Forty-nine malting barley varieties were tested at 3 and 8 weeks after harvest, stored in natural glasshouse so as to investigate varietal variation of germinative energy(GE), capacity(GC) and water sensitivity(WS). The differences among GE, GC, promptness index(PI), and WS on paper at two moisture levels (4$mell$ and 8$mell$ tests) were great at 3 weeks after harvest, but small at 8 weeks after harvest. Excess water depressed the germination of dormant grains. The GE of whole varieties were excellent, but WS of only two varieties, CI 12062 and CI 15631 were bad at 8 weeks after harvest. So in the case of broad germplasm to be used for crossing materials, it is suggested that WS will be tested to screen good quality malting lines. WS was highly significantly correlated with GE, GC, and PI of 8 ml test, but was not with three factors of 4 $mell$ test. GE and WS were various with storage period, varieties and grain plumpness, indicated that breeding good grain-filling varieties and improving production practice for good grain-filling would be studied in the future.