What Is Malting Barley? A Detailed Explanation in the Growing Classroom

Trait Requirements

Malting barley is the main raw material for brewing beer. In appearance, malting barley and feed barley do not differ much, but there are some special requirements for the traits and internal quality of the grain. The biggest difference is that the protein content of malting barley must not be too high, because high protein content reduces the solubility of the grain, makes the brewed beer prone to cloudiness, and shortens its shelf life. Feed barley, by contrast, requires the protein content to be as high as possible and good palatability.

Quality Characteristics

To make beer from malting barley, the grain must first be steeped to make it germinate. It is then kiln-dried, after which the malt rootlets are milled off to produce dry malt, which then undergoes complex processes such as mashing and fermentation before beer can be brewed. Malting barley is a typical grass crop that is salt-alkali tolerant, drought tolerant and highly adaptable. Under normal circumstances, it does not need artificial irrigation and can still achieve a good harvest relying only on natural precipitation.

Variety Selection

You can choose seeds that are high yielding, strongly disease resistant, strongly stress resistant, thin skinned, pale yellow in color, glossy, and free of musty or off odors. The suitable sowing period is around Frost's Descent, and a sowing rate of 8 kg per mu is appropriate.

Soil Environment

Malting barley is an early spring crop, suitable for growing under cold climatic conditions, and it adapts to a wide range of soils; both loam and light loam can be used for planting.

Suitable Regions

There are many suitable planting regions. The three provinces of Jiangsu, Gansu and Inner Mongolia are the main producing areas, with climatic advantages such as abundant sunlight and large temperature differences, making them suitable for large-scale planting of high-quality malting barley varieties; the Hexi Corridor in Gansu, because of its dry climate with many clear days and little rain, abundant sunshine, and irrigation from the snowmelt of the Qilian Mountains, is suitable for hops growth and is also one of the several major hop-growing regions distributed worldwide.