What Is Barley, Realy?

[DKS]

Hi all
I spoke to LHBS this arvo about barley. Basicly wanted to know what is 2 row ,( = lager Right?), six row, pils, caramalt etc ect very confusing when too much info all at once for me.( bear of little brain you know.)
LHBS gave me a web address but it is just a search engine and I couldnt make links. I am not a computer wiz and was left floundering after a half hour or so.
Question is, does anyone have a site address where I can find out about the barley plant? Are there different variaties like wheat? or is barley barley and thats what you get? or where different malts come from off the same plant? Pictures of crops, many questions, surely there must be a web site from a uni or ag company with all the answers.
Gurus any clues where to find a laymans guide? :icon_cheers:
Daz

 

[Frank]

Try Wikipedia.
Once in there do a search on Malt, Beer, Brewing etc.
This should give you a basic overview.

 

[Bribie G]

Try Wikipedia.
Once in there do a search on Malt, Beer, Brewing etc.
This should give you a basic overview.

Generally the barley we use is two row, which includes British 'ale' barley and European 'lager' barley. As you will see in Wiki, six row barley is mainly restricted to the Americas, it is very high protein and has resulted in them using large amounts of adjucts such as rice to utilise proteins during mashing to avoid hazes etc.

Edit: Carapils etc is a very useful USA invention and I would guess that, therefore, it is six row barley. However being 'pre mashed' the end result should not result in unwanted proteins etc in your brew.

Other pre mashed malt grains such as crystal have been around since my Great Grandad was a lad and would no doubt be from two row stock.

 

[Josh]

John Palmer gives some good information in Chapter 12 of How To Brew.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

There are many varieties of barley, most end up as stock feed, but the low protein grown barley ends up as malting barley. And this gets a premium price for the farmer.

Australian grown malt barley is 2 row, feed barley is 6 row. 2 row is a summer barley, 6 row is winter barley



http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=13203

 

[MHB]

Barley is a member of the grass family, as are wheat, oats, rye, rice and a bunch of others.

There are a couple of reasons we use barley to brew, it has a husk that allows filtration of the mash and the gelatinization temperature is lower than the temperature that kills the enzymes we need to mash.

These two factors have made it the cereal of choice for at least the last 10 thousand years. Now days we could easily make beer from other grains (in-fact we do i.e. Saki) or a mixture of barley and other grain like wheat, rye and rice.

In large part barley is here to stay because we have gotten used to the taste of barley based beers and its easier to brew with barley than any other grain.

I think you will find that all the malt sold in Australia is 2 row barley (in spite of what it says on the Pigs Fly packaging). That includes all the Crystal, CaraMalt (German Crystal) and other modified malt/grain available.

Barley is just a big seeded grass but a dam useful one.

MHB