Better beer is a grass-to-glass business. The words belong to Dr Evan Evans of the University of Tasmania's Institute of Agricultural Research, who describes himself as a food biochemist and is passionate about the need to link all the partners in the business from plant breeder though grower and maltster and brewer. His work confirms that the new barley varieties Flagship and Bulloak promise to give Australia the international edge in malting barley quality, but that quality will need to be supported.

The technical advances driving the processing industries depend on consistency in the quality of the raw material. As Dr Evans says, with fewer and fewer people on the floor in the brewery these days the dependence is on computers. Computer systems aren't built to handle surprises and any new variety constitutes a surprise. Surprises lurk even within current varieties and Dr Evans would like to see the whole industry make better use of the available science to predict and even take advantage of those inherent surprises.

Malt fermentability is a measure to what extent the malt extract can be converted into alcohol and CO ² by yeast, and is a fundamental quality of malting barley. Maltsters and barley breeders alike assess this by the activity of the diastatic power (DP) group of enzymes which degrade the grain starch into fermentable sugars such as maltose. Dr Evans has found that analysis of the levels of the individual enzymes, rather than their combined activity as with DP, significantly increases the ability to predict the malt's behaviour during brewing.

That's important because an analysis of 43 commercial malts has shown up significant variations for fermentability within varieties. Gairdner , for example, can produce malt ranging from the high to low end of the scale. Japanese and Chinese markets would be pleased with highly fermentable malt, while Australian brewers would prefer the lower fermentable malt. Potentially, informed segregation of one variety could keep both markets happy, if only we knew for certain how a particular batch of malt will react.

Dr Evans calculates that the DP test will pick up about half of the inherent variations in fermentability, saying that when the DP group of enzymes work together to degrade the starch, any one could be a limiting factor. But we do have the ability to accurately measure the important balance between all of the enzymes involved, increasing our ability to predict 90% of the variations that might occur. Initially Dr Evans would like to see these tests used to identify the malt most suited to either the domestic or international market. However barley breeders would also be able to more accurately select the enzyme qualities that our customers demand.

More than a third of our malting barley is used to manufacture malt here in Australia, so it's a very important value-adding component of our market. Close cooperation with maltsters and brewers is needed to develop the support structure to introduce our new varieties to our international customers. Producing quality grain is just the start of the chain - information on how to make the best use of that quality is what's needed to guarantee continuing demand and ensure premiums flow to growers.

As with all other areas of the processed food industry we can expect to see international and domestic brewers demanding traceability of the grain as part of their quality assurance program. Brewers these days are well aware that consumer confidence is slow to establish but easy to destroy.

While we still don't know how variations in season or climate affect the fermentability of the grain, it is possible that by using the available assessment tools we may eventually be able to pinpoint districts and climatic conditions that produce grain particularly suited to specific markets. In this way, the GRDC and Dr Evans are ensuring that malting quality of Australian barley truly runs grass-to-glass.