Is Barley or Wheat Better for Brewing Beer? Key Points of High-Yield Cultivation Techniques for High-Quality Malting Barley
Beer is the oldest alcoholic beverage of mankind and the third most consumed beverage in the world after water and tea. Beer was introduced into China in the early 20th century and is a foreign type of liquor.So, is barley or wheat better for brewing beer? What are the key points of high-yield cultivation techniques for high-quality malting barley?
Is barley or wheat better for brewing beer?
When it comes to taste, barley beer should be the better-tasting one. Barley has the effects of boosting qi, soothing the middle burner, and aiding digestion, and helps with digestion, calming the stomach and quenching thirst, and relieving thirst and clearing heat. High-end beers are almost all made from barley.
However, in terms of nutrition, wheat beer has higher nutritional value. Wheat is rich in starch, contains more protein, a small amount of fat, various mineral elements and vitamin B. Wheat beer is cheap, but its taste is slightly inferior!
Knowledge extension:
Ordinary beer is brewed with barley malt as the main raw material, rice as the starchy auxiliary material, and hops added, undergoing liquid gelatinization and saccharification, and then liquid fermentation. Its alcohol content is relatively low, it contains carbon dioxide, and it is rich in nutrients. It contains various amino acids, vitamins, low-molecular sugars, inorganic salts and various enzymes. These nutrients are easily absorbed and utilized by the human body.
Wheat beer -- beer brewed with wheat malt as the main raw material (accounting for more than 40% of the total raw materials), using top fermentation or bottom fermentation. “Wheat beer” is a highly distinctive and charming product among beer styles and types, mainly produced in southern Germany, Austria and Belgium, using the “top fermentation method”, with raw materials being barley malt and more than 50% wheat malt, hops, yeast and water. “Wheat beer” also has another name called “white beer”, taken from the German word Weissbier, and in English it is called WhiteBeer. The most well-known representative of “white beer” is the “Berliner Weisse” produced in the Berlin region.
Attached: Key points of high-yield cultivation techniques for high-quality malting barley
1. Actively promote improved varieties of high-quality malting barley and carry out rational layout
Select high-yield, high-quality, cold-resistant, early-maturing and disease-resistant varieties suitable for local cultivation: “S500”, “83055”, “83023”, “Rudong No. 7” and “Xiumai No. 3”. And adapt measures to local conditions and carry out a rational layout. In the Shaxi and Jinhua dam areas, the high-quality, high-yield improved malting barley varieties “S500” and “Xiumai No. 3” should be vigorously promoted. In relatively cool areas such as Yangcen, Shanglan and Madeng Town, varieties such as “83055”, “83023”, “Rudong No. 7” and “Xiumai No. 3” are suitable for promotion.
2. Strict seed treatment
Select high-quality seeds of fine varieties. Before sowing, fully sun-dry the seeds and winnow them clean to improve seed germination vigor, and use “Fenxiuning” to dress the seeds at three-thousandths of the seed weight to prevent the spread and harm of seed-borne fungal diseases.
3. Seize the farming season and sow at the right time
According to production experience, the best sowing period in the main malting barley promotion areas is from late October to early November. In relatively cool mountainous areas and dryland wheat areas, it may be appropriately advanced to mid-to-late October, seizing the favorable opportunity before the rainy season has ended and while soil moisture is good to sow while there is sufficient moisture. Sowing within this period can place all growth stages of barley under favorable light and temperature conditions, resulting in robust growth, sufficient ears, large ears, many grains, heavy grains, and a bumper harvest. Otherwise, sowing too early makes it vulnerable to low temperatures and frost damage, causing large yield losses; sowing too late results in insufficient growth before the end of the year, little accumulation of nutrients, an overly small population, poor stress resistance, small ears, few grains, and delayed maturity.
4. Fine tillage and standardized planting
It is necessary to grasp the suitable tillage period of the soil and promptly plow, turn and level the land well, implement intensive cultivation, and use a line to open furrows, striving to achieve level furrow surfaces, fine soil, straight furrows and level bottoms, ensuring smooth drainage and irrigation, and creating good soil conditions for barley with well-balanced soil, fertilizer, air and heat, ensuring seedlings are uniform, complete, even and strong, promoting root growth, and laying the foundation for strong seedlings, strong plants and enhanced stress resistance. General planting specifications: seven-chi furrow opening, six-chi furrow surface, drilling or dibbling.
5. Scientific fertilization and economical water use
Apply more organic fertilizer and nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers. It is required to apply 1000—1500 kg of high-quality farmyard manure, 20—25 kg of phosphate fertilizer (ordinary calcium superphosphate), and 10 kg of potassium fertilizer per mu as base fertilizer; apply 2—5 kg of urea as seed fertilizer; apply tillering fertilizer as appropriate according to seedling conditions, using 8—10 kg of urea per mu; apply 15—20 kg of urea per mu as jointing fertilizer. And in conjunction with the growth process, irrigate well the five waters of “emergence, tillering, jointing, heading and grain filling”, to promote complete, even, uniform and strong seedlings, control excessive growth in the middle stage, strengthen stems and ears, maintain clean and healthy growth in the late stage, and prevent premature senescence or excessive vegetative growth and late maturity.
6. Rational close planting to promote coordinated development of population and individual plants
Malting barley has fewer grains per ear, so it must rely on more ears to win, and more ears to achieve high yield, and the starting point of the population needs to be relatively high. All localities should determine the appropriate sowing rate according to the thousand-grain weight of the barley variety, land preparation quality and fertility. Generally, the sowing rate per mu for “S500” and “Xiumai No. 3” should be 20—25 kg. For “Rudong No. 7”, “83055” and “83203”, 25—30 kg is appropriate. For individual fields where the soil is excessively sticky and heavy and land preparation quality is poor, the sowing rate may be appropriately increased. The basic seedlings should be required to be around 250,000—300,000 seedlings, and the effective ears 700,000—800,000 ears, ensuring coordinated development of the population and individual plants.
7. Strengthen the control of diseases, insect pests and weeds
The currently promoted fine malting barley varieties have strong disease resistance and generally suffer less disease, but throughout the entire growth period frequent inspection is needed, and aphid control work should be done promptly. Control threshold: when the aphid incidence reaches 15—20% and the number of aphids per plant reaches more than 5, spray with 40% dimethoate at 800—1000 times dilution for control. Weeds: use the herbicide “chlortoluron” at 400 g/mu, and after sowing when weeds are at the one-leaf-one-heart stage, dilute with water and spray over the whole field. After barley closes its rows, weeds cause less harm under a relatively large population. If a small amount of weeds occurs, manual weeding may be used to enhance field ventilation and light transmission, reducing losses from diseases, insect pests and weeds to the lowest degree.
8. Timely harvest for a bumper harvest with high quality
When malting barley is harvested from the late dough stage to the full ripe stage, the grain appearance quality is good, the color is bright, it has a fresh fragrance, and the brewing quality is excellent. Timely harvesting work should be carried out well to achieve the goal of harvesting at nine-tenths yellow and ten-tenths ripe, with high yield and excellent quality.