Brewed with the best
Barley varieties supply world beer market

July 11, 2008

By Mark Ferguson

Standing in the agriculture test field, barley expert Brian Rossnagel holds two plants in his hands. Although the two distinct barley plants look similar, their properties are very different, and only one is used to make most of the world’s malt, the chief ingredient in beer.

The U of S Crop Development Centre (CDC) is known internationally for its field crop breeding work, including the production of barley. Rossnagel alone has been involved in breeding  more than 80 varieties in his career, including seven new ones this year.

“It’s the kind of thing that, back in the day, a half-dozen varieties was a good career,” says Rossnagel. “But thanks to computers, small plot equipment and biotechnology, independent plant breeders can cover a lot more ground than they used to.”

Looking closely at the two plants in his hands, Rossnagel points out one main difference – one is six-row barley and the other is two-row. Since the two-row variety is typically uniform in size and shape, it’s easier to make into malt. Six-row is more likely to be used as feed, with one notable exception.

“Every brewery in the world uses two-row barley,” says Rossnagel, “except Anheuser Busch. They use six-row.”

The king of beers might be out of step, but two-row barley bred in Saskatoon is used to make beer around the world, including in the Far East.

Sapporo Breweries is among the largest beer manufacturers in Japan and a well-known name in Asian and Japanese restaurants worldwide. Through a joint partnership between Sapporo and the CDC, a brand new variety of barley was produced exclusively for the beer company’s private use.

“We started the breeding program with the U of S to improve the quality of Canadian barley and realize the ideal quality of our beer,” says Takehiro Hoki, a barley breeder with Sapporo Breweries. “We decided to start malting barley breeding in some main malt exporting countries because there were some problems and dissatisfactions in quality of imported malt to brew our products for Japanese customers.”

Last year, Hoki spent two months in Saskatoon as part of the joint partnership that dates back to 1994. Until now, Sapporo has relied on a variety of barley known as CDC Kendall for their most popular beer product called Black Label, as well as for other products. Their new, exclusive variety is known to breeders as TR06918—a “lox-less” variety— but for the average beer drinker, this means it produces a fresher tasting malt and a better shelf life. Hoki expects this line to replace their normal varieties of barley in the coming years.

But with money invested privately, the barley bred by the university for Sapporo is not available to the general public.

“Some people don’t like that we do work not available publicly,” says Rossnagel. “They are worried specific groups can’t afford to invest in the background research.”

Rossnagel  isn’t too concerned about this, however, since his breeding program is constantly producing new varieties of barley used by the public.

Our barley is in the global beer market…from barley to bottle, the lab to the shelves…”