When making malt, the endosperm is hydrated during steeping to make stored starch available for extraction. Differences in steep regime impact malt quality. Differences in malt quality results between the United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) and Montana State University (MSU) malt quality laboratories are primarily due to differences in steep regime and are reported herein. Evidence suggests that differences in steep regime in this study were primarily due to length of water immersion versus air rests, rather than other differences (e.g., temperature of steep, sorting of seed, or length of germination). The difference in steep regime caused a difference in the level of endosperm modification. To confirm this finding, three different steep regimes on seven different lines were tested and it was found that the impact on quality varied depending on the trait and in some cases on the genotype. The steep regime was found to have affected both moisture uptake and quality of hydration. Finally, the implications of these findings on malt quality analysis and breeding for malt quality are discussed.