OSU's Buck Shows Promise For Maltsters

Oregon State University’s Head of the Barley Breeding Program Dr. Pat Hayes shares that OSU’s new naked variety of barley — Buck — has an interesting malting profile that craft brewers and maltster might be interested in.
Hayes: “There is some kind of processing advantages. There is one characteristic in particular that is malt extract and it is one of the real drivers of malting quality. With a naked barley just by nature — you just have higher malt extract values. So if you have a normal malt variety that has a hull on it — you’ll be may be lucky to max out at maybe 83 or 82 percent — that is high values for high quality two-row malt barley with a hull. Where as with a naked barley like this Buck — it’s got an average malt extract of 86 percent which means that there will be more yield to the brewer.”
Dr. Hayes says that traditional barley varieties —- two row hulled winter and spring malt barely varieties will continue to be the standard for brewers and maltsters, but with the explosion of craft brewing over the past decade
Hayes: “Naked barleys may be a special thing so there is always going to be a bit of a limited acreage perhaps on them but they really do have that versatility there where you would have the potential for the malting market, you would have the potential for human food market as well as some feed usages certainly for non-ruminant animals that would be really attractive.”