Brewing beer the hard way: Part 6 More Harvesting

My blog: http://brewingbeerthehardway.wordpress.com/
Here's some more information on growing barley for brewing including expected yields, and soil conditions. My final yields were 20 lbs of Robust six row barley from 200 sq ft. and 5 lbs Harrington two row from 80 sq ft. That will make 1 bottle of beer for every 2.5 sq. ft of garden. Here's the link to the book The Homebrewer's Garden: http://www.amazon.com/Homebrewers-Garden-Easily-Prepare-Brewing/dp/1580170102...

Category:

Education

Tags:

• growing barley
• planting barley
• malting barley
• home brewing
• brewing beer
• beer
• harvesting barley by hand
• gardening
• allotment garden
• community garden

[backyardsounds]

No no! These are great! I think 10-15 would be perfect. You're actually showing some useful gardening and of course the beer making videos.

I'm attempting to brew a very low alcohol beer from kefir grains right now. The bacteria convert a lot of the sugar but make little alcohol. Basically, I'm shooting for what ancient Mesopotamia might have drunk. I guess I should have excluded the hops though ;) Maybe next batch.

[francois4050]

@backyardsounds Interesting, is it sour?

[backyardsounds]

@francois4050 Oddly enough, I checked on the bottle today and the strained pure water kefir (without grains mind you) has transformed to a lot of yeast and new grains in the bottle. My wife and I are perplexed. I've obviously stumbled on something here. The beer smells great, slightly sour but very beer'y. I'll make a video on this and see if we can't find some food scientist tell me what's happening.

[francois4050]

@backyardsounds Please do, it sounds like it could be a low alcohol variation of a lambic beer but with different bacteria.

[backyardsounds]

@francois4050 - Thank you so very much for posting this. This is a very interesting string of videos and I have enjoyed them thoroughly. I wish though that they were all together. Did you do this to shorten it up? Anyway, great stuff! This could be great educational videos for kids too...I mean, barley isn't just for beer. I just started experimenting with brewing. It's so much fun.

[francois4050]

@backyardsounds Thanks for the kind words! I tried to keep the videos short so they're not too boring. For more details and to see all the videos check out my blog.

[Rhacman]

Cool video. I wonder if there might be a way to rig a small hopper or lightweight bag on a hedge trimmer to help streamline the harvesting process. Or maybe cut grooves into a plastic dustpan and use the trimmers to cut the heads as they slide into the grooves emptying into a bin or basket every so often.