Protein levels prove key for malting barley quality

As craft breweries sprout throughout the state, grain growers can benefit from the expanding market for locally grown malting barley, which can bring anywhere from 150% to 400% of the price received for forage grain. But those high prices only come if the grain tests in a relatively narrow target of protein that makes two-row malting barley best suited for high-quality brewing.

"The most important quality parameter in malting barley quality is protein," said Taylor Nelsen, an assistant specialist working with University of California Cooperative Extension grain cropping systems specialist Mark Lundy. "For two-row barley, craft brew malt facilities want to receive grain with 9% to 10.5% protein."

Though the potential premium for malting barley is inviting, the penalty for failing to hit this relatively small protein target can be substantial.

"It's important to check contracts for the price penalty of not meeting protein goals," Nelsen cautioned. "In some cases, barley that does not meet protein specifications may be rejected and forced into the lower-revenue feed market."

She made her remarks during the UC Davis 2020 Virtual Small Grains Field Day, as researchers moved their presentations from the agronomy test fields to the internet because of COVID-19 restrictions on large social gatherings.

Because of the potential price premium for meeting the standards set by the malting barley market, it makes economic sense to prioritize quality over yield, Nelsen said.

"Nitrogen fertility is the No. 1 factor that growers can control to manage their protein," she said. "It is not recommended to apply nitrogen after the tillering growth stage, because more nitrogen is allocated to protein than yield the later in the season it is applied."

She offered a sample calculation of the remaining nitrogen needs for a barley crop at the tillering stage.

"A typical 3,000-pound yield at 9.5% protein is 285 pounds of protein per acre," Nelsen said. "Two hundred eighty-five pounds per acre divided by the 5.75 nitrogen-to-protein factor is 50 pounds of nitrogen per acre in the grain."

Multiply that figure by 1.25 to account for the nitrogen to be removed with the straw, and figure that 90% of the uptake, or 56 pounds, remains at tillering, she said, adding that variety, seeding rate and water availability should also be considered, because they can also impact the protein level.

The UC small-grains website includes a selection tool that will help farmers see how numerous two-row barley varieties have performed in recent years at a specified location. From the site at smallgrains.ucanr.edu, choose "Variety Selection" on the upper left of the page, then follow the link for the "User-specified data selection tool," which leads to a page that allows a user to enter barley as the crop, choose a location within one of the major growing regions, and then look at results from trials of just two-row barley at that location.

"Two-row barley varieties generally require less nitrogen and have lower protein than six-row varieties," Nelsen said. "Relatively high seeding rates of around 1.1 million seeds per acre are recommended for quality malting barley."

There are variable amounts of rainfall, heat, planting dates and irrigation systems used to grow barley, which she said makes it even more difficult to achieve the protein target.

"There is a wide diversity of agroecosystems in which malting barley is grown in California, making achieving protein requirements difficult," Nelsen said. "Drought and heat stress also tend to lead to lower yield and higher protein levels in the barley."

Because of the difficulties, she said, "large amounts" of grain grown for malting barley are rejected and forced into a lower-revenue market.

"If the protein is too high," Nelsen said, "there is a lower amount of starch and less extract for the brewer, and the malting process is also slowed. On the other hand, if the protein is too low, this results in insufficient enzymes for fermentation, which is absolutely essential for making beer."

Despite the challenge of producing a crop that meets quality standards—made more challenging by factors beyond a farmer's control—the price premium makes malting barley a tempting opportunity, she said.

"There is interest in growing barley for these malt houses, because they offer approximately one-and-a-half to four times the price for either forage or feed barley," Nelsen said. "This price premium comes with a stipulation, though: that the malting barley must meet a high quality standard."

The demand for malting barley that achieves the protein target has the chance to grow significantly in the next few years, she said.

"Currently, there are only a handful of malt houses in California, with a very limited capacity," Nelsen said. "But there are more breweries in California than any other state, with more than a thousand craft breweries operating in California as of October 2019, many of which wish to differentiate themselves by brewing local or California-grown materials."

She said craft breweries have the potential to create a niche market that brings prices significantly higher than small-grain feed and forage.

"Barley production has decreased greatly in California over the last 75 years," Nelsen said. "At one point, there was even more barley harvested in California than wheat. Today, there are fewer small grains grown due to a large number of high-value competing crops and other economic factors."

(Bob Johnson is a reporter in Sacramento. He may be contacted at bjohn11135@gmail.com.)