Growing Barley Take 2: 2015-2016

Ok so my last attempt didn't go well but I ended up with slightly more barley than when I started.

My wife said I should dig up part of the yard to try again and not have to worry about clearing out bed space for other crops. So, last years barley is now resting in the ground and should hopefully sprout soon. I plan to cover this barley if we are going to get a hard freeze to prevent the frost kill I had last winter. Hopefully I'll end up with 2-3lbs from a 6'x10' bed where 5oz was planted.

This area may be at a slight disadvantage with worse soil and more winter shade. Godspeed little seeds.

Here is the link to last years attempt: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=493347

Awesome can't wait to see the progress.

So, your seeding rate is 5 ounces for 60 ft2? I am trying to figue out my seeding rate and I having trouble believing the results. I have 500 ft2 and seeding calculators calls for 2#, beimg on the heavy side.

SrLupulinHopsimous said:

So, your seeding rate is 5 ounces for 60 ft2? I am trying to figue out my seeding rate and I having trouble believing the results. I have 500 ft2 and seeding calculators calls for 2#, beimg on the heavy side.

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Do you think you are high or low? My seeding rate seems ok but i just planted what I had in the space availabe, it might be dense but I expect to lose some to insects. You can see how close the seeds are in the picture. The barely does expand outwards as it gets taller and I fully expect it to look like a solid mass of barley by the time its harvested.

It just seems like it wouldnt be enough but everything I am reading is roughly 130#/acre so that Is what I am going to try the first time around

Barley has sprouted. Now the war against pests and weather begins...

Progress Pic from Friday 10/16...

That is the cutest little patch of barley. Truly fitting for Oregon, where everything has to be the biggest, smallest, weirdest. We seriously have an identity crisis in the PNW, but who would want to be anywhere else?

Cool dude. How will you malt it?

Malting shouldn't be to big of an issue for a batch this small. I've got some meat tubs, cookie sheets, and a food dehydrator that should do the trick.

We've got some storms coming and some of the barely isn't standing up straight anymore so wish me luck...

The barley has survived at least two periods of heavy frost now and it looks like over 90% is still good. It appears to be in the first stages of jointing or stem extension and is over a month ahead of last year. I don't know if that's bad or good at this point. Fingers crossed...

Do you know what variety of barley you have. Not all are the same, and the difference between 6 row and 2 row, etc. This is important when it comes to the malting as many 6 row varieties have a dormancy built in, and if you can't break the dormancy you will never be able to malt it as it will not germinate. Also, feed varieties will not make a good malt as they are designed to put a lot of energy into protein development and high yeild, where malt barley is ideally in the 11 - 13% protein ranges.

lurker18 said:

Do you know what variety of barley you have. Not all are the same, and the difference between 6 row and 2 row, etc. This is important when it comes to the malting as many 6 row varieties have a dormancy built in, and if you can't break the dormancy you will never be able to malt it as it will not germinate. Also, feed varieties will not make a good malt as they are designed to put a lot of energy into protein development and high yeild, where malt barley is ideally in the 11 - 13% protein ranges.

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I replied to your question about if its a malting barley or not in my first round thread but I find a lot more people calling this a malting barely than not. Its for sure a 2 row barley. The seeds planted this year were germinated from the small amount that grew last year so I should at least be able to malt it. How much starch/sugar I get is another story though.

Update time. I harvested the barely several months ago but only got about 1.5lbs of good looking barley. Chickens and lodging did a bit of damage and then some aphids or other insect also weakened it.

I think my barely growing experiment is done because that area of the yard would be better served growing other food.

However I may still try to malt it and make make the worlds most exclusive beer with it.