Heirloom Barley varieties

[Crazytwoknobs]

Apparently there are Heirloom varieties of barley around, I was just wondering if anyone knew anything about how they perform in brewing.

 

[david_42]

We would need to know which heirloom variety you are looking at, but look at it this way, barley breeders have been optimizing certain traits for malting for over a hundred years. Klages, which was developed in 1974, is almost non-existent today. Gives you some idea of how fast the improvements come.

I've planted heirloom tomatoes and never got a single tomato off of any of them!

 

[scottfro]

there is also something to be said for genetic diversity. heirloom varieties are extremely important if a disease or insect pest effects a crop as they contain genetic diversity that has been breed out to exemplify a more desired trait. they may be what allows us to brew beer in another 50 years when changing climate makes our current varieties less fruitful......just something to chew on while...

 

[drummstikk]

I am growing up some bere from a small amount of seeds. I'll have enough next year to brew a 5 gal batch.