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Barley is one of the top five cereal grains in the world. Not much of it is used as human food though, only ten percent. Most of the barley in the world is used to feed livestock. Like most grains barley can be used for many things. Most barley used in cooking is put into soup and it is the pearl barley. This type of barley has been processed to remove the two outer hulls and the result is uniformly sized ivory grains. The flavor of the pearl barley is mild and nutty. You can put into your favorite vegetable or minestrone recipe. It cooks in 30 to 45 minutes, unless you use the quick barley which has been steamed and dried, it will cook in less than 15 minutes. A third of the barley used for human consumption is made into malt liquor or wine. Barley wine is actually thought of as a type of beer. One of the differences between beer and barley wine is that the wine can be store and enjoyed years after being made, gaining a new flavor with aging, like fine wine. Barley wine was known as stock, old or strong ale until 1903. The flavor of barley wine is different with every different brewer. Modern brewing techniques and style allow brewers to alleviate some of the problems associated with strong beers of the past without sacrificing taste. Modified malt and controlled brewing makes it possible to fine tune barley wine and come up with a consistent flavor. The brewers also carefully select the yeast used to prevent too much sweetness. Also the use of modern day stainless steel fermenting tanks prevents bacterial contamination. The use of hops keeps the malt flavor balanced and as mentioned before aging isn't a problem with barley wine, but an advantage. Barley wine is usually deep amber in color which they get from pale malts used in high quantity and boiled for prolonged times. The prolonged boiling not only gives it it's darker color, but it also adds to the complexity and depth of its flavor. So if you've always thought of barley as a livestock grain, you know differently now. Maybe now you would like to sample some barley wines. Since most breweries make their own version there is a lot of different ones to choose from. The great thing with barley wine is not only can you taste a difference from brewery to brewery, called horizontal sampling. You can also do some vertical sampling, which is sampling the different vintages of the same brew.

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Sturat enjoys writing articles on topics like how to cook barley and how to make wine. For more information you can visit us. Visit Cooking Barley and Some Facts about Barley Wine.