Translating 2-row

Some commercial breweries list their ingredients on the website. For example, Sam Adams Imperial White has listed:

Malted wheat
2-row Harrington
2-row Metcalfe
2-row Copeland

Probrewer describes these 2-row varieties as native Canadian grains. My question to you all, is how you know what type of grain you are using? Is it simply regional or can you tell much of a difference? I know somebody could say, "It doesn't matter, just use 2-Row." but I would like to know.

Also, Rebel Brewer sells "Canada Malting 2-Row Malt." Would this be a sort of compilation of every type? I would like to try and clone recipes with as much of the actual ingredients as I can, even if it means getting region-specific imports. It seems like a lot of clone recipes I find online are very different from what you see the actual brewers posting on their website, or talking about in interviews...and it seems like people cut corners. So for you experts, what is there to know about 2-row?

Most brew shops won't have a clue. There are only a few varieties that have significant differences (like Maris Otter). Contact the maltster - maybe they'll tell you.

From my albeit limited understanding of large scale agriculture practices, these malting companies will contract grain variety, volume, and price with the large farmers, co-ops, or factory-farms... In the end, I believe they use a "blend" of different varieities.

You can see some info from the Alberta extension equivalent organization:
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/crop4935

"In the larger two-row malt market, variety preference changes slowly as variety improvements occur. Currently the varieties Harrington, AC Metclafe, CDC Kendall and Copeland are the standard for judging new malting varieties."

i agree with PintOfBitter. you can ask the people you get your grain from but most likely aside from what country its from they wont have a clue if its 2-row Harrington, 2-row Metcalfe, or 2-row Copeland. as far as the grain you get from Rebel Brewer its just like i said generic canadian 2-row. i could be any, all, or none of the varieties you are looking for.

as far as looking for clone recipes on the internet and expecting authenticity i wouldn't bother. like any recipe you find on here it may or may not be made by some one who actually knows anything about making a recipe. they could be just calling it a clone of a particular brand and never even tried to clone that brand. its posable they could just be trying to hit the color, IBU, and taste of the brand and this recipe is as close as they where able to get.

if your looking for clone recipes get a book. there are a couple out there that have ALOT of beer clone recipes. i would expect them to be much closer to the real thing than anything you find online.

That just looks like Sam Adams trying to sound fancy by listing a lot of obscure-sounding ingredients. I doubt it makes much of a practical difference to a clone recipe.

all said and done, there are much bigger issues to tackle when trying to clone a beer than getting the grain variety right. Even fermenter geometry has a fairly substantial effect on the outcome of the beer - I daresay more than the barley cultivar.

A brewery is buying grain in such large quantities that they can order specific strains like that. At our level, good luck trying to find a supplier that will bother seperating a single strain for you.

Plus, Sam Adam's interest in repeatability is a lot more minute than yours. What you would not notice in a few batches could cause them to loose an entire batch. Consumers expect what comes out of that bottle to taste the same every single time. That's why Boston Beer's level of specificity is so much more important than ours in recipes.

In the end, you could use any two-row and to your standard it should be fine. As was previously stated, the recipe is probably off anyway unless it came right from the brewery you are trying to clone.

native Canadian grains

Click to expand...

No, Hordeum vulgare is not native to Canada. It was developed in the Middle East from Hordeum spontaneum about 10,000 years ago. I'm fairly certain that most of those varieties weren't breed in Canada either. So, take the rest of the PR with a lot of salt and a twist.