Cheers to beers brewed with locally grown barley
/by Emily Leeson
Dr. Aaron Mills, an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) research scientist based in Charlottetown, has maintained a keen interest in the Maritime craft brewing industry since graduate school, and he’s now poised to help introduce one more element of local production to the industry.
“When I was in grad school, I started home brewing and I ended up working in a craft brewery for a bit when I was finishing my PhD,” said Mills.
While he and his colleague, Dr. Jason McCallum, are now well on their way to developing the first commercial varieties of wild hops from the Maritimes, Mills has also turned his attention to that other key beer ingredient: malt barley.
“There’s a ton of interest in hops,” said Mills. “But when I started working as an agronomist, I was interested in looking into why there wasn’t more malt barley being grown on the East Coast.”
Mills has cultivated cross-country collaborations and partnerships with farmers, maltsters (those who make malt for brewing and distilling), and craft brewers. His research on P.E.I. is helping pinpoint which malt barley varieties will work best in the unique Maritime climate while offering the local industry the flavours and storylines they need to keep their customers coming back for more.
While Canada is known for producing some of the highest quality malt barley in the world, 95 percent of that crop is currently developed and grown in Western Canada. The selection of most of the popular varieties in Canada for those drier climates is a barrier for Atlantic Canadian producers interested in growing their own malt barley.
“Traditionally, it requires a higher level of management,” Mills said of malt barley. “You can’t just harvest it off the field and then brew beer with it. It has to go through the whole malting process where it is hit with some moisture at a certain temperature over a period of time, which starts the enzymes going. Those enzymes then start converting the starch into sugar.”
Breeders in Western Canada have traditionally selected for plants that have a lot of those enzymes.
Mills said that the problem for Atlantic Canadian growers is that our region is much wetter. “When you grow something that has been selected for a dry climate and move it to the Maritimes, that excessive moisture at harvest time starts that whole enzymatic process happening while the barley is still on the field,” he explained.
Finding the right barley for the Atlantic region has meant investigating a range of possibilities – from heritage varieties to new successes.
Chevallier is one of the malt barley varieties showing promise for the area.
Developed in the U.K. in 1870, Chevallier is normally found in golden ales and IPAs. It’s recently been commercialized by British company Crisp Malt and is widely distributed in both Europe and North America.
“It has some excellent traits,” said Mills. “A lot of the time, these old varieties don’t have the yield that some of the modern varieties have, but they do have disease resistance and they are a little more dormant, so they aren’t going to sprout in the field.”
The idea of using a heritage variety is also an enticing feature for brewers looking to give their product both a unique flavour and a narrative.
“The craft brewing sector is interested in a story, so anything that is a little bit different gives them a marketing opportunity,” said Mills.
Mills is also testing a malt barley variety developed in a collaboration between global pesticide and seed company Syngenta and AAFC: AAC Synergy. It’s been gaining popularity due to its high yields and consistent quality.
“It is a shorter-stature variety,” he said. “It won’t fall over in the rain. It seems to be fairly disease-resistant, and it also tastes pretty good, too.”
With other scientists across Canada, Mills has also been discovering that planting legumes such as faba beans and soybeans before the barley results in better yields and quality in the malt barley crop. Producers using such rotations can also reduce the amount of nitrogen fertilizer applied to the barley crop.
Mills has also been collaborating with industry professionals to assess the malt quality and beer flavour resulting from using a number of malt barley varieties. Shoreline Malting in Summerside and 2 Crows Brewing in Halifax are both participating in the endeavour.
“We started out with 80 lines originally about six to seven years ago and we grew those out every year for three years,” said Mills. “We’ve got it pared down to about 30 varieties, and 2 Crows Brewing and Shoreline Malting have picked out between six and eight of those 30 varieties that they are interested in.”
Mills said that it won’t be too long before there will be a sample of beer brewed with local barley: “Pretty soon – possibly even this winter.”
