Growing Your Own Grain

[lukewarm]

Hi Everyone,

Have any of you folks tried this?

My parents have a farm, and I was having a chat to dad about this last time I was there. He offered me some space in one of the paddocks if I wanted to give it a go. I'm going to get some hops going, but it would be kind of cool to make some beer with ingredients you grew yourself.

Is there any processing of grain required before you can brew with it?

cheers,

Luke

 

[devo]

it needs to be malted before you can brew with it.

 

[fraser_john]

Take a read of BYO article http://byo.com/feature/284.html

 

[kymba]

Looked at doing this but getting un-malted grain that has no pesticeides n stuff proved near impossible, but that won't be a problem for you

google is your friend for the malting process...looks easy

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...&hl=malting

http://www.bodensatz.com/upage/index.php?p...ibrewer_malting

http://www.realbeer.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=14586

 

[Guest Lurker]

Looks easy....but isnt. The skill of the maltster is a much bigger influence on the quality of your beer than most brewers realise.

 

[fraser_john]

Take a listen to http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr02-22-07.mp3

 

[lukewarm]

Great, thanks guys for the info.

I think I'll give it a go, for the experience.

I also really like the idea of making a beer with ingredients I've grown and prepared myself. With the exception of yeast I suppose.

cheers,

Luke

 

[kymba]

hope it goes well

maybe ask your significant other for home-made ingredients

 

[white.grant]

Now I've heard of everything

 

[Kleiny]

My parents have a farm

lukewarm

What kind of farm?, do you have a combine or small seeds box?, What type of Barley do you have access to?, DAPP and other fertilizer is expensive at the moment?, do you have spray equipment?, do you have a harvester?and so on???????????????

If your on a cropping farm you should have all this gear other than the correct strain of barley and consumables
Then the barley has to be tested to show thats its malting quality not feed
Then you have to malt it (I dont know much about this other than it is harder than what i read without experience and the correct equipment)
Total $$$$$$ for a small amount will far exceed buying 5kg of malted barley from a sponsor up top

Sorry but you need rain too

Ok so i dont want too put you off and if your a cropper you know what im on about, wouldn't you be better to get a bag of barley off of a neighbour and have a go at the malting first without going to the effort of growing the barley.

Kleiny

 

[pint of lager]

If you want to give it go, do it!

Brewing allows us to utilise our particular skills. Some brewers have a fully automated turnkey system they made themselves. Some have a marvelous walkin coolroom. Some have a bar that puts many pubs to shame. Some use their skills and set up homebrew shops. Some stick to kit and kilo and bottles.

Like Guest Lurker said, the skill of the maltster plays a huge part in the success of grain based brewing.

You can malt any decent barley and use it to brew with. Malting grade barley has lower protien levels and nitrogen levels compared to feed grade, but feed grade will work just fine for malting and brewing. It may lead to hazy brews and lower efficiencies but will still work just fine.

Grab a bag of feed barley from the local horse feed barn and you can be malting tomorrow. Have a read of the malting article on BYO, or do a google, plenty of info out there. Once you have had a go at malting, you can decide if you want to sow a paddock.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Grab a bag of feed barley from the local horse feed barn and you can be malting tomorrow.




Bloody Chooks....have had to chase the bastards out of the brew room on several occasions..

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Don't need to sow a whole paddock

If all you want is to have a go and be able to pour a beer and say "I did this ALL, myself" then you only need a very small plot indeed.

I googled up a rough yield per hectare for malting grade barley and it was about 2.5 ton/hectare or 0.25kg/meter square - so to get a 25kg sack of barley you need 100 square meters or a plot 10x10 meters. You could do that in a decent sized back yard. No harvesters needed. A sickle would get the job done and you could just thresh and separate it by hand.

Hard work, but certainly do-able. Its how most of the world feeds itself after all.

Depends just how much you want the absolute full tilt DIY experience.