Is this barley ok for brewing ? Great price.. :)

[trustyrusty]

Hi Guys FYI

In Melbourne I think

http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/melbourne-cbd/cooking-accessories/barley-20kg-premium-grain/1111163206


Our farmers are the first tier producers of the Latrobe and Compass blends of Barley in the Mallee region. Most of our customers use these varieties for brewing. It is a 2 malt blend meaning less carbohydrate and a fuller/maltier flavour. It also has a lower protein content meaning it yields a less cloudy beer.


Is this is any good.... I am not in the area

$1.00 a kg

BTW think I am going to move to Melbourne, everything I ever want is there... Any ideas why there is more brew stuff in Melbourne and or Victoria ...Probably more closer farms?

 

[mofox1]

It would need to be malted - ie germinated, dried, kilned etc. You won't be able to use it as the base malt in it's existing form.

Not something us 'normal' brewers are up for, but I reckon it would probably float someone's boat.

 

[trustyrusty]

Yes, true.....they did mention beer so I assumed ready for brewing....scrap that - too much work... cheers

 

[TimT]

Malting shouldn't be that hard. I did some once just with a packet of crappy stuff from the shops, seemed to work. It would be fun to play around with.

 

[mr_wibble]

Geeze, I wouldn't mind a bag of that to plant in my garden.

I always wanted to try the grow/malt/brew trifecta.

 

[Coodgee]

Isn't there a danger of making ergot if you do your own malting which is a precursor to lsd?

 

[mr_wibble]

Malting shouldn't be that hard. I did some once just with a packet of crappy stuff from the shops, seemed to work. It would be fun to play around with.

Is the "Perle Barley" from the shops 2-row? 6-row?

 

[TimT]

Good question. It was a bag from the Indian shops I believe. I wouldn't do it again from them as that barley is of pretty questionable quality - not meant for malting - but this stuff looks the goods.

 

[mr_wibble]

Isn't there a danger of making ergot if you do your own malting which is a precursor to lsd?

I'm sure I read somewhere that Ergot poisoning was responsible for the Dancing Mania in Basel ~1536.
But wikipedia says it wasn't. So ner!

I guess it's like any food-stuff, you have to know how to handle it. Is "Not For Horses" still on the forum? He'd know.
Of course, ergot predominately effects rye too. Here's a fact-sheet: https://www.awb.com.au/NR/rdonlyres/BFA96F0A-1967-4B8D-8B6C-631A00F15478/0/ERGOT_factsheet.pdf

From my, now 20-minute long, education on Ergot. It seems that the root cause of the problem is during the growing of grain crops, and not the malting.
Ergot can be spotted in seed-heads, as the Ergot fungus replaces the seed while maintaining the head structure.

EDIT: Just for the record, I looked at a bunch of photos, and sometimes it's not as clearly apparent as in the above photo.

 

[klangers]

Isn't there a danger of making ergot if you do your own malting which is a precursor to lsd?

No.

Ergot is a fungus which grows on the grain. If it's on the grain when you begin malting, any triptamines will almost certainly be thermally degraded during kilning. LSD is an incredibly fragile molecule.

Ergot fungus contains ergotamine which, chemically, is quite a long way from LSD and needs to be carefully prepared in ideal conditions in a lab.

I'm building a malting plant at home, and I can tell you to produce malt comparable to that which is commercially available is not easy at all.

Unless you know what you're doing, you'll end up producing something that is sub-standard. But hey, give it a go - it could be fun.

 

[mofox1]

Malting shouldn't be that hard. I did some once just with a packet of crappy stuff from the shops, seemed to work. It would be fun to play around with.

And that's why I said "normal" brewers, Tim.

 

[GalBrew]

I'm not sure malting grain at home using an oven is going to produce anything worth using.

 

[TimT]

Why? Too hot?

 

[TimT]

Or not enough room?

 

[klangers]

Malting requires reasonably precise control of temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide proportion and forced air flow

I'm assuming the oven would only be used for kilning. You'd basically run a floor-malt regime for your germination, and use up your mash tun for steeping. This would take at least 1 week, most likely longer due to the non-ideal conditions. The killer is that it requires a lot of TLC during this period unless you make an automated system (what I'm doing with my various engineering obsessions).

Household ovens can only control temperature, and do not have the facility to force air through the grain.

You can still kiln fine with it, but you'd be restricted to one kilning regime - and making more exotic malts would require a lot more fiddling.

For example, munich malt is made by germinating in a very co2 rich atmosphere which encourages the formation of melanoidens. Kilning is done with high recirc and high moisture to get some Malliard reactions going to get it a bit darker and 'maltier'.

Remember that malting is as every bit as complicated as brewing in its own right.

 

[manticle]

Malting shouldn't be that hard. I did some once just with a packet of crappy stuff from the shops, seemed to work. It would be fun to play around with.

Malting well though would be very complex.

Any idiot can make fish soup or stew but proper bouillabaisse requires care, time and process.

 

[Yob]

cant unmalted be used with a high diastatic malt like pilsner? (ed: or am I thinking of something else...?)

for those considering malting at home >HERE< is some reading

 

[GalBrew]

Why? Too hot?

Most people would lack even the basic equipment to do all the steps required not to mention a lack of precision required to get what type of product you desire and a lack of control to be able to repeat it consistently.

 

[klangers]

cant unmalted be used with a high diastatic malt like pilsner? (ed: or am I thinking of something else...?)

for those considering malting at home >HERE< is some reading

It was used a lot more in distilleries of yesteryear prior to the availability of cheap sugar, I believe with up to ~30% of the grist. The issue is not because of diastatic issues, but because malting helps break down the structure of the grain thus allowing access of the enzymes to the starch granules which otherwise remain tightly glued up together. A whole host of other beneficial reactions take place too which develop flavour.

 

[TimT]

I sometimes find it interesting how folks really get into the DIY side when it comes to some parts of the brewing process - all grain mashing, fermentation fridges, etc - but take a step back from other things, like malting! Part of the fun of it I think is working out how to do all this stuff at home for yourself.