Malting Barley In Mexico

Dirty grains

I've started the process to malt some barley that I located at a feed store here in San Miguel. This is part of an experiment to see if I can somehow create beer out of the local materials at hand. This stuff looks pretty rough with a lot of dead grain and chaff. There is also quite a bit of large foreign grass that looks like straw in addition to many black and red beans.

After the first of many washings

To start, I placed five kilos of the barley in a bucket and filled it with water, agitating the grain as I filled. I discovered the grain was very dirty as evidenced by the grey water. With the bucket full to the rim I skimmed off about half a pound of loose, floating material to discard. I repeated this process several times until all of the waste material was gone, the water ran clear and the viable barley was setting nicely at the bottom of the water filled bucket.


I have placed the bucket in a cool closet and will drain the water in about eight hours. The drained grain will set for eight hours and then the process will repeat for a couple days. At that point there should be evidence of growth in the form of chits (root growth).

Rinsed Grains finally clean

As you recall from a previous post here, I have a resource for malted barley out of Mexico City but of course I want to see about getting it cheaper (this 5 kilos of raw barley was 20 pesos or the U.S. equivelant of $1.75) and more importantly to confirm whether I can produce my own or not and to experience the process as I try.