First time on the board. Tried to think of a way to work up to my question. I may not even be in the right place. If that’s the case just tell me to GTFO. Here goes…
My daughter moved out of a rental house this week and told me to 'get anything I wanted out of the garage. It was all there when they moved in. I found 3 buckets . Two say 45 lbs pearled barley and the other says lentils. Company is Montana’s Best.
Do I have the mother of all grains sacred to man or do I have pig feed. Or neither. Thank you for wasting your time . Good day
Since neither are malted they won’t be able to be used exclusively to make beer, though you could use them as adjuncts if you boiled them to soften them first. I’d be concerned about their freshness.
For the most part you don’t have anything to get excited about, unless you are a big fan of soup.
Sounds like a prepper used to live in the house. 45lbs of pearled barley is a lot of soup. I generally only use 2 to 4 ounces in 2 gallons of soup. Good thing it lasts a long time.
Lentils and beans were used in beer to stretch grain resources before food purity laws mostly banned them. They are a starch source so they will convert in a mash but then you have lentil flavor in your beer. I wouldn’t but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t.
In addition to soup lentils are widely used in Indian food to make various dishes and bases for dishes. That’s a lot of lentils but as long as they stay dry they should last for a long time.
I’d have no problem using the pearled barley in beer but they also have a wider use than soup. Barley makes a great substitute for rice in dishes. Pearled barley makes a great risotto and it is more forgiving than rice to get a good texture because it doesn’t turn to mush like rice if you cook it too long.
