Growing Your Own Barley?

[JulesSeddo]

Greg, how did you get your hands on some malting barley seed? I note you're in the Bathust area - are there seed suppliers nearby or did you have direct farming contact?

 

[Greg.L]

I don't remember where I bought the seed, must have been a local farm supplies place.

 

[vic45]

Mate jump in the car on Saturday and speak to some graingrowers.
If you talk to a few Farmers you will find one who is interested in what you are doing, will tell you the type of Barley that yeilds best in your area and might even give you a bucket of seed.
At worst they will provide you with growers advice you cant buy.

 

[hoppy2B]

Man I grew the best premium wheat ever this year. Just waiting for it to finish ripening so I can get in with the header.
You'll have to wait until next May if you are planning on sowing some cereal for malting. If you sow now, even with irrigation it will turn out shi..........

 

[vic45]

Man I grew the best premium wheat ever this year. Just waiting for it to finish ripening so I can get in with the header.
You'll have to wait until next May if you are planning on sowing some cereal for malting. If you sow now, even with irrigation it will turn out shi..........

Hoppy, which grade of wheat is used for malting.

 

[Greg.L]

Man I grew the best premium wheat ever this year. Just waiting for it to finish ripening so I can get in with the header.
You'll have to wait until next May if you are planning on sowing some cereal for malting. If you sow now, even with irrigation it will turn out shi..........

Yeah, I think barley is normally a winter crop. Sow in may, harvest in december (if the frost or hail or grasshoppers don't get your crop. At least you should get some good hay.)

 

[hoppy2B]

Hoppy, which grade of wheat is used for malting.

You want plump grains for a start. I'd say protein levels should be similar as for barley. It depends, for example if your barley protein levels are a bit low you can add some higher protein wheat to balance the mash, or vice versa. Protein being important for head retention, with too much protein affecting clarity.
It's important that the grains don't receive rain damage and have a good germination rate.

 

[hoppy2B]

Hoppy, which grade of wheat is used for malting.

Errrr.... that would be malting grade wheat. :lol:

 

[slacka]

Anyone out there tried to grow and malt their own barley in a backyard or a small property?

Looks like commercial barley growers get something like 1000kg per hectare so I figure I'd need about 100 sqr m to get about 10kg (enough for say 2 x 20L brews).

The malting sounds a bit more difficult at home - with only a domestic oven.

Anyone tried????

this help ? They quote numbers 4 times that value. Although they also suggest you live in Dubbo. :unsure:

 

[hoppy2B]

Actually, I don't recommend trying to thresh barley by hand, it's nigh impossible. Wheat is much easier. If you want a couple of hundred grams of 'Scout' wheat for free I'd be happy to send you some. I still have a couple of kilos of the original seed left over.
Australia grows mostly bread wheats. ASW - standard, Durum - pasta, and APW - premium. There is also stuff like 'prime hard'.
I had heard of soft wheat being used for brewing overseas. I'm not sure we have a classification for 'malting wheat'. But I do recall reading years ago that premium wheat is used for other purposes. Malting may have been one of the purposes. Premium would be the stuff to go for if growing your own for malting as it's a higher quality wheat. Cheers.

 

[ekul]

Was at the feed store the other day getting some stuff for work when i saw a bag of barley. It was $18 for 20kg so i bought it. I'll have a crack at malting it. Worst case scenario i'll feed it to the chooks.

 

[The Gas Man]

My bother inlaw is a farmer near Temora (NSW) who grows barley on his property. He told me the main variety of barley grown for the malting companies is actually call "Schooner". He grows a variety called "Hindmarsh". It is not preferred by the malting companies as the quality is less consistant than "Schooner". But for homebrewing purposes I reckon it should be ok. I would certainly try to get in contact with some of the local farmers. I would imagine you could get as much as you wanted for some homebrew in return.

I had thought about the idea of attempting to malt myself, but not ready for it at this stage.

 

[ekul]

I haven't watched all these yet but it seems that this guy is growing and processing all his malt. http://www.youtube.com/user/francois4050#p/u

 

[Anofre]

Having a second crack at it this year & blogging the process;

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showarticle=183

I'm due for an update but must use PC not iPhone for photos. Harvested last weekend. In skryrim this weekend...

If u wanna have a crack at growing, wait till may next year. Not possible to grow in summer.
Right now is harvest. Tons of the freshest ready to go.
Don't buy 25k sacks for planting to malt with; it's poisoned.
Better off with fresh feeding barley. It will still work.

Any merchant should be able to score you a bucket full for free if u yarn a bit.
I offer a bucket free to any AHB member who wants to visit.

Farmers get from 1/2 ton to 2 tons per ACRE not hectare.
There are many breed of malt to suit different climates & soils. Ours is Tallon. Not a common type but suits our clay soil & rain results.
You can't predict if it's malt quality or not before brewing or testing.
Hand sowing & threshing is not out of the question, but very labour intensive.

 

[ekul]

Is there any reason why the sprouted barley has to be kilned other than darkening and storage? I was thinking of germinating the barley and then drying it out in the sun (its been so hot lately!). Or is there any reason why it can't be just crushed up after its been germinating for a few days and used wet? I suppose i can try and see how it goes, feed barley is cheap as chips.

Would this make an ultra light coloured malt? Might be good for making ultra light coloured lagers. I was thinking of mixing it with a little bought barley malt to ensure conversion (1kg commercial to 3.5kg homemade.) when i use it. A simple recipe would be good to test it (4.5kg malt, 25g POR @ 60) but will also show any faults.

I have the day off today so i'll probably start germinating some feed barley. I have a piece of voille sitting there, was thinking of putting the grain in that and dunking it in a 50L bucket of water a few times a day (MIAB, malt in a bag). Its so humid here that i'm a little worried about mould but other than that it seems easy enough.

I'm really interested in getting this to work because i can get barley very cheaply from a farmer i know. I would need to wait till a friend was driving from his place to mine but i think it would end up being about $5 per 25kg bag, or even free if i only wanted a few bags.

For information about malting the best places i've found have been distilling forums. A lot of guys seem to malt their own feed barley so there's lots of guides. Some of the guys don't even kiln or dry their germinated barley. They let it germinate for a few days, crush it up and mash it, they call it green malt. NOt sure if this would work in a beer situation, i don't think the moonshiners have to worry about off flavours as much. From what i can gather they don't even use sanitisers!?

 

[Greg.L]

Here's the current prices for 1st grade schooner malt barley. Maybe get a truck load and do a bulk buy?

schooner malt price

Greg

 

[ekul]

~$200 a megatonne is good and cheap. It would cost alot in freight and storage though!
I'm def going to try malting my own, imagine your malt costing less than your salt additions.

Here's a nice little costing that i can get behind...
5kg homemade malt $.001
80g cascade $2.40
repitched US05 $.20
Salt additions $.05
LPG $2
Total cost $4.651 a batch or 20c a litre

Even just using it to make your commercial malt go further would be great, especially seeing as i'll be at uni next year and wanting to save money everywhere.

Here's the current prices for 1st grade schooner malt barley. Maybe get a truck load and do a bulk buy?

schooner malt price

Greg

 

[Greg.L]

Ha Ha, yes that would be very cheap, but you would need a big truck.

I think it means Metric Tonnes.

Greg

 

[ekul]

oh right, big M is mega, little m is metric. Still, means it would cost a dollar a batch for 5kg grain. But i'm mainly doing it for the novelty.

I want to get the malting down pat so that when my hops come on i can have a beer that i've made nearly from scratch. Next year i might put down some barley and make a beer where i've created every ingredient, it will truely be a 'hand-crafted' ale.

Ha Ha, yes that would be very cheap, but you would need a big truck.

I think it means Metric Tonnes.

Greg

 

[ekul]

So this arvo i got around to starting to malt my barley. Pretty simple so far.

Lined a 20L bunnings bucket with a round piece of voille that i used to use as a biab bag.

Poured in 10kg of feed barley

Filled the bucket with water and let it soak

After 3 hours i pulled the bag out. (so much easier when the grain isn't crushed!!)

And then came upstairs and typed this.

Tomorrow morning i will put the grain in some fresh water and let it soak while i'm at work. Then hang it up overnight, then soak, hang, soak, hang etc until the acrospire reaches the tip of the grain. I'm hoping hanging it in the bag will give it enough air so it doesn't rot.

Some people have some great machines for this but i think if i go to all that effor tnad it doesn't work i'll be unhappy