Growing Barley

[Polcho]

I had about 150 square feet of space left at the allotment this year. So I’ve put some Barley in, just to see if I can brew something from scratch.

It’s a new two row variety called Diablo. I’ll keep you guys informed, assuming the woodies don’t scoff the lot!

 

[Cwrw666]

Now that's real AG brewing!

 

[StJayJay]

That is cool, look forward to the updates. What sort of yield would you expect if it grows to its potential?

 

[Clint]

Providing the pigeons don't get it,I wonder what the potential yield is?
Have you got a maltster who will convert smaller amounts?

 

[Clint]

53 bushels per acre...one bushel is 48 pounds...
Info from a quick Google...
Also it needs planting at 96 to 120 pounds per acre..
I'm sure someone who actually knows about this will be along soon...

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Check out Growing Beer (as was) - Ben Richards made beer entirely from his allotment, including yeast : Series 1 – Growing Beer – Beer with Ben

 

[Polcho]

Well to answer those questions, it needs about 1.7g of seed per square foot. It’s quite difficult to get proper seed in small quantities though.

So I should use 2.5kg. In the event I used about 3.5. I’m sure I’ll be topping up bald patches though. I brought 5Kg.

There is 2296 sq ft in an acre with the best average I can get at about 2544 Lbs. So it works out at 160 odd pounds.

I’m pretty sure I made a mistake along the way though. If anybody does know the yield per square foot, I would love to know. general consensus on the allotment is around five to ten pounds if I’m lucky. However, these are spud and sprouts folk, so who knows!

In terms of malting, the whole idea was to get a better understanding of the whole process, so I will be doing that myself. Like I say, I’m really only expecting a brews worth.

Hops, I planted three varieties a few weeks ago. They have just broken surface.

Yeast, from my wine making experience, I know a reasonable amount about yeast just generally. Now I’m starting to look into beer yeast.

There is no way in the world that, assuming I get to the point of having enough barley and hops to make a brew, that I will trusting to wild yeast just for the hell of it:hat:

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I'd be wary of any statistics quoted in pounds and acres as they're going to be from North America where yields tend to be less. Also the calculations are much easier in metric!

National average for UK spring barley is about 6 tonnes / hectare = 6000kg per 10,000m² = 600g/m².

150ft² = ~14m², so you're heading for about 8.4kg if you manage the same yield as the average intensively-farmed barley in the UK. Which you won't to be fair...

A lot depends on the state of your soil, you want to get spring barley off to a good start but don't want too much nitrogen in the finished grain so typically for malting you either add nitrogen fertiliser all at sowing, or half at sowing and half just as the stalk starts to form (after a couple of leaves have emerged). An appropriate fungicide regime can also boost yields by 20+%.

Somewhere around 350 seeds per m² is a typical seed rate for spring barley in commercial cultivation - you don't want more than 400, you end up crowding the plants so they produce smaller, less uniform grain. You should have a Thousand Grain Weight (TGW) quoted for your seed, which allows you to convert that to weight of seed, but you'll want somewhere in the ballpark of 20-30g/m² of seed. There's plenty of online calculators for that sort of thing, eg Thousand Grain Weight (TGW) Seed Calculator - Cope Seeds

Don't expect too many hops in your first year, but hopefully there will be a few so you can say you are brewing with your own hops.

 

[Polcho]

Brill, cheers.

 

[Polcho]

I might have overdone it. 25000 seeds per Kg.

 

[AXW123]

Really interested to know how this turns out. Well done to you for trying whatever happens

 

[Polcho]

Thanks, I will keep you all informed. I’ve started a video, I’ll stick it together, including the brewing, if it comes off.

 

[Polcho]

Well the barley started to sprout, in spite of the sub zero mornings for the past week or so.

Sadly, the pigeons had their fill. So soaked the remaining kilo of barley for half a day mid week and re seeded the bald spots.

I had some plastic on a roll in the shed left over from the poly tunnel covering. Just enough to cover it. I’m off in a bit to see what has occurred.

 

[chthon]

Pigeons, always a pest. And I live in a place where some people still breed pigeons.

 

[Polcho]

Well, this is what it looks like now. I might change it for netting, only needs to last long enough to take.

 

[Polcho]

This is how the Barley is looking as of yesterday.

 

[Polcho]

Hi everyone, well the barley grew!

I harvested it, threshed it and malted it.

I ended up with about five and a half pounds.

I have lots of photos and video clips. It will take me a while to put the video together, but I will gather the photos and get them on this pad to post if anybody is interested.

Just need to make the beer now!

 

[AXW123]

Really interested to see the process

 

[Polcho]

I have a kazillion photos and video clips to go through, so I have these just to show the growing process.
It looks like i've uploaded in reverse order, which is about right for me!

 

[Polcho]

I couldn't find a photo of the threshing.
I took a plastic dustbin and bashed about with a hoe.
It will all become cleaar in the video, at some point :-)