Australia: Australia poised to become a major supplier of new barley variety extending shelf life of beer
Australia is poised to become a major global supplier of a new variety of barley that extends the shelf life of beer, ABC Online reported on March 23.
The variety, called Charger, slows down how quickly the beer deteriorates and develops a stale papery flavour.
Charger is owned by European brewing companies Carlsberg and Heineken and was developed with researchers from the University of Adelaide.
"You can actually expect at least a 50 per cent longer freshness of the beer," Carlsberg's director of applied research Birgitte Skadhauge said.
"It is something that's having a significant impact on the quality of the beer, especially in warm climates like you have here in Australia."
The secret to Charger's longer-lasting influence is that one of the enzymes in it does not work properly.
That enzyme is called lipoxygenase, and during malting it converts lipids and fats in the grain into the stale flavour.
Carlsberg screened more than 15,000 barley lines before it found one with the "lazy" lipoxygenase enzymes it was looking for.
That trait is known as Null Lox and it has been bred into several barley varieties grown overseas and used in beer sold in Europe.
Charger is the Australian version.
"We are actually transferring, to some degree, European genetic backgrounds to Australia and we have to find the best suited ones for the special conditions you have here," Ms Skadhauge said.
After more than a decade in development, in 2012 Mark Branson became the first farmer to grow Charger in Australia on his Stockport property north of Adelaide.
He says it was his best barley crop on record.
"It averaged 6.5 tonnes a hectare and there were patches going over eight tonnes and it all made malting, so I was absolutely rapt," Mr Branson said.
Last season nine farmers across South Australia, including Mr Branson, were contracted to grow Charger.
The results were not as good, with many struggling to make malting grade, which is what beer makers want.
The majority of Trevor Day's crop was only fit to feed livestock.
But the long-time South Australian grain grower says the disappointing result was more a reflection of a poor season for all types of barley than the variety itself.
"Unless there's something else around I would think we'd probably give it another year," Mr Day said.
"If we can get the yield out of it and the consistency, the demand is there."
Charger is already being used in Carlsberg lager made and sold locally.
But the company's long-term aim is to turn Australia into a major grain source for its Asian breweries.
"You have excellent quality, you have very big barley acreages and in other parts of the world barley is actually becoming a smaller crop," Ms Skadhauge said.
"We have a lot of brewing activities in Asia and we need to secure our raw materials supply for Asia."
The main weakness of Charger is its susceptibility to a fungus called net form of net blotch.
The disease has the potential to wipe out up to 70 per cent of crops if it is not managed properly with fungicides.
While it caused some serious problems last season, the University of Adelaide says the next generation of the variety, which has not yet been released, is an improvement.
"The new line at least matches the grain yield of Charger, which in itself is very competitive with the leading varieties, but offers significantly better resistance to net form of net blotch," said the university's barley program leader, Dr Jason Eglinton.
Mr Branson for one is itching to get his hands on version two.
"What a great story. I just love it," he said.
"To have a beer that's going to go throughout Asia from the barley that I started growing, it's really good and part of the reason why you're in farming because you get these opportunities occasionally."
26 March, 2014
