BARLEY Australia has added three varieties to its list of accredited malting varieties following evaluation trials conducted in association with the Malting and Brewing Industry Barley Technical Committee (MBIBTC).

They are: Intergrain’s Maximus CL (IGB1705T); Elders’ Alestar (SMBA 11-2341), and Seednet’s Leabrook (WI4896).

Maximus CL is the next in the line of imidazolinone (IMI) tolerant barley varieties from InterGrain, and is a high-fermentability variety well suited to the export market.

Maximus CL is a national variety, intended to be grown in largely the same environments as Spartacus CL.

Alestar is a medium-fermentability variety likely best suited, although not restricted to, the domestic market. This variety is intended to be grown in medium and medium-to-higher rainfall zones
where Commander and Westminster respectively are currently grown.

Leabrook is a medium to medium-high fermentability variety that will likely suit the domestic market and some export markets. This variety is intended to be grown in areas largely currently suited to Compass.

As with all previous accreditations, it is the market that will determine the success of these new varieties.

The Barley Australia malting barley evaluation and accreditation process is recognised as the required standard for the determination of malting barley for all new Australian malting barley
varieties.

Barley Australia will continue to assist market adoption of these newly accredited varieties through its new program of post-accreditation support which is currently under development.

The board of Barley Australia has met to consider the recommendations from the MBIBTC for the various varieties currently under evaluation.

Traveler has been withdrawn from evaluation, and Buff (IGB1506) is now undergoing stage two of evaluation because insufficient grain was available for this to occur last year.

Further parcels of Bottler (HV 16) and Kiwi (02035-160) have been pilot malted to satisfy the stage-one requirements, and its evaluation can this year proceed into stage two commercial
evaluation trials.

Insufficient grain was available to complete evaluation of Laperouse (WI4952) last year, and it continue stage-one evaluation in 2021.
Further stage-one evaluation of AGTB0043 has been carried over into this year.

Varieties entering into stage-one evaluation this year are Beast (AGTB0113) and IGB1825.

Barley Australia has accepted applications for four new varieties for malting barley evaluation. They are:

Commodus CL (IGB1908T) from InterGrain;

AGTB0200, AGTB0201 and AGTB0213 from Australian Grain Technologies (AGT);

These varieties cover a range of adaptations and quality attributes, and Commodus is an addition to the suite of IMI-tolerant barley varieties available to growers.
Sufficient grain parcels of Commodus CL, AGTB0200, AGTB0201 and AGTB0213 are available for commencement of Stage One evaluation in 2021 and will be confirmed when final programming for the year is completed in coming weeks.

Source: Barley Australia