Grain growers need to keep their malting barley alive and segregated this harvest if it is intended to make beer, according to Department of Agriculture barley industry development officer Roslyn Jettner.

Ms Jettner said only barley that was living and of a classified malting variety could be used for beer.

“Barley destined for the brewing industry must first be malted which involves the uniform, controlled germination of the grain,” Ms Jettner said.

“With malting barley being the only grain that needs to be living, and with growers preparing for a large harvest, we need to pay particular attention to how the barley is harvested, moved and stored to ensure that it remains viable.”

Ms Jettner said malting barley would often be one of the first crops to ripen, especially when sown early, and timely harvest was critical to maintaining viability. 

“By harvesting as soon as the grain is at a moisture content that can be delivered, losses in quality and yield are reduced by minimising skinnings, weather damage and head drop,” she said.

“Swathing of crops may be beneficial in reducing losses from head drop or lodging of thick crops, however, swaths must be picked up as soon as they are dry and be free of stones, sand and beetles.”

Maltsters need barley with a complete husk to protect the embryo during handling. Excessive movement of the grain or over-threshing at harvest could cause skinning of the husk. 

“We recommend leaving 3-5 mm of awn on the grain at harvest to minimise damage to the husk,” Ms Jettner said.

She said each malting barley variety would process differently in the malthouse and, therefore, varieties must be segregated at harvest.

The new barley varieties Baudin and Hamelin must also be segregated, even though they may be grown as replacements for Gairdner and Stirling respectively.

“It is critical that all malting barley varieties are correctly declared and delivered to the right stack that holds only that variety.  Feed barley is the only grade where multiple varieties are allowed into a stack of barley,” she said.

Ms Jettner said the premium paid for malting over feed barley this year was smaller than in previous seasons.

She advised growers to re-check the economics of post- harvest operations such as grading, cleaning, swathing and grain drying to determine if there was sufficient profit to be gained by reducing quality defects to meet malting specifications.