Grow Your Own Barley

[jeremy]

And if you buy a kit you can have the benefit of selecting professionally dehydrated, hopped liquid malt extract. And if you buy a bottle of beer you have the benefit of selecting a professionally produced end product. You've missed the point. Winemakers source their grapes when the one's they've grown aren't what they want.

I agree with the sentiments that there would be a profound sense of accomplishment from growing one's own barley for a brew. The obstacles mentioned can all be overcome with patience and learning. To those who say it "can't" be done, I'm sure someone has said the same thing about growing one's own hops (done), culturing your own yeast (done) and reproducing an exact water profile (done). To those who say that the quality "won't be worth the effort" that can only be judged once the effort has been made. Who knows? Perhaps a bunch of brewers manage to obtain a large enough area, get some good know-how from a real grower, and get it done. I'll remind people that the Top Gear blokes were challenged to grow and make their own bio-diesel, and (IIRC) although they grew the wrong crop, they still managed to make something.

To say that it won't be the same as professional malt is obvious. But then, all-grain brewing isn't like professional brewing - it's better This point has nagged at me in the back of my mind - (without drawing in the comparison) kit beers are frowned upon because they take a shortcut, by introducing a product that you have purchased. The ultimate all-grain beer would of course be made from the barley you malt yourself, hops you grow yourself, and yeast you culture yourself. At the moment, all the AG brewers are comfortable to skip the first condition, for reasons that have been clearly, and rightly pointed out. To add that last one would be incredible though, wouldn't it?

Looking forward to seeing if anyone takes the challenge and gets a working group going.

Vineyard owners source their grapes when the one's they've grown aren't what they want. Winemakers do not. Hobbyists certianly do not, they know better than to try to grow their own grapes when they would get a better product by buying good grapes off professionals who have vineyards setup in areas that are specifically chosen for the type of wine they are trying to make.

I am of those who say that the quality "won't be worth the effort" and while I will admit I havent made the effort personally, I grew up on a Wheat and Barley farm, where I was involved in my younger years with cropping. In addition to this I currently work for one of Australias largest grain handling businesses, and do quite a bit of work for its fully owned subsidiary malting company.

Growing one's own hops is EASY, culturing your own yeast IS EASY and reproducing an exact water profile IS EASY. Growing barley, and malting it, is prohibitively difficult.

You could do it, you might even end up with a beer, but its not the same as growing hops, or growing grass for that matter. You make craft beer because you can make something more interesting, unique, and better than megaswill. The same is NOT true for barley / malt. Apart from the satisfaction of building a beer from the ground up you are effectively getting nothing from it, the amount of effort involved is massive, the yield is small, the potential of producing a beer that tastes better than what you could have made with store bought malt is negligable, and the potential for producing a crap beer is huge. I just dont think its worth it.

 

[apd]

As for needing a header..... its the size of a vege patch, you could harvest it with scissors in an afternoon. Heard of a sickle?

Indeed!

According to the article, there are 4 days of work, hardly a massive effort:

...plant your crop, then show up for at least three subsequent days -- two or more to tend (weed) your plot, and one to harvest and thresh, using a low-tech plywood threshing box and a standard household fan to separate the wheat from the chaff.

And from some further research, threshing can be done by sticking sheaves in a pillow case (maybe the same pillowcase you use for your BIAB!) and giving it a whack. Winnowing just needs a stiff breeze or a fan. So no special equipment, just stuff you already have.

I think we sometimes get caught up in thinking that because the pros do something a certain way that we have to do it that way. Sure, it might not be efficient to harvest and process 1000s of hectares of barley with a sickle and a pillow case but as a back yard gardener, that's not relevant. I'll be harvesting a tiny fraction of that. Jeremy, this seems to be where you're coming from. You see what goes on in a commercial operation and can't see a small-scale method.

And as for "malting grade", sure, if I ran my crop through the analysis it probably wouldn't stack up. But "malting grade" is another standard set for commercial use. My beer is for me. I doubt my palate would notice a difference in the end product even if I perfected every other aspect of brewing.

Andrew

 

[alowen474]

Even an average return for a producer is 1 tonne per acre(4000m2).
I can't imagine you would want more than 20kg, so you would want around 80m2.
In this size you could water and fertilise well, so you could halve that and still expect the same quantity.

You would sow about 1kg of seed barley in this area.

Wait 6 months and harvest away.

Malting grade barley has properties as said before to suit big brewers, but a lot of average barley ends up at the maltsters when the barley is needed and can be used just fine for any tasty beer.

Malting on the other hand, steep for a day,
Keep moist and warm for a week,
Dry back slowly for a couple of days and your done.

Would be very satisfying and a wonderful 100L of beer you have made.

Big effort, but not impossible.

 

[jeremy]

Indeed!

According to the article, there are 4 days of work, hardly a massive effort:



And from some further research, threshing can be done by sticking sheaves in a pillow case (maybe the same pillowcase you use for your BIAB!) and giving it a whack. Winnowing just needs a stiff breeze or a fan. So no special equipment, just stuff you already have.

I think we sometimes get caught up in thinking that because the pros do something a certain way that we have to do it that way. Sure, it might not be efficient to harvest and process 1000s of hectares of barley with a sickle and a pillow case but as a back yard gardener, that's not relevant. I'll be harvesting a tiny fraction of that. Jeremy, this seems to be where you're coming from. You see what goes on in a commercial operation and can't see a small-scale method.

And as for "malting grade", sure, if I ran my crop through the analysis it probably wouldn't stack up. But "malting grade" is another standard set for commercial use. My beer is for me. I doubt my palate would notice a difference in the end product even if I perfected every other aspect of brewing.

Andrew

Hmmm, it might be 4 days work on a small plot amongst thousands of others in British Columbia, but here i would think you would want to fertilize, spray for weeds, add certain trace elements as needed, use pesticides, and depending on where you live water it from time to time. You would also want to pre-empt the crop by testing the soil and making necessary adjustments. Then once you have harvested the real work begins with malting it, and you wouldnt want to stuff THAT up after your time and efforts growing it, you cant grow a barley crop every week!

True enough that the barley doesnt necessarily need to be "Malting Grade", but you would undoubtedly be producing an inferior barley, and most definately an inferior malt to one money can buy. Why spend such an effort producing a malt which would struggle to stack up against something you could buy for $4 a kilo? With brewing you do it because you can create a superior product which you can control and shape to what you want in a beer, with this you cant control, probably cant even measure, what you want in a barley / malt, you have less control, rather than more.

Regardless of all this, if you have the room, the time, the money and the inclination, dig up some ground and give it a go. I am not against it, I just personally think its a bit of a waste of time. Plenty of people, would think this of lots of things I think are meaningful pursuits, brewing is definately among them. Where I come from if you cheerfully announced that you were going to grow 20kg of barley in your garden, people would piss themselves, and suggest they have 5000 acres of the stuff just up the road that you can help yourself to. If you arent within stones throw of a cereal cropped farm (or a short drive), maybe the area you live in is not the ideal place to be growing one?

 

[stueywhytcross]

Id suggest that if you were thinking of growing your own grain and malting it. That for the first season, you throw a handful of seed into a small corner of your vege patch. Harvest it by hand, throw it in the oven and use a bit of it in some beers as roast barley, it will impart shit loads of flavour for minimum effort.
You can tell people you grew the grain your self, and not have to worry with all the stuffing around.

My parents are dry area farmers and grow a shitload of barley. We don't even bother walking into our 1000acre paddocks to get samples of grain (an icecream container full) to take to the teststand because we would be there for hours trying to rub out the grain from the husks and blow off the chaff. It is quicker to drive in our header and run it for 2 seconds. If you seriously think you are going to rub out 5kgs+ by hand you are kidding yourself.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[stueywhytcross]

Indeed!

I doubt my palate would notice a difference in the end product

Andrew

No probably not so much in taste, but in efficiency yes.

 

[jonocarroll]

Why spend such an effort producing a malt which would struggle to stack up against something you could buy for $4 a kilo? With brewing you do it because you can create a superior product which you can control and shape to what you want in a beer, with this you cant control, probably cant even measure, what you want in a barley / malt, you have less control, rather than more.

Why brew a beer when you can buy world-class award winning beers for under $10 per bottle? Craft brewing doesn't necessarily make a superior product - it sh!ts all over megaswill, but I doubt people are considering taking on Unibroue for quality. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the point wasn't 'can I botch together what the maltsters make?' - which seems to have offended you as someone in that industry; no one will be able to make what the companies make. No one will be able to get even close to the quality. The point seemed to be 'can I grow my own barley and use it in a brew?'.

Rather than flat-out discouraging, perhaps you can assist the people who are keen with some advice?

 

[kook]

Hasn't pintoflager done this in the past?

I seem to remember one of the OCB members malting their own home-grown barley?

 

[warra48]

This is a fascinating other side to our hobby.
Nothing like going back to basics, and doing it all from scratch.

Now, for my next trick, I'm planning to start digging deep into my backyard to get myself some ore. I'm sure with a high pressure regulator on my burner I could get it hot enough to melt out the metal. Then I can make my own pots and kettles.

Seeing as I live in a largish coastal/country town, there's quite a few cattle around here. They produce lots of gas. If I could figure a way of harvesting and storing that gas, I'll be pretty close to totally self sufficient in my brewing.

Oh, I forgot, I need to plant some more hops.

Now, where did I put all those yeast cultures? I think I only need about 24 different varieties, and I'll be set for every eventuality.

I'm so glad I'm retired. I can now fill my days with nothing more than brewing related activities, and all at little cost. Brilliant.

 

[pint of lager]

A couple of years ago, I did have a crack at growing some barley, but the drought beat me. Maybe one year, I will give growing barley another go.

I have malted lots of barley. Works just fine. The overall efficiency is down compared to store bought barley. If anyone wants to give it a go, there are heaps of links on the net to google up. Just do small batches. Out of the hundreds of kilos I malted, one batch failed, the chooks loved it.

You can apply all the same pros and cons arguments to bread making (freshly ground wheat makes a huge difference to the flavour,) cheese making (I read that raw milk from autumn milking cows is best), sausages (do I hear the word botulism?) coffee, pasta, curry pastes, fruit and vegetable growing, building houses, building antennas, servicing and repairing a vehicle, making knives, knitting, sewing or reloading ammunition. Some people even grow their own animals then slaughter, dress and eat them. A friend of ours reckons he is going to make a nuclear reactor in his garage.

You need to learn some new skills and have a bit of time and space. Some people are so wrapped up in earning a living, they have no spare time. They have to buy their beer, bread, cheese or whatever. How long do you sit of an evening watching TV? Most people have heaps of spare time. Enthusiasm and the desire to have a go, coupled with google means you can make bread, cheese, yoghurt, beer and grow fresh vegies.

Everyone has to make their own personal choice as to what to do with their time. Do they earn money and then pay for their goods?

As to making a toaster, I find that the kitchen wood stove has a nice bed of coals, perfect for making toast. Nothing like toast made over wood coals.

 

[jeremy]

EDIT: In reply to quantumbrewers post (btw, all in good fun, cant resist a good argument!)

My point is that you might not make a superior product, but rarely would you dedicate 6 months worth of work with no potential benefit at all, rather than the thrill of the chase. Lots of people will try to replicate a high quality commercial beer as they can "make hoegaarden for $1 a schooner", hence the benefit of putting in a little effort, and saving a hell of a lot of money, and producing something not quite as good (or not the same) as the original. Conversely they may make a wheat beer which they dont want to taste similar to a commercial brew, hence having created something unique. If you grew your own barley, and malted it yourself, thats 6 months worth of work just to see if it will work. The chance of creating something (in a barley/malt sense) that is better (or you like more) than the commercial alternative is non-existent. As far as I am concerned from this perspective the payoff doesnt justify the effort. You are drawing the parallel that brewing beer is employing effort to create a unique product for cheaper than you could a commercial beer for fun, as is growing your own barley. Obviously brewing not always going to be cheaper, its not always going to be unique, and there will be days that it wont be enjoyable, but if the ends didnt justify the means in any of these respects, we wouldnt bother.

You need to consider the same equation with producing your own malt. The effort required is considerably more, even if you say it only takes a few hours to clear an area, dig up the weeds, pre-treat the soil, then a couple hours to rip up, seed, and work back, about 6 months waiting time during which labor wise 4-6 hours all up to weed, spray, water, fertilize etc, a few hours to reap, a couple hours to manually loosen grain from your crop, and clean it, 30mins to steep, 30mins to drain, 30mins for second steep, 30mins to drain, a week to wait while it germinates, 30mins to kiln, I think you will agree that your average brewday kinda pales in comparison. Growing hops is no comparison to this, compared to this they are very simple to grow, simple to harvest, obviously dont require malting, and are much better fresh and unprocessed.

So, we would hope with all this extra effort our rewards would also be considerable. It should be LOT cheaper to be honest I think it would work out more expensive since you are buying small quantites of seeds, sprays etc, but it might come in a bit cheaper, and even if it turned out free, for 20kg of barley the difference in cost would be negligible given the effort. If not cheaper it should be awesomely unique, which it will be, but I think you would find it would be unique in the respect that you would get a poorer efficiency, and possibley some other problems. Having said that I am most certainly not offended at the suggestion that malting is simple, it is, wet the grain, let it germinate, and stick it in the oven and kill it. Malting is the least of your problems, I did suggest in a previous post to buy from a farmer and malt it yourself. And last, not least, it should be a lot of fun. This should not be discounted as it is the ONLY reason you would try it. If you are a hobbyist gardener who would greatly enjoy growing a mini crop of barley, and dont mind if it works or not then go for it.

The reason I am being negative about the idea isn't because I think people shouldn't bother. It's because of the same reason a hobbyist winemaker wouldn't grow their own grapes. Because it would be far too much work, it would never be as good as you could source from your local vineyard, and they are more interested in making wine than growing grapes. If this was on aussiehomegardener and someone said "have you ever tried making beer from your own barley" I would expect the response "mate, you can give it a go, but apparently its a lot of effort and you are unlikely to get something even close to pure blonde, just go out and buy a carton".

 

[jonocarroll]

The reason I am being negative about the idea isn't because I think people shouldn't bother. It's because of the same reason a hobbyist winemaker wouldn't grow their own grapes. Because it would be far too much work, it would never be as good as you could source from your local vineyard, and they are more interested in making wine than growing grapes.

I'm somewhat sure I've heard of a few hobbyist winemakers growing small amounts of their own grapes. Because it will be as good or better than large producers? No. Because it's cheaper? No. For the fun of it? Absolutely.

"Too much work"? I think I see the problem here... this is work for you. Is brewing a beer from scratch too much work? Not for me, it's no work. It's fun. Is building a difference engine (calculator) out of Lego too much work? Not for this guy. Is building a DIY 3D solid freeform fabricator that runs on sugar too much work? Apparently not.

I'm stepping out of the back and forth now, but I will say - with a bit of passion, doing things the hard way is the most fun. If anyone ever gets this up and going, I want a bastardised speech from them along the lines of

We choose to go to the moon in this decade grow our own barley and do the other things malt it ourselves, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

... Okay. That was a little over the top, but the idea's right.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Well...you shouldnt knock anyone for trying....



Bit like the VB drinker haveing a go at you for brewing AG

View attachment 24796

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Well...you shouldnt knock anyone for trying....



Bit like the VB drinker haveing a go at you for brewing AG







Brings back memories of living around Leeton/Griffith

 

[jeremy]

I'm somewhat sure I've heard of a few hobbyist winemakers growing small amounts of their own grapes. Because it will be as good or better than large producers? No. Because it's cheaper? No. For the fun of it? Absolutely.

"Too much work"? I think I see the problem here... this is work for you. Is brewing a beer from scratch too much work? Not for me, it's no work. It's fun. Is building a difference engine (calculator) out of Lego too much work? Not for this guy. Is building a DIY 3D solid freeform fabricator that runs on sugar too much work? Apparently not.

I'm stepping out of the back and forth now, but I will say - with a bit of passion, doing things the hard way is the most fun. If anyone ever gets this up and going, I want a bastardised speech from them along the lines of

We choose to go to the moon in this decade grow our own barley and do the other things malt it ourselves, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

... Okay. That was a little over the top, but the idea's right.

For the fun of it, absolutely. My point exactly. If it floats your boat go your hardest. I just mean it wont make a beer better, or cheaper, or more unique (in a good way) so if you are your average brewing enthusiast dont bother, but if you want to give it a try go for it. Just like for your average gardner making beer isnt worth the effort, its not where their interest lies.

 

[Steve]

This reminds me of the British show The Good Life. The snooty neighbours (cant remember their names) saying why on earth would you want to do that, are you maaaad? Tom and his wife reply with a smile: Because its fun, and why the hell not?
Cheers
Steve

 

[Zizzle]

Great post and great philosophy POL.

 

[peas_and_corn]

I'm somewhat sure I've heard of a few hobbyist winemakers growing small amounts of their own grapes. Because it will be as good or better than large producers? No. Because it's cheaper? No. For the fun of it? Absolutely.

"Too much work"? I think I see the problem here... this is work for you. Is brewing a beer from scratch too much work? Not for me, it's no work. It's fun. Is building a difference engine (calculator) out of Lego too much work? Not for this guy. Is building a DIY 3D solid freeform fabricator that runs on sugar too much work? Apparently not.

I'm stepping out of the back and forth now, but I will say - with a bit of passion, doing things the hard way is the most fun. If anyone ever gets this up and going, I want a bastardised speech from them along the lines of

We choose to go to the moon in this decade grow our own barley and do the other things malt it ourselves, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

... Okay. That was a little over the top, but the idea's right.

Don't do that to JFK ever again.

 

[buttersd70]

This reminds me of the British show The Good Life. The snooty neighbours (cant remember their names) saying why on earth would you want to do that, are you maaaad? Tom and his wife reply with a smile: Because its fun, and why the hell not?
Cheers
Steve

mmmmmm
Felicity Kendal :icon_drool2:

 

[apd]

For the fun of it, absolutely. My point exactly.

Jeremy, you seem to have become confused in all the circles you were talking! "For the fun of it" was my point and QuantumBrewer's point and lots of other people's point.

Your point was about effort and efficiency and getting a justifiable return on investment.

Yes, 6 months does seem like a lot of effort (if you think sitting and watching the barley grow for most of that time is effort) but gardening is one of my hobbies.

Yes, the malt I produce may only achieve 50% efficiency but I don't have to please the accountants of a commercial brewery.

Yes, I may spend more per kilo in producing my malt than I could buy but I'd only be producing a few kilos and again, I don't have to report to the accountants. This is my hobby. I don't get monetary returns from my hobbies. I get those intangible returns like a sense of accomplishment and stress relief.

My point is that you might not make a superior product, but rarely would you dedicate 6 months worth of work with no potential benefit at all, rather than the thrill of the chase.

I think you meant to say, "...rarely would I dedicate 6 months..." Several of us in this thread have already stated that we would dedicate 6 months to this and that it would be just for the thrill of it. You, sir, obviously have very little sense of adventure!

If you do actually understand that growing your own barley would be for the fun of it, why do you keep raising the irrelevant arguments?

Andrew