ROSETOWN, Sask. – Kenzo Taniuchi looked closely at the Harrington barley and shook his head.
The most common malting barley grown in Canada had a red tinge to the beards and he was worried.
“Japanese brewers don’t like red color,” said Taniuchi, a malting engineer from Suntory Limited, one of Japan’s largest brewing houses.
Taniuchi equates red with fusarium, a disease which can ruin a barley field and a good batch of beer. “To Japanese brewers red color is a no no.”
That’s when Steve Schroeder of the Canadian Grain Commission hastily explained the red beards are just an identifying mark of Harrington barley and don’t taint the beer.
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Satisfied, Taniuchi moved on to the plot of Manley, a malting variety increasing in popularity because of its resistance to net blotch, a barley disease, and its higher yields.
Harrington still accounts for 65 percent of the malting acres in Canada, but Manley has increased to 30 percent.
And if Manley is going to become the barley of choice for Canadian farmers, Taniuchi said he wants a good look at the variety his company may use in the future.
Taniuchi and Schroeder were two participants on a Canadian Wheat Board and Canadian International Grains Institute malting barley program and tour.
During the first few days of the two-week session, representatives of Canada’s malting barley customers received lectures, laboratory demonstrations and instruction in malt production, handling, transportation and processing. The group then left the Winnipeg classrooms for a tour of prairie malting facilities, grain plots and farms.
It’s a perfect opportunity for local farmers to meet buyers from around the world, said Gordon Machej, Canadian Wheat Board commissioner. “The tour is a link between farmers and our oversees customers.”
During the plot tour near Rosetown, Sask., where about half of Canada’s malting barley is produced, Korean brewery representatives Hong Man Kim and Hyeon Soon Kang were looking closely at the six-row.
“In Korea only two-row barley is used,” said Kang, section chief of the purchasing department of Chosun Brewery.
Korean breweries prefer the light color that two-row barley produces in beer, he said. Six-row barley is only used for food.
Korea imported 70,000 tonnes of malting barley last year, about half of it from Canada. Limited supplies from Australia, due to the drought, made Korea a bigger Canadian customer. Half of the 40,000 tonnes of malt imported last year also came from Canada.
Harrington big in Korea
Most of the barley was Harrington, said Kim, section chief of the quality control department of the Oriental Brewery Company. “It has many very high qualities,” he said.
Most people on the tour were customers or potential customers of the Canadian Wheat Board, said market analyst Michael Brophy, of the wheat board.
This year Canada exported 1.5 million tonnes of malting barley, up from 800,000 tonnes the previous year.
Brophy said the tour reinforces the positive view customers already have of Canadian malt and Canadian malting barley.
“It’s our job to convince our customers we are going to be prime producers of quality malting barley in the world.”
Dale Alderson, one of the tour organizers, said the trip provided opportunities for farmers and plant breeders to talk with brewmasters over a barbecue and beer.
“It brings real customers to the producers,” he said.
And Lee Pearce, a farmer from Harris, Sask., said the tour convinced him to maintain an emphasis on quality.
“We’ve changed our practice to strive for higher quality grain.”
