The Barley Project

[effigyoffaith]

This spring I dedicated a small patch of my vegetable garden to growing two row malting barley. I ordered a sample of two varieties to start with. Maris otter and golden promise.

I planted in the middle of march. Since planting I learned that my climate get too hot in summer for barley and it would be best planted earlier or even in the fall like winter wheat.

The maris otter did very poorly and died before forming seed heads. The golden promise did somewhat better and a portion of the seed head had matured before the plants died in the heat.

After threshing and cleaning, I had nearly a pound of grain, not too bad considering that I only started with an ounce or two.

This fall I will plant some of my saved seed and maybe order a couple of new varieties too test. Hopefully I will be able to find and variety and planting time that complement my climate. I know this project is kind of silly, but I have an idea of a completely home grown beer that I can't really shake. Has anyone else grown any barley? Do you have any tips? Do you know of any other two row malting varieties that I should try?

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Choguy03]

Your pictures didn't work. I am with you. The more that I can control, the more I like it. I will be growing my own hops next year. I can't wait.

 

[Evan!]

Sounds like a fun experiment, but I'd be really worried about the whole germination/sprouting/kilning process. I've been reading "New Brewing Lager Beer" and there are simply a million variables that you have to control. It's not like hops, where you pluck 'em off the vine and use 'em. Do you have a malt floor? Have you done the research into sprouting, the correct acrospire length, how to kiln properly, etc., etc.? A friend of mine has mentioned trying this out one time, and IMHO, for a homebrewer, is way more trouble than it's worth. The big maltsters have it down to a science...and no matter what I did, I doubt I could ever reach their level of quality, as that's their job.

But to each his own. Good luck with it!

 

[effigyoffaith]

The point is more that I am interested in experimenting with the malting process. And since un-malted barley the appropriate is (as far as I can find) unavailable in my area, I must grow my own. I've played around a bit with whole wheat berries from the health food store.

I was impressed by this page http://www.tmoser.ch/typo3/16.0.html on home malting. I might try to reproduce their process.

How many people would say that brewing your own is too much trouble. It's a hobby.

 

[zoebisch01]

Talk to Fifelee. His dad does it commercially, growing Barley that is. As for doing your own, I say go for it. You want the nuance that comes from doing it yourself. There is a lot to it, but I think the rewards could be pretty cool. If you are after consistency, well then you have to up the ante in terms of bringing it into the more scientific realm. Another thought on the matter is to try and incorporate the unmalted Barley into your recipes.

 

[SavageSteve]

i think it would be fun to try to make a beer from scratch, so to speak (well, except the yeast). I can imagine the satisfaction of drinking it, knowing that I made all of the ingredients.

Hower, I'm with Evan! in doubting that I'd be able to make a malt that is anywhere near what the big maltsters can do, but I bet it would be good enough to make beer.

 

[Melana]

Looks like a really cool experiment... best of luck to you!

 

[effigyoffaith]

My understanding is that most of the science of the big maltsters is mostly in the realm of efficiency and consistancy. For me efficiency, and consistency are secondary to the flavor and mystique of the homegrown beer. I must admit that I have more than half a thought to the possibility of grid crash separating me from easy access to commercial ingredients.

Isolating a pure strain of local yeast for the homegrown beer is certainly on the list.

 

[JayC]

Where did you order your barley from? I was able to get some seed from fifelee here, but couldn't find any other sources of malting-quality, unmalted barley.

I'm with you in being interested in trying it. It seems whenever anyone brings it up here, that people start getting in line to say things like "There's a reason there are more homebrewers than home maltsters."

Worst case scenario, I waste some seed and time.

 

[Grimsawyer]

I agree. Lots of people like to shoot others down here... That being said. DON'T DO IT!!! You might learn something. You might have people lining up to try your beer that you grew all at home. You might find that it's easier than everyone warned you about. And most of all, you can't do it cause you might have.... FUN!!!!! Just can't have that sort of thing now, can we? I have wondered how hard it would be to grow my own barley but I've just figured it'd take too much room to get a small amount of grain. I've already got hops growing in my back yard and that seems to be just about all the SWMBO can handle at the moment. On a side note, the SWMBO is friends with someone who grows wheat on their farm from time to time. Might have to see how much a 50# bag of that is and goof with the malting/kilning process at home. Where I'd like to grow my own just taking the raw ingredient and processing it would be good enough for me, just don't have the room to plant enough to make it worthwhile. I can't wait to see how all of your experiments turn out! And whatever happens don't stop playing with it. And feel free to post, I know at least I'll be waiting to see how it turned out!

 

[Kai]

Get your decoction technique down pat first. Your malt will be poorly-converted (heck, the pros had poorly-converted malt until twentieth century). Another advantage of this is that it will allow the production of rare or extinct varieties of malt, like wind malt or historical brown malt.

Go for it!

 

[effigyoffaith]

JayC
I had a very hard time finding malting barley. It seems that most(nearly all) of it grown on contract with the large brewers and maltsters since there is such a relatively limited market and the yields are so much lower than six-row feed barley. No seed company I could find offered it, so I got mine from the National Plant Germplasm System http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/acc/acc_queries.html
The problem with this is even though they have about every variety known, they'll only send you a very small amount. Which isn't that big of deal since right know I'm just trying to find varieties/cultural practices that work well for me in Indiana.

Grimsawyer, Kai, Melana
Thanks for the encouragement. So far I've enjoyed this project a lot. It is a very small investment of resources, and when it work will be pretty cool.

For those interested in different varieties of barley try this BYO article.
http://byo.com/mrwizard/872.html

North American barley farmers grow both 2- and 6-row varieties. Examples of 2-row varieties include Klages, Harrington, B1202 (avariety developed by Anheuser-Busch) and numerous varieties of Coors’ Moravian barley (for example, Moravian III). Six-row varieties include Morex, Russell, Excel, Robust and Stander. These are all spring barley varieties, which is the norm for North American malting barley varieties. The Europeans only grow 2-row barley. Examples of European spring barley include Chariot, Alexis, Hana, Ferment, Steffi, Krona and Sissi. Winter varieties, mainly grown in England, include Maris Otter, Halcyon and Pipkin.

This gives a hint on why my maris otter failed it seems it is a winter variety. I'll be trying some of these varieties this fall and next spring along with the golden promise seed i saved. I might get enough harvest from the golden promise to try malting some of it next time.

Kai,
Do you know where I could find more information about historical malts? That would be a interesting avenue of research.

Cheers

 

[onecolumbyte]

Go for it!!!! I've been thinkg about growing my own too but have very little space. How much did you plant for your 1 pound yield?

BTW Sunset (CA edition) did a cover story this month on local eating. They tried to grow their own barley for a homegrown beer. Apparently the had problems with squirrells eating the seed heads.

Keep us posted.

 

[effigyoffaith]

onecolumbyte,

The NPGS only gives you a five gram sample, so that's all I was able to plant. It ended up being a tiny plot about 1' X 3'. I am confident that my yields would have been significantly higher if more seed heads had reached maturity. I think that this could be done with cultural practices like earlier planting, using winter varieties or more heat tolerant varieties, or with more consistent irrigation.

 

[karbinator]

Effigy,
I have spoke with fiffe a few weeks back about getting some fresh 2row to store for seeding early next year. I have about 2 acres I have nothing growing on at the moment, and really would like to seed it with this and get a feel for how it acts here in Va.

Yeah, it's difficult stuff to attempt compared to grinding some bagged grain, and getting on with the brewing. It's just a sidestep to the whole hobby, nothing more.

Good luck to you...and keep us posted on your progress!

 

[MachipongoGus]

I just joined HomeBrewTalk.com because I am about a month away from planting a 1/16 of an acre of a 2 row winter malting barley I finagled from a company in Germany. I see from your posts that you got Maris Otter seed. I looked everywhere for it (or any other big name two-row winter barley, for that matter) and came up short. Where did you manage to get some? If I could get any by mid-October, I would plant a test plot of it, too.

I want to grow 2-row barley to make ales and it needs to be winter barley because we have mild winters and very hot summers around here (coastal Virginia). It seems that basically all the malting barley grown in the US is 6-row spring sown that is grown in the northern great plains. It also seems that any winter sown barley generally available (some is actually planted in Virginia, where I am) is high protein feed grain that will evidently not make particularly good beer.

Regarding the challenges of growing and malting barley on a small scale: my intent is to be deliberate, but not especially scientific. For thousands of years, people all over the world grew and malted barley and then made beer with it. I am sure many millions of batches have turned out poorly, but many millions more were great and some were outstanding. I am not trying to make an imitation German or English style beer or necessariuly even a consistent flavor. I am trying to make beer that is from my yard and has its own special taste -- something I could not buy anywhere for any price.

If anyone has experience growing barley for malting, please let me know (I hear, for example, that the grain must be aged for a period after harvest for the proper enzymes to be available for successful brewing).

Thanks!