Has anyone tried growing their own barley?

[barnaclebob]

Here is a pic of the barley. I count 3 joints on most of them. Its a pretty sad little patch but we just planted a few more square feet that should yield enough to reseed what we need to come fall. The rest of the barley that got heavy frost is without a doubt dead and is almost done decomposing.

I'm hopeful that this patch could be ready by the end of May which I would count as a successful failure for this year.

 

[mthorn2]

Winter barley 6row in South Louisiana. Planted in late Nov. Beginning to head!

View attachment 1426641270302.jpg

 

[barnaclebob]

Nice, Its been cool and cloudy for the past week or so, not much action from the barley. The newly planted stuff has sprouted though.

 

[LeftyRighty]

out of about 140 plants of MO winter barley, only a dozen survived the winter. very disappointing! I'll save the seed I get from this and try again this fall.
planted a large plot (700 sq ft) of spring barley about mid-March. it's up, several inches high now and looking good.

 

[barnaclebob]

Heads have begun to emerge! This pic was of the first one about a week ago.

 

[barnaclebob]

Harvest day was today. My meager patch provided 4 5/8 ounces which is more than we purchased...

I estimate that only 10% or less actually grew so this area should be able produce 2.5-3.5lbs which is enough for a gallon batch.

I still need to decide whether I'm going to try this again or just malt and roast this as a specialty grain.

Threshing was done by hand since this was such a small amount and winnowing was done with the help of a box fan.

 

[barnaclebob]

Ok after some prodding from my wife I am in the process of digging up 60sq ft of grass in the back yard that will become this winter's barley patch. I'm going to use the barley in the pics above to plant. I got about 5oz from the surviving ~6 sq ft this year so maybe i'll get up to 3lbs this year if I can keep it from freezing and blown over from wind storms. I'll also be planting two weeks earlier. Pics and a new thread to follow...

Since I have a dedicated patch, if this winters crop fails I can replant in spring too..

 

[BadBeagleBrew]

Very interesting, keep us posted.

 

[sasky7777]

2 row malt. Our "patch" is a bit bigger. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1442162125.658555.jpg

 

[lurker18]

I got my seeds from http://www.backyardbeansandgrains.com/

Hayes Awnless Malting Barley

I have no idea if she's ever grown it over winter and she said she usually only ships every few weeks so you may want to contact her first. Not sure what kind of regulations there are for shipping seeds across the border, probably makes it not worthwhile.

Sorry to burst your bubble here, but Hayes is a forage variety, it is not really made for the seeds, it is used as greenfeed when the plants are still growing. I would not recommend going a lot further with this variety, but that is up to you.

http://hearneseed.com/hayes-beardless-barley/

 

[barnaclebob]

Sorry to burst your bubble here, but Hayes is a forage variety, it is not really made for the seeds, it is used as greenfeed when the plants are still growing. I would not recommend going a lot further with this variety, but that is up to you.

http://hearneseed.com/hayes-beardless-barley/

Thanks for the info but this site says otherwise:

https://www.bountifulgardens.org/products/GBA-7204

I'm not sure if either site is more correct than the other and I see a few other sources of people growing this barley for malting. But if you know of any better source than a seed store sales blurb please let me know.

The seeds I grew looked just like 2 row from the homebrew store and were very plump for the most part. No idea what its sugar content is or will be. Its too late to turn back now for this year's batch.

 

[lurker18]

I am a malt selector for one of the biggest malting companies in North America, but you go with what you want.

 

[wilserbrewer]

I am a malt selector for one of the biggest malting companies in North America, but you go with what you want.

Perhaps you could suggest a better seed?

 

[lurker18]

I wrote a big edit to my post but it seems to have disappeared. From what I can find, there never has been a Hayes barley variety, the closest thing is Hays, and that is for sure a forage variety. It looks like the seller of these seeds is "scamming" people by calling it Hayes barley because when you look into it, the name probably comes from Prof. Patrick Hayes, malt barley researcher from OSU. What you have is for sure two row, but after that it would be hard to say the variety or if it was feed or malting variety.
As for recommended varieties, here is the American list:
http://ambainc.org/media/AMBA_PDFs/Press_Releases/2016_Recommended.pdf

pretty much the same as Canada, but out of all of those, there is really only a handful that are widely grown and accepted by the large maltsters. If you are looking for malt barley seed, look to the farmers and not the garden stores.

And if you do see Hayes barley on the web, note that it is all from Resilient Seeds (Bountiful Gardens), a gardening company. Leads me to think that this is a made up name even more.

Edit again, it looks like there is a Hayes barley, but it is the same as Hays barley, forage variety.

 

[barnaclebob]

I wrote a big edit to my post but it seems to have disappeared. From what I can find, there never has been a Hayes barley variety, the closest thing is Hays, and that is for sure a forage variety. It looks like the seller of these seeds is "scamming" people by calling it Hayes barley because when you look into it, the name probably comes from Prof. Patrick Hayes, malt barley researcher from OSU. What you have is for sure two row, but after that it would be hard to say the variety or if it was feed or malting variety.
As for recommended varieties, here is the American list:
http://ambainc.org/media/AMBA_PDFs/Press_Releases/2016_Recommended.pdf

pretty much the same as Canada, but out of all of those, there is really only a handful that are widely grown and accepted by the large maltsters. If you are looking for malt barley seed, look to the farmers and not the garden stores.

And if you do see Hayes barley on the web, note that it is all from Resilient Seeds (Bountiful Gardens), a gardening company. Leads me to think that this is a made up name even more.

Thanks for the info I'll keep it in mind for next year if this year is a failure. I'll have to hope that the garden seed companies made up the name (or bought it from someone who made up the name) but are still selling a "rebranded" malting barley. I doubt they are trying to scam anyone but agree that they could be misinformed.

 

[TeeJo]

I was able to have my local feed and garden store order me in a couple bags of CDC Meredith certified seed. Interior British Columbia. Not really in a grain growing area.
All I had to do was walk in and ask.

Cost was $25 CDN per 50 pound bag. That means to me, that if a fella had a real Farm Supply place anywhere near them, they would likely get it cheaper than that by a fair bit.

Getting it into the ground is the easy part. Dealing with the crop afterwards is putting my brain cells to work pretty hard. Not sure how I will deal with it. Too small an amount to justify a combine, unless I find an antique at a garage sale. Too big to really easily deal with by traditional hand methods. May end up cutting what I want with a scythe, then swathing and baling the rest for feed. Future problems!

Been looking at some of the third world rice separators, pondering the options. I have a small fanning mill that I will rebuild to use to clean the results.

TeeJo

 

[B-Hoppy]

I am a malt selector for one of the biggest malting companies in North America, but you go with what you want.

Knowing this, what is the status of the malt supply as most of the focus is on the hop industry recently? Expanding hop acreage to keep up with demand is a huge challenge but I've always wondered about the malt industry. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[lurker18]

In my opinion, it is not good. The big guys will always be covered, but the extra that goes to the micro brews and the extra after that goes the the LHBS will be getting less and less all the time. In a farmer point of view, malt barley is not a sure thing. You only get paid for malt barley if the quality is there, and that is mother natures call every year. If you don't get paid malt, you fall into a feed barley at about a $2.00/bu reduction in price, and because you don't fertilize malt nearly as much, you already are taking the hit in yield. In Canada, soybeans are starting to eat into the malt acres, easier to grow, sure thing every year.

 

[B-Hoppy]

Farmers have to do what they have to do to make ends meet and business is business I guess. Thanks for the insight.

 

[sfish]

Bob,

How is your barley doing?

here are pic of mine the green area the other is wheat. I hope to have some field to glass beer this fall.

 

[sfish]

Update: Harvested about 60 pounds on July 6. now sitting in buckets waiting for some time to malt a batch. Hops are growing strong and should be harvested in the next few weeks.

 

[sfish]

It was cut with a farming combine. and thrown into a wagon for several days we thought it needed to dry. then hand feed into the farming combine while I sat up top in the hopper and collected it in buckets. The srew feed was turned off. We also laid a tarp where the straw ejected then removed the straw and picked up the grain.

Sitting in buckets and now reading "Malt" by John Mallett

Will get pictures next week.

 

[sfish]

I am malting a small test batch to understand the malting of grain.

What I understand is when the acrospire is the length of the seed it is consirered fully modified.

The questions:

1) Does "fully modified" mean the malting enzymes have been fully activated?

2) would a seed with an acrospire that grows short of full lenth be partally modified, only some enzymes active, and if it were to grow longer would this cause an issue such as denature an enzyme?

3) If there is under modified grain would it be so low as to not have enough Diastatic power to convert? (I do not belive so need to verify).

4 ) When I brew I will use a protein rest will this alter the enzymes?

 

[TeeJo]

Fully modified, means the starches have been as fully converted to sugars as they will.

Once the acrospire goes over the length indicating that the seed has been fully modified, it is beginning to consume those sugars, to create it's plant. That is what 'over modified' is.

You are attempting to convert as much starch to sugar as you can, without losing sugar to growth.

Can't much help you as far as the rest of your questions, re: the actual brewing.

TeeJo

 

[pacayaforhops]

1) Does "fully modified" mean the malting enzymes have been fully activated?

Pretty much.

2) would a seed with an acrospire that grows short of full lenth be partally modified, only some enzymes active, and if it were to grow longer would this cause an issue such as denature an enzyme?

Yes, short acrospire roughly translates to less enzymes available. Longer acrospire means the germ has started eating the grain's starches, lowering extract yield; if you're using other grains, the later should convert them just fine.

3) If there is under modified grain would it be so low as to not have enough Diastatic power to convert? (I do not belive so need to verify).

It will convert, it'll just take longer; enzymes are not considerably depleted during conversion (some denaturing if you have temperature pockets in the mash while heating), so if you run a mash long enough (even with raw grain) it'll convert completely (although running it for a long time will greatly increase the chances of it souring with the Lacto on the grain's husk before converting completely; which is why it's not usually done).

4 ) When I brew I will use a protein rest will this alter the enzymes?

No, the protein rest will only help in breaking down the protein-starch matrix of the grain, making starch more available for conversion. Amylase denaturing occurs during mash out (along with coagulation of other proteins and other mash byproducts which like to bond to calcium to form flocs).

I would advise using a decoction mash with home malted grain, even though it's more labor intensive, as its main purpose is (in summary) to compensate for the bad malt quality of yore (which, lets face it, home-malting is more likely than not to reproduce).

 

[B-Hoppy]

Looks like you're beyond the point of full modification on many of those kernels in the pic. A long time ago (91 or 92) I malted some feed barley with the help of a homebrew book and some advice from an old gal who was working for Briess at the time. If I remember right, once the acrospires got about 3/4 of the way up the back of the kernel, I started drying them down as it will continue to push the rest of the way as they're drying down. That advice got me almost exactly to full conversion with minimal if any kernels being overmodified.

My final kilning temp was about 220F (as low as my oven would go) so I ended up making a bock beer. I think I did a double decoction due to the fact that the previous poster brought up. Malting is a very natural process but to do it right it's best left to the folks with the proper equipment and raw materials. Surprisingly, the beer came out fine with a minor hit on the extract (which was expected). Have fun & enjoy the experience!

 

[sfish]

thank you

 

[sfish]

Looks like you're beyond the point of full modification on many of those kernels in the pic. A long time ago (91 or 92) I malted some feed barley with the help of a homebrew book and some advice from an old gal who was working for Briess at the time. If I remember right, once the acrospires got about 3/4 of the way up the back of the kernel, I started drying them down as it will continue to push the rest of the way as they're drying down. That advice got me almost exactly to full conversion with minimal if any kernels being overmodified.

This is trully great advise to stop them earlier. When I got home they shot up and were like twice as long. IMO for what I am doing better undermidified then that much over.

So dried them too hot and made some caramel 20 malt. Sweet to taste and chewed them all down.

Harvested 2 pounds of hops this wekend as well..... now All I need it time.

 

[IslandLizard]

So dried them too hot and made some caramel 20 malt. Sweet to taste and chewed them all down.

Perhaps closer to Vienna, Munich, or Biscuit (Victory) malt.

Caramel/Crystal malts are first stewed for several hours (sometimes days), like mashing inside the kernel, to convert the starches to sugars. Then they're roasted at various temperatures to create the different Lovibond ranges.

 

[sfish]

perhasps, IDK for sure, it was a test to see how much effort I will need. my atempt was just to dry it out I think I sort of mashed it.

Anyway it is all for fun