A friend gave me a bucket of grain that he had not labeled and had no idea what it was. After it sat a couple of years in my garage I mixed it with bird seed and fed it to the birds(my birds (NM birds don't like malted barley). Barley sprouted under the bird feeder so I did a quick experiment. At the edge of my garden I planted a short row of Weyermann's Pilsner malt using about a cup. Some of it sprouted so I'll have a very small barley crop this year.
What puzzles me is that the malting process requires the malt to germinate so how can it germinate again? Or does the malting process at large maltsters just allow a certain percentage of kernels to not germinate.
Obviously Weyermann makes great malt so it doesn't affect beer quality but it makes me wonder.
What puzzles me is that the malting process requires the malt to germinate so how can it germinate again? Or does the malting process at large maltsters just allow a certain percentage of kernels to not germinate.
Obviously Weyermann makes great malt so it doesn't affect beer quality but it makes me wonder.