BANFF, Alta. – Bad grain can ruin good beer.
For brewers like Westcan Malting at Alix, Alta., fusarium infections affect grain’s germination and brewing abilities, yield and taste.
“Poor starting products make inferior beer,” said Richard Joy, who is in charge of quality control at Westcan.
He told a pest management conference in Banff that Westcan has tested its barley samples for deoynivalenol and vomitoxin for the last three years and haven’t found any.
Fusarium infection has been linked to several brewing problems.
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It can create an off-flavour in malt and beer. Yeast does not work properly, resulting in premature flocculation, where the yeast may drop out of the solution before it has finished growing.
The kilning process kills the fungus, but not the mycotoxins that can slow or stop yeast growth and cause poor flavour.
Gushing in finished beer is another fusarium-related problem. When a bottle is opened, the beer foams up and spills over the top.
Brewers are looking for numerous ways to sidestep fusarium problems.
Barley is washed at malting time to remove pesticides, fungicides and fusarium. Some European brewers have attempted to counteract the fungus with other chemicals, but often the results are unsatisfactory.
Fusarium has been known since the turn of the century.
Wheat in the Midwestern United States and eastern Canada have been hardest hit.
Only minimal traces have been discovered in Alberta, where fusarium has been declared a pest.
Six row barley, used mainly by American brewers, has suffered the most from fusarium. It can spread quickly in wet, warm weather. Some suspect that minimum tillage practices encourage its survival because fusarium spores live in crop residue.
