Successor makes the cover

Announcing the release of Lontra 2-row winter malting barley

Craft maltsters and brewers take heart: there’s a New World Otter that may provide you with interesting options compared to the Old World Otter (who goes by the name of Maris). OSU is proud to announce the culmination of years of research and breeding, starting with the cross of 04-028-36 (a 2-row winter malting variety from Ackermann Saatzucht GMBH & CO) with Maris Otter. The resulting doubled haploid array - the “Romp of Otters” - was put through extensive agronomic, malting quality, and brewing trials. DH142010 was selected as The Lontra and is now ready for its commercial debut. Lontra is available for non-exclusive license – please contact Denis Sather (OSU Advantage - denis.d.sather@oregonstate.edu) for details. For more information on the variety, please contact Pat Hayes (OSU Barley Project - hayesp@oregonstate.edu).  For a cheeky, informative write-up on Lontra, click here. For the full variety release, click here.

Adios a la Bombuchera

Mariona Subira-Martinez is back in Spain after a most productive post-doc at OSU. She dove into aleurone color with gusto, leading to the JASBC paper on the effect (or lack thereof) of blue aleurone on malting quality. She was the lead on taking roasted barley tea to new levels of analytics - paper nearly ready for submission. And finally, she created "Bombucha" - a kombucha  based on roasted barley tea. That's the focus of a cross-cultural assessment organized by our colleagues Ann Colonna and Jessica Gutierrez at the Food Innovation Center (Portland). They are assessing consumer sensory perceptions/opinions/preferences of roasted barley tea and bombucha in the US, Korea, and Spain. Stay tuned! Thanks, Mariona, and looking forward to our future collaborations.

Announcing the release of Successor spring 2-row feed barley with tolerance to imidazolinone herbicide soil residues.
Why just survive, when you can succeed?™

There’s a new option for Clearfield® dryland wheat growers who are interested in spring barley as a rotation: OSU Successor™. This new doubled haploid barley variety has the IMI tolerance of its parent “WSU Survivor” plus the agronomic benefits of its parent “OSU Lightning”. The lightning-fast development of the variety (the cross was made in 2017) was funded by the Oregon Wheat Commission.  Successor is available for non-exclusive license – please contact Denis Sather (OSU Advantage - denis.d.sather@oregonstate.edu) for details. For more information on the variety, please contact Pat Hayes (OSU Barley Project - hayesp@oregonstate.edu).   For the full variety release, click here.

"Lightning" barley from the OSU Barley Project

Facultative, disease resistant and capable of great malts.
Dormancy can have its advantages, and there are ways to deal with water sensitivity. 
Check in with us fr suggestions, and share your experiences.
Read more from the Journal of Plant Registrations.

The D-Zine

Honoring the illustrious career of the infamous Mike Davis
Vol. 38 | 2021

Barley - since 1652...the bread that does it all....

THE beste bread is made of cleane Wheate, which groweth in claye grounde, lightly Leuened, meanely Salted, and the Bread to be baken in the ouen, not extremely hote, least it be burned, nor also lesse than meanely hote, least the Breade bee heauie and rawe: the lighter the bread is, and the more fuller of the holes, the holsomer it is, thus Auerhois, and Rasis saye........ Rye bread is wyndie, and hurtfull to many, therefore it must be well salted, and baken with Anisedes. And commōly crusts of Bread, be dry and burned: they do engender choler aduste and melancholy humours. Therefore in greate mennes houses, the Bread is chipped so nigh, and so largely pared, that mutch of it is abused, & shamefully made into sosse for Dogges, which would feede a great number of poore people: but many men bee more affectionate to Dogges, than to men. Barly Bread doeth clense, and make the body leane.

William Bullein: Book of Simples

Is the future of barley naked?

Naked (aka hull-less) barley is the result of a natural mutation that was selected ~ 8,000 years ago.  Follow this link  to print your own poster about the naked barley frontier.

The Oregon Wolfe Barleys (and a few select friends; LIST) are headed to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, thanks to Dr. Kazuhiro Sato; RIB, Okayama University, Kurashiki, Japan.
Bon Voyage!

Raise a glass to Hugo Vivar and his namesake variety - GN0 Vivar!