Using Unmalted Barley - Growing Your Own?

Can you use unmalted barley in your grain bill, say 20% of your grain bill. It is my understanding that typical 2-row base malt has a lot more enzymatic power than it needs for its own conversion, so could those extra enzymes be used to convert the starches in unmlated barley?

I want to grow some of my own grain next year (say a 5'x5' area or so in my garden), mostly just for the novelty of it, but I actually want to use it. The only place I can find that sells any form of 2-row is Johnny's - Product - 989G - Barley (Conlon) (OG) (unless someone else has a recomendation or has a small amount of seed themselves they'd be willing to sell me). I know I'm not in an ideal growing location, Kansas City, but why not try. I've also thought about doing wheat instead (definately the right climate area) but I have no idea/can't find they right type for brewing, or does it matter.

But at the same time I don't really want to try to malt it at this time. Any advise/ experiecne?

Unmalted barley in the typical form of flaked barley is used all the time. It's a classic part of the Guinness recipe. I think barley likes a cooler climate but I'm guessing you could grow it. You will need to process the barley to make it usable in the mash. After harvesting and drying the simplest method would probably be to mill it, cook it in a cereal mash and then add it to the grist in the mash tun.

My bloke is a barley farmer. If you have any question about growing i can ask. I think even if you are not germinating it for malt you probably still wnat to find the best varieties for beer.

He farms about 300 acres of Maris Otter (2 row), several million pints. Maris Otter is the flavoured variety for real ale in the UK, (others are Golden Promise, Cellar, Optic, Tipple, Flagan etc)

Some are winter sown (Flagan and Maris otter) and some are spring sown (cellar, tipple, publican and golden promise), depends on your climate. You need the right characteristics for having it in the grist, low Nitrogen, depending on beer below 1.6 percent Nitrogen.

Ive been wanting to use some in my beer but have not yet got to it, still buying my malt back from the maltser. If you use raw barley let me know how!

TimothyTaylorslLandlady said:

My bloke is a barley farmer. If you have any question about growing i can ask. I think even if you are not germinating it for malt you probably still wnat to find the best varieties for beer.

He farms about 300 acres of Maris Otter (2 row), several million pints. Maris Otter is the flavoured variety for real ale in the UK, (others are Golden Promise, Cellar, Optic, Tipple, Flagan etc)

Some are winter sown (Flagan and Maris otter) and some are spring sown (cellar, tipple, publican and golden promise), depends on your climate. You need the right characteristics for having it in the grist, low Nitrogen, depending on beer below 1.6 percent Nitrogen.

Ive been wanting to use some in my beer but have not yet got to it, still buying my malt back from the maltser. If you use raw barley let me know how!

Click to expand...

Could you possibly get your hands on some seed? I'd love to give Maris Otter a try, maybe 1 lb is all I'm looking to plant. I'd cover your costs for shipping it accross the pond if you'd be willing. Is it sown in the fall and allowed to grow a little before winter hits, or is it just sown in the winter and it comes up in the spring?

I know I don't have the perfect conditions for growing barely as we have pretty hot dry summers but I'd still like to give it a try anyways to see if I could make it work.

I couldn't see why using unmalted barley wouldn't work in brewing when we have such hightly modified base malts being used with it. But that's why I'm asking the question if anyone actually knows if my thinking is correct or not.

Mykayel,

don't know if you can import seed from Eng.
I'm planning to cast a small batch from seed I
got from a member here...Feefeelee or something like
that. He's a barley farmer in the northwest, and
very helpful on the subject. Look through the for sale sections
or type "seed" into the search forum.

Good luck

There are lots of regulations about seed/plants and shipping, plant passports are require I think (seriously) so i will ask his supplier rather than him. The grain company will know if they can ship seed to US and we do a lot of business with them so they might send a pound or 2 (worth asking but your US barley farmer would be a better bet).

Here's the guy and thread I bought my "seed" from.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f16/anyone-want-raw-malt-quality-barley-seed-home-malting-62693/

Here I am. Except I am on vacation in Scotand right now. Will be home the end of next week. Let me know if you want some barley seed. Also feel free to ask any questions, though I may not be able to answer for a few days.

(Hi, TimothyTaylorslLandlady. I love your homeland.)

If you're having trouble getting malt-quality barley seed and only want a small amount, you could try planting some of the 2-row malted barley you get from your local home brew store that you would normally mash.

Theoretically the malting process should denature all the seed, but not knowing this some months ago I went through my bag of malted barley picking out the fattest seeds that had survived the mill (yes, it was not only supposed to be malted, but milled as well!). Unsurprisingly, only one of the 100s of seeds I picked out actually germinated and grew - somehow that one seed survived the whole malting/milling process. Now it's a fully mature plant with green ears. Once it ripens I'll have seed enough for a small plot.

I did it the hard way though. It would be easier to order a few ounces of pale 2-row (unmilled) from your LHBS and just scatter the whole lot over some prepared soil in either spring or fall. No guarantees any will come up, but if any does, it will supply you with all the starting seed you need.

Of course, if you can get proper malt quality seed from elsewhere, that would be a lot easier.

I don't plan on malting though - I'm going to crush a few ounces in a kitchen mortar and pestle and chuck in the mash for my stout, Guinness style.