Applied barley research

The Grain Research Laboratory's Applied barley research program provides quality assurance for malting barley grown in western Canada. Researchers analyse malt quality of selected samples for the annual barley harvest. They also work closely with plant breeders to develop and evaluate improved malting barley varieties that satisfy domestic and international maltsters' processing requirements. Research is carried out on factors affecting malting barley and on quality measurement methods.

Collaborative research

• Evaluates malting quality of two-rowed and six-rowed barley entries in western Canadian cooperative and collaborative tests
• Participates in recommendations on advancement of lines for variety registration through the Evaluation Team on Barley Quality of the Prairie Recommending Committee for Oat and Barley
• Works with the Canadian Grain Commission's Industry Services to investigate new methods for providing barley quality assurance
• Participates nationally and internationally in collaborative malting barley research. For example, Applied Barley Research has provided the malt quality analysis for a project on improving malting barley quality through field agronomy, organized by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Technology, methods and standards

• Uses two malting systems:
  • an automatic micromalting system for 500-gramsamples
  • a pilot malt plant for seven-kilogram samples ofbarley
• Uses contemporary equipment such as mash baths, segmented flow analysers, Near-Infrared Reflectance (NIR) and high performance ion exchange chromatography
• Performs malt and barley analyses according to official methods of the American Society of Brewing Chemists