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Monitoring a Commercial Barley Store in the North of England and Comparison with a Computer Simulation of Germination
Author(s) -
Woods J. Lyn,
McCallum Duncan J.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of the institute of brewing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.523
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 2050-0416
pISSN - 0046-9750
DOI - 10.1002/j.2050-0416.2000.tb00532.x
Subject(s) - germination , agronomy , agricultural engineering , computer science , environmental science , biology , engineering
The temperature, moisture and germination variations in a commercial barley store were monitored over two seasons. Initial mean temperatures of 49 and 46°C were observed. These were higher than the safe temperatures for germination predicted by the computer simulation, but still produced maltable barley. This suggested that the model was too conservative. During cooling the air was heated and the bed dried by an average of 1.5%. This ‘dryeration’ effect helped the barley to withstand the higher temperatures. Differential fan control and off‐peak running were tested and the higher 6°C differential control was shown to reduce rewetting. However, lower and more uniform temperatures were achieved with a 2°C differential. The downward flow system was essential to avoid condensation and did not pose any other serious problems. Some of the maltsters' reservations regarding cooling below 15°C, due to concerns over secondary dormancy and reheating to steep temperatures, should be alleviated by this work. Given the range of fan control options that still need to be investigated, computer simulation of the cooling, drying and germination in storage is recommended as a lower cost option than commercial testing.