Grainswest - Spring 2024

Spring 2024 grainswest.com 35 “They’d have it dialled in for a week, and then it would change on them, and they didn’t like that,” said Sich. “We kept adjusting and making it work.” In 2012, red flags popped up everywhere. Brewers reported high beta-glucan levels, which created high- viscosity, sticky worts that were difficult to run off. They also reported off-flavoured wort described as grassy, green, earthy and dirty. Sometimes quality issues are batch specific, but when they surface repeatedly, the brewer will call their maltster. “As soon as they have that conversation, the maltster just shuts it down and says, ‘I’m not buying that variety anymore,’” said Downey. “And that feeds back very quickly to grain buyers.” By the time news reached Downey, the variety had been promoted by CMBTC as an up-and-comer, but marketing ramped up before it had been fully evaluated. “Arguably, you could say that industry learned a lot from Meredith,” said Peter Watts, managing director of the CMBTC. “The issue wasn’t that it made it all the way to the brewers. The issue was that it was promoted heavily before it was accepted by the brewers. “A lot of farmers felt burned,” he added. “Several hundred thousand tonnes of Meredith was produced in 2013, and they had no malting market for it.” LESSONS LEARNED Lowe and Meredith may not have endured, but the industry- wide change they sparked will hopefully be long lasting. Industry players learned to confirm widespread market acceptance before sending the signal to scale up, said Watts. While waiting for those signals has kept industry from repeating the Meredith situation, it has unfortunately slowed the process of moving new varieties forward, he added. Watts thinks Lowe may have stood a chance had it been better marketed. However, he added it is always best to pull the plug if issues repeatedly surface. Downey agreed and added large-scale maltsters do not want to handle more than two or three varieties at a time. Breeders should have killed Lowe as soon as they saw it had standability issues in field trials, he said. “We take risks to try things, but slowly we’re learning over the years that if there’s any clue that it’s going to be tough to grow or tough to market, we know it’s not going to fly.” At Rahr Malting, Sich learned a lesson from Meredith as well. While he plans to continue to push new varieties, batch testing will need to show consistent results for three to four years before he’ll push test varieties out to brewers. “We’re maybe more baby steps now,” he said. COMMUNICATION AND CO-OPERATION In a supply chain as long and complex as that of malting barley, transparency and communication between industry players are key to long-term success. Four years ago, BMBRI and CMBTC partnered to form a variety acceptance committee to bolster communication and increase transparency. Under the leadership of Feist and Watts, the committee allows maltsters and brewers to confidentially discuss new varieties in the earliest stages of development. The committee’s aim is to send signals to seed companies about prospective demand so supply will be there when industry is ready to begin commercial-scale evaluation. “There has been good collaboration around the table internally,” said Watts. “We’re working really hard as a team to promote new varieties to [maltsters and brewers] everywhere, whether it’s domestic or international.” In Alberta, FCDC also works hard to strengthen its breeding program and increase uptake of new varieties under the leadership of program director Kofi Agblor. Agblor joined FCDC in July 2022 when the program was in a state of uncertainty. It had operated under the provincial government since 1973 but was offloaded to Olds College in January 2021. While FCDC remains housed in its Lacombe facility with its pathology, biotechnology and quality laboratories, it now operates under a three-year, temporary contract. Agblor and his colleagues have drawn up an improved business plan to secure long-term funding for the program. The move to Olds College has been a good one. The program’s main source of funding, aside from farmer dollars, had been the government. It is now open to new funding sources necessary to support a thriving and competitive breeding program. “The post-secondary environment at Olds College is the right place for that,” said Agblor. Because the micro-maltster works on a small scale, Red Shed Malting will continue to work with FCDC to process new barley varieties.