|
|
 |
|
|
KNYSNA
BREWERY |
|
| |
|
|
Article of the month: December 2005 |
| |
|
BARLEY MALT |
 |
Barley
(Hordeum vulgare) is a major food and animal feed
crop, a member of the grass family Poaceae. Barley is
the fifth largest cultivated cereal crop in the world
(570,000 kmē). Its germination time is anywhere from 1-3
days. |
|
History
Cultivated barley is
descended from Wild Barley (Hordeum spontaneum),
which still can be found in the Middle East. Both luder
forms are diploid (2n=14 chromosomes). All variants of
barley produce viable seed when crossed and are thus
considered to belong to one and the same species today.
The major difference between wild and domesticated
barley is the brittle rachis of the former, which is
conducive to self-propagation.
|
|
The earliest
finds of barley come from Epi-Paleolithic sites in
the Levant, beginning in the Natufian. The first
domesticated barley has been found in the aceramic
neolithic layers (PPN B) of Tell Abu Hureyra in
Syria. The domestication seems to be contemporaneous
to that of wheat. |
 |
|
|
Barley, seen as an
ancient and central gift of the earth, had ritual
significance, probably from the earliest stages of the
Eleusinian Mysteries. The preparatory kykeon or
mixed drink of the initiates, prepared from barley and
herbs, was referred to in the Homeric hymn to Demeter,
who was also called "Barley-mother".Greek practice was
to dry the barley groats and roast them before preparing
the porridge, according to Pliny the Elder's Natural
History (xviii.72). This produces a malt that soon
ferments and becomes slightly alcoholic. |
 |
Cultivars
Barley
Barley may be
divided into two major cultivar groups, fall and
spring, to which may be added a bastard variety
called bear or bigg, which affords similar nutriment
or substance, though of inferior quality. The spring
is cultivated like oats; the fall, like fall wheat.
|
|
|
Early barley,
under various names, was formerly sown in Britain upon
lands that had been previously summer-fallowed, or were
in high condition. |
|
The most proper
seed season for spring barley is any time in March or
April, though good crops have been produced by seeds
sown at a much later period.
Barley can be divided by
the number of kernel rows in the head. Three species
have been cultivated; two-row barley (Hordeum
distichum), four-row (Hordeum tetrastichum L.
and six-row barley (Hordeum vulgare) according to
the traditional terminology. In two-row barley only one
flower is fertile, two in the four-row variety, in the
six-row variety all three; modern barley growing largely
uses H. vulgare.
Two-row barley is the
oldest form, wild barley having two rows as well.
Two-row barley has a lower protein content than six-row
barley but a higher enzyme content. High protein barley
is best suited for animal feed or malt that has a large
adjunct content. Two-row barley is best suited for pure
malts. Four-row is unsuitable for brewing.
There are naked and
hulled barleys, the hulled barleys being the older
forms.
Barley is widely
adaptable and is currently a major crop of the temperate
and tropical areas |
|
Production |
|
|
|
Major barley
producers are : |
|
|
|
Russia |
72,000 kmē |
 |
|
Canada |
45,000 kmē |
|
Ukraine |
37,000 kmē |
|
Turkey |
36,000 kmē |
|
Spain |
33,000 kmē |
|
Australia |
30,000 kmē |
|
Morocco |
23,000 kmē |
|
USA |
21,000 kmē |
|
Iraq |
12,000 kmē |
|
Iran |
10,000 kmē |
|
|
Oats, barley, and
some products made from them.
Barley is a staple food for
humans and other animals. It is more tolerant of salts
than wheat, which might explain the increase of barley
cultivation on Mesopotamia from the 2nd Millennium BC
onwards. Barley can still thrive in conditions that are
too cold even for rye.
Malting barley is a key
ingredient in beer and whiskey production.
The 1881 Household
Cyclopedia adds:
Next to wheat the most
valuable grain is barley, especially on light and sharp
soils. It is a tender grain and easily hurt in any of
the stages of its growth, particularly at seed time; a
heavy shower of rain will then almost ruin a crop on the
best prepared land; and in all the after processes
greater pains and attention are required to ensure
success than in the case of other grains. The harvest
process is difficult, and often attended with danger;
even the threshing of it is not easily executed with
machines, because the awn generally adheres to the
grain, and renders separation from the straw a
troublesome task. Barley, in fact, is raised at greater
expense than wheat, and generally speaking is a more
hazardous crop. Except upon rich and genial soils, where
climate will allow wheat to be perfectly reared, it
ought not to be cultivated. |
 |
Uses
Preparation of ground
Barley is chiefly
taken after turnips, sometimes after peas and beans,
but rarely by good farmers either after wheat or
oats, unless under special circumstances. When sown
after turnips it is generally taken with one furrow,
which is given as fast as the turnips areconsumed,
the ground thus receiving much benefit from
|
|
|
the spring frosts
But often two, or more furrows are necessary for the
fields last consumed, because when a spring drought sets
in, the surface, from being poached by the removal or
consumption of the crop, gets so hardened as to render a
greater quantity of ploughing, harrowing and rolling
necessary than would otherwise be called for. When sown
after beans and peas, one winter and one spring
ploughing are usually bestowed: but when after wheat or
oats, three ploughings are necessary, so that the ground
may be put in proper condition. These operations are
very ticklish in a wet and backward season, and rarely
in that case is the grower paid for the expense of his
labor. Where land is in such a situation as to require
three ploughings before it can be seeded with barley, it
is better to summer-fallow it at once than to run the
risks which seldom fail to accompany a quantity of
spring labor. If the weather be dry, moisture is lost
during the different processes, and an imperfect braird
necessarily follows; if it be wet the benefit of
ploughing is lost, and all the evils of a wet seed time
are sustained by the future crop. |
|
The quantity
sown is different in different cases, according to
the quality of the soil and other circumstances.
Upon very rich lands eight pecks per acre [110
kg/ha] are sometimes sown; twelve [160 kg/ha] is
very common, and upon poor land more is sometimes
given. |
 |
| By good
judges a quantity of seed is sown sufficient to
ensure a full crop, without depending on its sending
out offsets; indeed, where that is done few offsets
are produced, the crop grows and ripens equally, and
the grain is uniformly good. The small bristles on
the top of the barley are called 'awn' |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
