Barley Ahoy!
Yesterday was a big day here in the sticks. I found a place that sells barley! It struck me when I was looking for info on the net and found the wikipedia entry for barley. Most of the barley in the world is grown for animal feed. Wow, what a concept. I went to the feed place a few km down the road and sure enough, two-row BARLEY! There was also wheat (trigo), oats and much more.
The funny part was when the guy there asked me "How many cocks do you have, Sir?" I said, "Uh...what?" He thought I was going to use the barley to feed my fighting cocks. I explained that barley was the main ingredient in cerbeza. Ah, he understands now. After all, you can't have a cock fight without beer.
So I ended up with 6kg in bag. I expect this 6 kilos to yield about 5 kilos when malted. Five kilos of malted barley is worth about $15 plus shipping. The raw barley is about 10 cents a pound or about $1.30 all up.
I started the soaking last night and the barley is swollen to almost twice the size already. I am soaking for 8 hours and then air resting for 1 to 2 hours. Soaking will be done tomorrow and then we'll start the germination phase.
Also, if anyone is looking for a 0ºC to 100ºC thermometer, labratory grade, they have them at Mercury Drugs for P170.
Gotta work na.
