Grow Your Own Barley

[jeremy]

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.



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

There was a discussion about growing ones own barley. I said its too hard, dont bother (as did others). You (among others) said I dont mind a bit of hard work, and think I would quite enjoy it. I say fine, go for it.

You're right, my argument doesn't necessarily negate yours.

EDIT: Quick note, on re-reading posts I think I made a reasonable attempt to use the tone "I" wouldnt bother. When I say "don't bother" you can take it as read that I mean my opinion based on my motivations and inclinations leads me to recommend that you not bother, not you can't or you shouldn't.

 

[dug]

I grow my own hops, they are NOT like the commercial ones and I don't expect them to be. Why not give barley a go?It Won't be the same as the commercial stuff why would expect it to be.

and you could grow barley organically, no chemicals or pesticides

I go tuna fishing I've spent lots of time and money on a boat, lures, a fishing rod, petrol, food for while I'm out there. And I don't always catch a fish. I still do it.

DuG

**** Stirring the pot ****

 

[mash head]

As a barley grower and an amature brewer one of my next steps is to try malting some of my own barley but i do also put in around a hundred acres of barley pre year so economy of scale fits here. I think I am better at growing barley than brewing with only 2 ag brews under my belt so until i master the brew kettle i will continue with comercial malt to ensure consistancy. But one day (not this year because 70 tones of barley with to higher protien) I will malt my own grain and transform it into a good beer so dont stop dreaming. But to grow malting barley in your own back yard while not impossible does sound a bit hard. Growing a malting variety like gairdner is easy but getting it to malt specs is a challenge for most . Choose a well drained patch and dont put too much fertilizer on it or else protien blows out. My advice is one step at a time get some malting grade barley and play around with malting first from what I have read there is a lot to it but then again its only germinated grain that has been kilned once the acrospire reaches acertain length so its not rocket science. Am crapping on now so good luck with barley crops.

 

[brewno]

I realise this is an old topic but just wanted to add my two cents. We bought a hobby vineyard/winery with no wine-making/viticulture experience 2 years ago. we have 6 varieties across about 800 vines. On our first year, we got 1600L of juice for what I would consider fairly little effort. I put down 8 sprays over 14 weeks which took 2 hours each time. Picking took half a day for each variety with some family and friends over. done by lunch, then have an awesome lunch with wine/beer etc everyone has fun - those people even came back the next year cause they had so much fun. Pruning by hand by 2 people took about 20 hours spread over a couple of weekends in winter.

This year I made an experimental batch of shiraz that was completely natural using our grapes, the yeast in the air and bottled it after 4 months. We did a blind taste test against a Torbreck Grenache made with the same method and ours won 7 votes to 1. Now I don't really care about the vote count - they weren't even the same variety, but the satisfaction from making our own wine from scratch using only what we've grown is hard to match. I think the effort was worth it.

Now for beer brewing, I'm still pretty new to it but given that vineyards often have cover crops over winter, that gave me an idea to plant some barley and wheat and use it in my beer. Given that we have around 2 acres of vines, that's more than enough space for some barley between the rows. Next winter we'll plant one row each as an experiment and if it goes well, we'll upscale. Making my own beer from only what we have on the property would be brilliant, even if it isn't the best beer in the world.

I was getting a bit saddened by the tone of some posters on this forum and just wanted to chuck in my opinion. If you want to have a go growing your own grain, don't listen to the haters and just do it. what have you got to lose?

 

[Greg.L]

Hi, good to see another winemaker on the forum. Like other posters, I think there is a lot of value in the doing when it comes to homebrew, it isn't only financial. I have about 400 vines and am heavily into cider from my own apples. Vintage is my favourite time of year, even though there is a fair bit of work involved. I tried growing my own barley but the frost got it, even so it was good fun. You can always find reasons for not doing things, better to just go for it.

Greg

 

[levin_ae92]

Could just do what I did and get a job as a maltster, I get to make 130 tonnes a day, and take some home to make beer from