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| − | Barley is the primary [[grain]] used in brewing. This article discusses the characteristics of barley relevant to brewing; for more general information on barley, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barley Wikipedia:Barley].
| + | #REDIRECT[[:Category:Barley]] |
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| − | ===Importance of Barley to Brewing===
| + | [[Category:Beer]] |
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| − | Barley is the [[grain]] most closely associated with brewing, as well as one of the earliest crops domesticated in the Near East, facts which some have speculated may be related. The bulk of most modern grain bills consists of some sort of [[malted barley]].
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| − | ===Types of Barley===
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| − | ====Two-Row Versus Six-Row Barley====
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| − | The barley plant comes in two types: "two-row" and "six-row", differentiated by the number of kernel rows in the barley head. There is also "four-row" barley, but for brewing purposes it is identical to six-row and "four-row" is not encountered as a brewing term.
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| − | '''Two-row barley''' is the older form of barley, closely related to wild barley. It is the traditional European brewing barley and used as a base malt in most traditional European beer styles.
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| − | '''Six-row barley''' is more common in American brewing. It is higher in protein and enzymes than two-row, and so has traditionally been used in combination with [[maize]], [[rice]], or other [[adjuncts]].
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| − | ====Malted Versus Unmalted Barley====
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| − | Unlike many other brewing [[grain|grains]], barley is almost always used in its [[malt|malted]] form, since malting develops the [[enzymes]] needed to [[conversion|convert]] barley's [[starch]] to [[sugar]]. For details, see the main article on [[malted barley]].
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| − | Unmalted barley is sometimes used in brewing as well, especially in the form of [[roasted barley]].
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| − | ===Barley Cultivation===
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| − | Barley is sometimes grown by adventurous homebrewer-gardeners, although it is much less common than home [[hop cultivation]].
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