NEW malting barley varieties, Craft and Fairing, have been given full approval on the newly-released Malting Barley Committee (MBC) Approved List for harvest 2019.

This is a big step forward for malting barley growers in the UK, said their breeder, Syngenta, which also bred the current winter malting barley market leader, SY Venture.

Craft winter malting barley gets approval for brewing, while Fairing spring malting barley gets the nod for grain distilling and is seen as well suited to Scotland.

Tracy Creasy, seeds marketing manager for Syngenta, said: “The promotion of Craft is significant because it offers growers a yield boost over other winter malting barley varieties with full MBC approval for brewing use on the current AHDB Recommended List.

“The promotion of spring barley Fairing is highly significant because, for harvest 2018, there were no varieties that had Full Approval for this use. Fairing was bred specifically to meet key requirements of the important grain distilling market in Scotland.

“Among these are its very early maturity – it is the earliest-maturing spring barley on the AHDB Recommended List. At the same time, Fairing also offers a high grain nitrogen content for end users.

"This is important because grain distilling primarily uses wheat or maize, so barley with a high nitrogen content and high enzyme content is needed to help with the conversion of the starch in wheat or maize into alcohol.”

This latest version of the MBC List now sees Syngenta having varieties with Full Approval in each of the four classifications of malting uses of: winter varieties for brewing use; spring varieties for brewing use; spring varieties for malt distilling use; and spring varieties for grain distilling use.

As well as promotion of Craft and Fairing, the new, top-yielding Syngenta winter malting barley variety, Electrum, has also been added to the new MBC List with Provisional 1 approval for Brewing.