Interested in growing my own beer garden

[camonick]

Another quick addition… wheat isn’t usually a very common grain used for livestock feed. Corn, soybeans, oats, barley and sometimes grain sorghum will be used much more exclusively. I still can’t think of any reason or with what substance wheat would be “sprayed” with if it’s going to be used for feed.

 

[Chris N]

are you still trying to grow your own, or just malt now?

malting as easy as sprouting the kernels, then when the acrospire is just peaking out...gently drying with cool air for a day, then kilning at ~170f, for 12 hours or so...then figuring out how to deculm(blowing the dry rootlet out of the now malt)

Trying to grow my own ingredients for sure. I am excited to try it, even though I know it's going to be a lot of work lol.
I believe I have found all ingredients needed just have to buy it and try it. Have found a substitute Hop variety and if need be discovered I can use tree sap or honey as a priming sugar. My wife and I keep bees, so honey would be no problem (so far) if need be.

 

[Chris N]

By the way, if anyone is a beginner in brewing beer at home like I am, I highly recommend this book! Awesome book and money well spent! Will answer most if not all your questions and help guide you through the process
https://www.amazon.com/Brew-Your-Own-Book-Homebrewing/dp/0760350469

 

[camonick]

By the way, if anyone is a beginner in brewing beer at home like I am, I highly recommend this book! Awesome book and money well spent! Will answer most if not all your questions and help guide you through the process
https://www.amazon.com/Brew-Your-Own-Book-Homebrewing/dp/0760350469

Also be aware that whole, home grown hops are somewhat of a crap shoot because, unless you have a lab analyze them, you’re not going to know their alpha acid content which is useful for knowing how much bittering potential they have. If you know the variety, you can research their average stats to help get you close. The AA content can also vary greatly from year to year depending on the annual growing conditions.

 

[bracconiere]

Trying to grow my own ingredients for sure. I am excited to try it, even though I know it's going to be a lot of work lol.
I believe I have found all ingredients needed just have to buy it and try it. Have found a substitute Hop variety and if need be discovered I can use tree sap or honey as a priming sugar. My wife and I keep bees, so honey would be no problem (so far) if need be.

have to give it to you, that WILL be some damn fine beer!

 

[bracconiere]

home grown hops are somewhat of a crap shoot

I can use tree sap

LOL, i think AA% is the last thing on his mind!

we need to get the barley planted and threshed!

 

[Chris N]

Lol, my dad said, "your ambitious, I'll give you that"

 

[kartracer2]

You can contact your state college agronomy research center for info

This would be a good start in my mind also. Might find like minded folk or smaller scale farmers that may have shareable services/ideas to save on equipment costs etc.
Best of luck, maybe start a blog of your adventure. I like reading stories like these.
Cheers,
Joel B.

 

[Chris N]

I think most of the barley used by the big macro breweries in the United States is 6-row. @bracconiere is your man for using/malting barley from the feed store.

Thank you!

 

[Chris N]

I think this is a very interesting idea. Do you know any local farmers with a small seed drill? Guys that do cover crops have them. It may be more work to clean the machine out than it's worth, but . . .

Now harvest will be the worst part. I can't think of any 'easy' way to do that. Other than the old fashioned way.

Keep us posted!

Thank you, Nick! Good question, will have to look into it. I will for sure keep you updated

 

[Chris N]

Just make sure you know if it’s winter or spring wheat so you know when to plant it. Seeding rates are something you might start to research too. I live in a fairly arid place so seeding rates will be different for me than you. You can contact your state college agronomy research center for info. Just to give you a starting point, the normal seeding rate here for dry land farming with equipment designed for the purpose is to plant 45-60 pounds of wheat seed per acre.

Good idea, will for sure check into it and make sure which wheat they have available. Thank you very much!

 

[bracconiere]

Lol, my dad said, "your ambitious, I'll give you that"

just remember, if you're going have fun getting in a fight...make sure to enjoy it the whole way through! even if the odds are against you!

i'm rooting for you! i'm always uncomfortably being the only one here that malts their own...if you start growing your own TOO!

edit: you're doing something actually possible, alchemists of old wanted to turn lead to gold....you're trying to turn dirt into it! as far as i know 100% chance of success!

 

[Chris N]

Also be aware that whole, home grown hops are somewhat of a crap shoot because, unless you have a lab analyze them, you’re not going to know their alpha acid content which is useful for knowing how much bittering potential they have. If you know the variety, you can research their average stats to help get you close. The AA content can also vary greatly from year to year depending on the annual growing conditions.

Good idea, the hops typically used are Hersbrucker and when I googled them I found how much Alpha Acid is in them and found the substitutions which mentioned Mount Hood which I have seen available. Thank you very much!

 

[Chris N]

have to give it to you, that WILL be some damn fine beer!

Thank you very much! I hope so

 

[Chris N]

This would be a good start in my mind also. Might find like minded folk or smaller scale farmers that may have shareable services/ideas to save on equipment costs etc.
Best of luck, maybe start a blog of your adventure. I like reading stories like these.
Cheers,
Joel B.

Great ideas, Joel. I will look into it. I will do a blog, if I can manage/handle this project. As they say, "easier said, then done". Thank you very much!

 

[Chris N]

just remember, if you're going have fun getting in a fight...make sure to enjoy it the whole way through! even if the odds are against you!

i'm rooting for you! i'm always uncomfortably being the only one here that malts their own...if you start growing your own TOO!

edit: you're doing something actually possible, alchemists of old wanted to turn lead to gold....you're trying to turn dirt into it! as far as i know 100% chance of success!

Thank you very much, bracconiere! It means a lot. I will for sure enjoy it the whole way, even if I start to regret it and think to myself this was the worst idea ever. At least then I can say, "yeah, it was rough but at least I tried it" and can say I have done it.
That's what I was thinking as well, they have been brewing beer for a long time. Even before all this technology. If they could do it, I am sure I could.

 

[bracconiere]

even if I start to regret it and think to myself this was the worst idea ever.

don't regret it at all! wear the scars with pride! damn, i remember for other things i was f'n around with....after 7 years i finally made the breakthrough to grow mushrooms myself. and i got my ass kicked trying to isolate my own enymes with protien purification...but all that's still on a back burner for me. might become a revived project!

oh and damn, never have figured out how to use koji mold, not to say i didn't try a lot! another one for a revisit!

edit: being that you want to culture your own yeast to, the mushroom thing maybe practical, it involves learning sterile technique....

(and, if successful...a selfie in what i've heard was called the boneyard would be IMPRESSIVE! )

 

[bracconiere]

i know i'm not being helpful right now, but we need to get the seeds planted, and keep them watered still!

 

[shoreman]

If you are looking for grain seed, I’d reach out to the folks at Solstice Seed they have easy, hardy seed and continue Sylvia Davatz work on grain seed:

https://solsticeseeds.org/
And
https://northerngraingrowers.org/growers/seed-saving
Valley Malt might be a good place to reach out to for seed as well

http://valleymalt.com/

 

[camonick]

If you are looking for grain seed, I’d reach out to the folks at Solstice Seed they have easy, hardy seed and continue Sylvia Davatz work on grain seed:

https://solsticeseeds.org/
And
https://northerngraingrowers.org/growers/seed-saving
Valley Malt might be a good place to reach out to for seed as well

http://valleymalt.com/

Unless they offer seeds in bulk packaging, the seeds from Solstice are ridiculously expensive for what you get. For their wheat, they offer 100 seeds/ packet for $4.00. At a standard seeding rate, that would only sow a single row that is just 5' long. Wheat is typically drilled in rows spaced 12" apart with approximately 18 seeds per foot of row. You'd need approximately 170 of those packets to plant enough wheat to produce 1 bushel (60 pounds) of raw grain.

 

[camonick]

Not trying to be a Debbie Downer, just trying to provide semi-accurate and realistic figures. If the farmers got paid what they’re charging for seeds, they’d be getting about $36,000/ bushel.

 

[bracconiere]

Not trying to be a Debbie Downer,

i'm thinking chris has some serious drive! even if he has to post his batch in the 1-gallon brewers UNITE thread, i'm looking forward to it!

 

[camonick]

i'm thinking chris has some serious drive! even if he has to post his batch in the 1-gallon brewers UNITE thread, i'm looking forward to it!

1 gallon batches might be a realistic goal.

 

[bracconiere]

1 gallon batches might be a realistic goal.

i just hot wired a dryer to use as a deculmer for MY malt.....maybe he'll rig up a personal combine the size of a lawn tractor!

 

[camonick]

i just hot wired a dryer to use as a deculmer for MY malt.....maybe he'll rig up a personal combine the size of a lawn tractor!

You got it going? I’ve been watching that thread but didn’t have anything useful to offer.

 

[bracconiere]

You got it going? I’ve been watching that thread but didn’t have anything useful to offer.

sorta, it's alive. but not kicking yet... still in diapers that need to be changed....

 

[shoreman]

Unless they offer seeds in bulk packaging, the seeds from Solstice are ridiculously expensive for what you get. For their wheat, they offer 100 seeds/ packet for $4.00. At a standard seeding rate, that would only sow a single row that is just 5' long. Wheat is typically drilled in rows spaced 12" apart with approximately 18 seeds per foot of row. You'd need approximately 170 of those packets to plant enough wheat to produce 1 bushel (60 pounds) of raw grain.

that’s why they said to contact them, they probably have bulk seed prices, the packets on their website are for small gardens. Plus they are connected to the Northern Grain Growers, so I mentioned to get in touch.

I didn’t really see anywhere in the original post about budget being a consideration, if he’s looking to do it on the cheap, I wouldn’t recommend that high quality of seed that is raised, threshed and saved by hand.

People doing traditional seed breeding outside of the university and extension basically take it on as a hobby (including myself) for the greater good. There’s no money in it.

 

[shoreman]

Not trying to be a Debbie Downer, just trying to provide semi-accurate and realistic figures. If the farmers got paid what they’re charging for seeds, they’d be getting about $36,000/ bushel.

You are comparing commercial cereal and grain farmers with subsidies & automation (tractors for planting, harvesting and threshers for cleaning) to hand tools. That’s a huge difference in labor inputs, that’s why they aren’t getting $36k a bushel.

 

[bracconiere]

$36k a bushel.

i'm bitching malt went up to $2 bucks a pound, and back to malting my own......

 

[Chris N]

don't regret it at all! wear the scars with pride! damn, i remember for other things i was f'n around with....after 7 years i finally made the breakthrough to grow mushrooms myself. and i got my ass kicked trying to isolate my own enymes with protien purification...but all that's still on a back burner for me. might become a revived project!

oh and damn, never have figured out how to use koji mold, not to say i didn't try a lot! another one for a revisit!

edit: being that you want to culture your own yeast to, the mushroom thing maybe practical, it involves learning sterile technique....

(and, if successful...a selfie in what i've heard was called the boneyard would be IMPRESSIVE! )

I won't regret it, I'll be glad to try it. If I get the hang of it, might become handy one day
I was reading the Brew book and found the section on how to culture your own yeast from bottles if it's bottle fermented. I am thrilled to try it. I have a whole case of franziskaner, would be cool if I can manage to culture it.
If I am successful, I will for sure do a selfie. Thank you very much, Bracconiere!
While I am still learning and I know not Beer related, here are my tobacco plants that I grew from seeds. Hoping to do a better job growing them next spring.