Bentley barley | Company plans to contract up to 30,000 tonnes of the malting variety in 2013
Canada’s largest malting company is taking Bentley on a test drive.
Calgary-based Canada Malting will contract 20,000 to 30,000 tonnes of Bentley barley in 2013.
Production will be in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
The malt will be tested with commercial brewers, who will determine whether the variety is well–suited for large scale commercial brewing.
The variety has already been through three years of plant-scale testing, said Brent Derkatch, director of operation and business development at Canterra Seeds.
The tests suggest that Bentley’s quality attributes are complementary to other commercially accepted malting barley varieties, he said.
Read Also
Canada’s plant hardiness zones receive update
The latest update to Canada’s plant hardiness zones and plant hardiness maps was released this summer.
Canterra has distribution rights for Bentley.
Canada’s four major malting companies buy one million tonnes of malting barley a year from Canadian barley growers.
Contracted Bentley production in 2013 will account for two percent of the Canadian malting industry’s 2013 requirements.
It’s a small portion of the market, but it’s a foot in the door nonetheless.
The variety could gain favour among commercial brewers if the Bentley test drive goes well and makes its way onto the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre’s recommended variety list.
Membership on that exclusive list is reserved for Canada’s best and most widely used barley varieties.
“As is the case with most new varieties that enter the malting side, there’s a bit of a crawl, walk, run (process) as both malting companies and brewers … learn about the variety,” Derkatch said.
“But we’re confident there’s a lot of upside. For the first year, it’s not a bad launch.”
Bruce French, director of malting and technical services with Canada Malting, said Bentley will likely make the CMBTC list in 2014-15.
“We expect approval this year,” French said in a news release.
“With approval, we expect demand continuing to grow.”
Bentley was developed by Alberta Agriculture and was registered in 2008. It is the first Alberta Agriculture barley variety to be contracted for malting purposes.
Derkatch said improved yield potential over established malting varieties such as Metcalfe and Copeland should be Bentley’s biggest selling point.
- Bentley was developed by Alberta Agriculture and was registered in 2008.
- It is the first Alberta Agriculture barley variety to be contracted for malting purposes.
- Bentley outyielded Metcalfe by 12 to 13 percent but was later to mature based on seven years of post-registration data in Saskatchewan.
- It has good lodging resistance.
- It has good resistance to stem rust.
- It has very good resistance to spotted net blotch.
- Bentley’s resistance to all other diseases is rated as fair or poor.
