Getting more malting barley selected is one of the surest ways to deliver more dollars into the pocketbooks of western Canadian grain growers.
But this long-standing, value-added opportunity has been tough to bank on, with only 15 to 25 percent of malting barley production typically selected for malting.
A key hurdle is the high level of protein in Canadian barley, says Michael Edney of the Canadian Grain Commission’s Grain Research Laboratory. International markets traditionally aim for less than 11.5 percent protein in malting barley, but barley exported from Canada has averaged greater than 12 percent over the past 10 years.
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“But a certain level of barley protein is required to make a quality malt,” said Edney. “The key is learning more about barley protein and identifying specific components that could be reduced without damaging the quality of the end product. That is an important focus of the new research.”
Edney discussed approaches to fine-tuning protein, along with other options for increasing the pool of selected malting barley, in the January edition of Western Grains Research Magazine, now on the website at www.westerngrains.com.
Getting a higher rate of malt selection has always been a priority for Western Canada, Edney said. But the amount of barley that does not achieve selected status has spiked in recent years, in large part due to dry summers that tend to bring up barley protein.
“The No. 1 quality obstacle has been high protein levels. This is undesirable because it reduces the amount of potential fermentable extract, which essentially means you are more restricted in the amount of beer that can be made from a barley’s malt.”
Efforts to reduce protein potential in malting barley varieties require great care, he said.
“Canadian malting barley has a reputation for high fermentability, which is indirectly a result of higher protein barley. Soluble protein in malt also contributes to foam retention in the final beer product, which is critical. Also, soluble protein provides amino acids and small peptides that are essential for yeast nutrition during fermentation.”
The challenge is to bring malting barley protein levels down slightly but not low enough to compromise other key attributes.
“Barley breeding progress is critical to our long-term success at increasing the pool of selected malting barley in Western Canada,” Edney said.
Other concerns for research include preharvest sprouting, quality consistency and optimizing production strategies for desired protein and uniformity.
Sprouting, caused by high moisture during harvest, has been particularly bad the past several years.
“At the (grain commission), we used to say Western Canada can expect a major sprouting event in one out of every 10 years. Now, in the last five years we’ve already had four major sprouting events. That is really starting to weigh on people. If what we had considered odd weather during harvest is now becoming the norm, sprouting will become even more of a concern than protein.”
Western Grains Research Foundation-backed research has helped improve the understanding of genes associated with water uptake and other characteristics that relate to preharvest sprouting
tendency.
WGRF is funded and directed by western crop producers, and allocates $4-$5 million annually to research through the wheat and barley check-off funds and a separate $9 million endowment fund.
