Experimental Two Row Barley Line

Most of the barley lines we test are six rowed barley, mostly used in the feed industy.  This year one of the experimental lines in our test is a two row winter barley called VA09H-1102R.  It will be interesting to see how this barley performs in our climate. 

Occassionally I get a request for a barley that would be good for beer making.  Mostly, as I understand it, western two row spring malting barleys are the desired barley for beer making. At least one guy has tried some of the six row barleys for beer making, apparently with mixed success.

When I first saw the two row barley, I thought perhaps my colleagues at Virginia Tech were looking at this potential use..but they have gone beyond that in value added..  I did a little searching and found that there is already a whiskey made from Virginia "Thoroughbred barley' and according to this press release, the Tech researchers are working on developing these two row barleys for the distillery industry.

In any case, it will be interesting to see how the yield and grain quality of this hulled lines compares to some of the industry standard varieties for these and some of our more traditional uses..