Anyone ever tried brewing with 6 row malt?

[Beginnier927]

Hello, I'm living in a country where the use of alcohol is highly forbidden, so it's not easy to find brewing tools here, I've hardly managed to get a safale us 05 yeast because last time I used baking yeast and it didn't taste malty in any way, and I can't get my hands to some 2 row malt here in my city, I can't even get malt, I can only buy some 6 row barley and convert it to malt with the help of YouTube.

 

[Protos]

Sure you can make a perfect malt from 6-row barley!

6-row Barley is the primary variety of barley grown in the US, unlike in Europe where the 2-row variety is prevalent. If you augment your grist with up to 1/3 of unmalted maize, you'll make a true American-style beer (and also have more of your homemade malt left for your next batches).

Which country are you in? There have been some guys from Iran coming here, which shared their success stories on clandestine homebrewing.

 

[Beginnier927]

Sure you can make a perfect malt from 6-row barley!

6-row Barley is the primary variety of barley grown in the US, unlike in Europe where the 2-row variety is prevalent. If you augment your grist with up to 1/3 of unmalted maize, you'll make a true American-style beer (and also have more of your homemade malt left for your next batches).

Which country are you in? There have been some guys from Iran coming here, which shared their success stories on clandestine homebrewing.

Oh thank you I was a bit worried about this not tasting malty and be more like grainy
I live in Iran, oh, I gotta reach out to them
Thanks

 

[Protos]

Well, the 2-row and 6-row barleys differ a bit in some nuances and it was that why German brewers that immigrated into the US in the 19th century choose to add unmalted grains, like rice and maize, to the local American 6-row barley base. That's how many American beer styles have been born: local 6-row barley enhanced with unmalted grain made a better product than an all-malt beer.

 

[pvtpublic]

6-row Barley is the primary variety of barley grown in the US,

Not so much anymore. 2-row has become the dominate crop over here for the past few decades. You can still get 6-row, but the variety of options is next to non-existent.

Back to the question, yes 6-row works great. It has a higher enzyme content than 2-row, making starch conversion a breeze. It's perfect for a Pre-Prohibition lager. As @Protos was saying about the German immigrants, they came over and started making their lagers. But at the time, they only had 6-row, maize, and cluster hops at their disposal. They found that 6-row also had a higher protein content that would produce a haze in the beer. No matter what they did, they couldn't get rid of that haze. That's where the maize comes into play. They found that using the maize in place of some malt would lessen the haze to an acceptable level. Thus, the American Lager style was born. It has since been turned into a unappealing style to us with taste buds by BMC.

Try this recipe:
OG:1058
FG:1012
9.5#/4.3kg 6-row pilsner or pale
3.8#/1.7kg corn/rice
I'm not sure what hops you can get your hands on, but add 25 IBU's at 60 and 1oz/28g each at 20, 10, and 5 min.
Cluster, Hallertau, Tettnang, Saaz work well, but I'm sure there's others that would work well too. If you have the means to make a lager, go for it. If not, this would make a good cream ale. Use that S-05 and try to keep the ferment temp stable under 70f/21c.

With the corn/rice, try to get the freshest corn (especially dried corn). You'll need to do a cereal mash unless you can get your corn/rice in flaked form.

 

[khannon]

Regardless of how dominant, if that is what OP has to work with, then that is what OP has to work with. There are going to be some differences in 2-row and 6-row.
Protein content and Diastatic Power will be different. This will affect your mash schedule. There are probably some good resources on the internet, none pop into my mind at the moment. I have never malted my own grain, but I would imagine it may take a few tries to get to your liking.

 

[Protos]

Not so much anymore.

Yep. I should have typed "historically used to be".

 

[Beginnier927]

Not so much anymore. 2-row has become the dominate crop over here for the past few decades. You can still get 6-row, but the variety of options is next to non-existent.

Back to the question, yes 6-row works great. It has a higher enzyme content than 2-row, making starch conversion a breeze. It's perfect for a Pre-Prohibition lager. As @Protos was saying about the German immigrants, they came over and started making their lagers. But at the time, they only had 6-row, maize, and cluster hops at their disposal. They found that 6-row also had a higher protein content that would produce a haze in the beer. No matter what they did, they couldn't get rid of that haze. That's where the maize comes into play. They found that using the maize in place of some malt would lessen the haze to an acceptable level. Thus, the American Lager style was born. It has since been turned into a unappealing style to us with taste buds by BMC.

Try this recipe:
OG:1058
FG:1012
9.5#/4.3kg 6-row pilsner or pale
3.8#/1.7kg corn/rice
I'm not sure what hops you can get your hands on, but add 25 IBU's at 60 and 1oz/28g each at 20, 10, and 5 min.
Cluster, Hallertau, Tettnang, Saaz work well, but I'm sure there's others that would work well too. If you have the means to make a lager, go for it. If not, this would make a good cream ale. Use that S-05 and try to keep the ferment temp stable under 70f/21c.

With the corn/rice, try to get the freshest corn (especially dried corn). You'll need to do a cereal mash unless you can get your corn/rice in flaked form.

Thank you
It's all very clear now
Just one more thing, can I use fining agents like bentonite or spindasol to get rid of the haze?

 

[pvtpublic]

Thank you
It's all very clear now
Just one more thing, can I use fining agents like bentonite or spindasol to get rid of the haze?

Flavorless gelatin would work pretty good too. But yeah, if you can get bentonite and spindasol, why not?

 

[Beginnier927]

Flavorless gelatin would work pretty good too. But yeah, if you can get bentonite and spindasol, why not?

Thank you so much
By the way, why isn't much info on how to use spindasol on the internet? Can I use it after the mash has cooled down? And will it work better than gelatin?

 

[Kickass]

I’m a gelatin user. It works great and might be easier to buy for you.

 

[pvtpublic]

You would throw the gelatin in the fermenter a few days before you bottle, or into the keg with the beer, and it looks like you do the same with spindasol and bentonite. Irish moss/whirlfloc is another means of fining that goes into the kettle at flame out. As far as why there's not much info on bentonite and spindasol, we'll, I don't have a good answer for that. Perhaps it's a price point issue, or a marketing ordeal.

 

[MaxStout]

Thank you so much
By the way, why isn't much info on how to use spindasol on the internet? Can I use it after the mash has cooled down? And will it work better than gelatin?

I'm not familiar with Spindasol, but my curiosity got me going. Looks like there are 2 different varieties of the product:
Spindasol SB1, which is added to the kettle at the end of the boil.
Spindasol SB3, which is added after fermentation.