take some home with you." I mean, they are loading about 700 metric tons of this stuff!

So I went out and filled up some plastic bags put them in a box and they shipped them to me! I ended up getting about 30-40 lbs I'm guessing. I'm planning on doing a nice, light IPA for the summer. Any suggestions on the second batch? I'm not too familiar with the 6-row (I know it's high in protein and a rest is suggested) so I would like to brew something that accentuates the grain and is light for the summer.

SOB said:

they are loading about 700 metric tons of this stuff!

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Maybe I'm greedy, If i was looking at 700 metric tons of grain, I think I would try and "pinch" more than 40 pounds.

Sorry, no help on a 6-row recipe. Nice grab btw!

Is that 6 row barley or 6 row barley malt? If it hasn't been malted it won't make very good beer.

Gussymo said:

Is that 6 row barley or 6 row barley malt? If it hasn't been malted it won't make very good beer.

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My first question also.

If its malt then it should be good for high adjunct beers, which is where it is mostly used. Lots of flaked barley or rice can easily be handled by the high enzyme content. However making an IPA with the addition of some crystal malt would probably work just fine too. Treat it like 2-row and you won't be too far off. That is if it is malted.

700 metric tons !!!!!!
Thats an awful lot of beer. Normal spillage is probably hundreds of pounds. 40# won't even be noticed.

Craig

Yes, it is definitely malted.

I planned on doing 10-12lbs of the 6-row and a pound or so of some crystal. The next brew maybe I'll do an American wheat. I might be able to get some fresh wheat soon the same way I got this malted barley. Add some homegrown hops (if I have any this year) and I might have a pretty special brew on my hands!

Surprisingly, there really isn't much spillage. It goes straight from a car to a huge hopper in the ground through some enclosed conveyors and into the ship.

He're a pic of them loading up the ship. This is one of two sections they were filling.

I'd love to be standing at the end of that spout with an ample supply of 5G pails or burlap sacks.

Classic American Pilsner

Short Drive said:

Classic American Pilsner

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Absolutely. CAP is a great beer and 6-row is really the "traditional" grain of choice. See my recent post "Brewpastor's House CAP" to see what I did for a recipe.

From my honeymoon in DR. There was another domestic down there that I can't ever remember. Something with a B.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f58/american-owl-cap-58661/


If you can't lager use us-05 and ferment below the coolest end (53-58f) and you'll get close

McKBrew said:

I'd love to be standing at the end of that spout with an ample supply of 5G pails or burlap sacks.

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The funny thing is, is they broke a hydraulic line trying to close the other hole and some fluid leaked into the barley. The 5gal bucket was the tool of choice for trying to get the contaminated barley out. When we went on the ship this had just happened and they thought we were inspectors. The only word I understood was "Inspector??" while Panamanians were furiously running around and at that point I wished I could act and ask for large amounts of samples and\or a bribe!

niquejim said:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f58/american-owl-cap-58661/


If you can't lager use us-05 and ferment below the coolest end (53-58f) and you'll get close

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Not being able to lager is my problem! Also, this time of the year is not the best for going on the low end of fermentation temps. In the winter I could get 55-58F and be good, but I cant do that, even in the cool basement I run on the high end (70-72ish) in the summer. And I dont have time or desire a this time to build a ferm chamber...

Any other alternative recipies?

Sweet dude, Sweet.

Love the pic, all it needs is a massive manifold at the bottom and you'd have a ship batch sparge !!

hammacks said:

From my honeymoon in DR. There was another domestic down there that I can't ever remember. Something with a B.

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Presidente is the only domestic beer down there, its the national brand. The "B" beer you are referring to may be Brahma, which is a Brazilian beer, or Bohemia, a Mexican beer.

All the "colmados" or corner stores serve Presidente as cold as possible, with ice often forming on the outside of the bottles. Its always a treat when we travel down there!

I've got some 6-row too. I'd planned to make a pre-prohibition lager with flaked maize, but my lagering set-up hasn't happened yet. Since it's already crushed, I figure I should go ahead and use it and I thought I'd just brew the same basic beer as an ale. I figured 8#s six-row, 2#s corn with noble hops, and either 1056 or Nottingham. It's probably going to happen this week or next - I'm trying to use up my odds and ends of malt before my next grain buy.