Category:Barley

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Barley is the primary grain used in brewing. This article discusses the characteristics of barley relevant to brewing; for more general information on barley, see Wikipedia:Barley.


Importance of barley to brewing

Barley is the grain most closely associated with brewing, as well as one of the earliest crops domesticated in the Near East, facts which some have speculated may be related. The bulk of most modern grain bills consists of some sort of malted barley.


Barley cultivation

Barley is sometimes grown by adventurous homebrewer-gardeners, although it is much less common than home hop cultivation.


Types of barley

Two-row versus six-row barley

The barley plant comes in two types: "two-row" and "six-row", differentiated by the number of kernel rows in the barley head. There is also "four-row" barley, but for brewing purposes it is identical to six-row and "four-row" is not encountered as a brewing term.


Two-row barley is the older form of barley, closely related to wild barley. It is the traditional European brewing barley and used as a base malt in most traditional European beer styles.


Six-row barley is more common in American brewing. It is higher in protein and enzymes than two-row, and so has traditionally been used in combination with maize, rice, or other adjuncts.


Malted versus unmalted barley

Unlike many other brewing grains, barley is almost always used in its malted form, since malting develops the enzymes needed to convert barley's starch to sugar. Unmalted barley is sometimes used in brewing as well, especially in the form of roasted barley.


Types of barley available to brewers

See below for details on specific types of barley malt and other barley preparations available to home brewers.


Pages in category "Barley"

The following 12 pages are in this category, out of 12 total.

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