Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute (WWAI) director, John Oliver, said the research had the potential to improve the availability of high-quality malting barley to brewers along the east coast of Australia.

“The new generation barley also has improved disease resistance and tolerance to the acidic soils prevalent in NSW,” Mr Oliver said.

“For improved malting the key is to have more of the starch in the plant broken down to sugars during the brewing process.

“But there are also proteins in barley that lead to undesirable effects on the storage of beer such as a chill haze or excessive foaming when the beer is poured.

“So making better malting barley is a process of trying to have more of the good attributes from the starches and enzymes and less effect from undesirable proteins.”

Mr Oliver said I&I NSW scientists had been working on the project for four years.

“These varieties are being selected for their malting quality, but they have the potential to do much more than just improve the quality of our beer,” he said.

“Their resistance to disease and adaption to the Southern NSW environment have the potential to open up new areas of the state to barley crops and give our farmers the option to tap into new local and international markets."

Mr Oliver said the initial crosses targeting NSW requirements are made in Western Australia, converted to doubled haploid regenerants and flown to Wagga Wagga.

“In Wagga our scientists develop the regenerants in barley plants and manage the selection process in conjunction with the Western Australian breeder,” he said.

“The doubled haploid process should result into a shorter delivery time from cross to grower as well as delivering more productive and market focussed varieties.”

The DH genotypes have been put into broad acre trials at the Yanco Agricultural Institute.

The barley research is run as part of the national body Barley Breeding Australia, the Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia InterGrain P/L and I&I NSW.