How to Grow Grain for Malt

For a home brewer, growing your own grain will add to the experience of creating your own custom beer. Barley is the grain used for malting in beer. When selecting seed, always select a malting barley seed if you can find it. Two-row barley is higher starch while six-row is lower starch, so pick the one that will result in the beer you want to create. If you cannot find specialty malting barley seeds, the whole grain barley from a health food store will work.

Compost
Lime
Tiller
Rake
Garden hoe

Instructions

- 1
  Cover the soil site with 3 to 4 inches of organic compost, as well as any lime necessary to amend your soil's pH, which should be 6.0 or higher. Turn the amendments into the soil at a depth of 12 inches with a tiller the fall before you are going to plant the barley.
- 2
  Turn the soil again in the spring, after the last frost has passed and the soil is soft enough to be worked. Use the tiller and loosen the soil to a depth of 8 to 10 inches. Rake the surface so it is even.
- 3
  Place one seed by hand every inch in the rows. Space the rows six inches apart. Rake the soil over the seeds lightly to increase soil to seed contact. Water until the soil settles.
- 4
  Pull by hand or hoe any weeds that appear in the spaces between the rows. If you have two-row barley, water once a week when the heads appear to help the barley produce plumper grain. Six-row barley should not need supplemental watering after planting unless you have a drought.
- 5
  Harvest after 90 days. The barley will be a golden brown and feel brittle when you bend it.

When to Pick Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas

How to Grow Comice Pears

Growing Edibles