TOPIC:

Hi guys,

In my 'day job' I'm running a project for the Department of Ag. to try to track down old Irish varieties of malting barley: land-races, heritage varieties, old cultivars. There must have been many of them but I only know of records for a handful, and there is little to nothing known about most of those!

Apologies if this isn't the right place for it but this seemed the most likely place to come for advice, so if anybody has ever encountered anything like that - on the farm or associated with any old brewery, perhaps - I'd love to hear about it.

My ultimate aim would be to see whether there are any truly Irish barleys that could have use in the modern craft brewing scene. I know from the Ingredients boards that there have been attempts to track down Irish hops that have spread into the wild but as far as I know nobody has tried the same with the barley.

There have been some successful attempts to resurrect old barley varieties in Britain: see [url:1ank3o44]http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/victorian_ale_back_on_tap_after_norwich_scientists_revive_heritage_brewing_barley_1_2015840[/url:1ank3o44], in this case leading to the resurrection of a 'lost' beer, so I think this could be a pretty interesting project if I can actually find the material!

Thanks in advance,
Peter

Google Spratt Archer.

Have a look for two books:
A History of Beer and Brewing
Guinness 1886-1939: From Incorporation to the Second World War

...as well as various Dept of Ag reports, for example[/url:23hisskk] (which I would have thought have abundant information?).

Guinness co-sponsored a barley development programme in conjunction with the Dept of Ag around 100 or so years ago. Prior to that there was little work done in the area. I'm not sure when the Irish varieties were supplanted by those from multinational corporations.

Thanks very much for that info, Tube.

I will already be getting some Chevallier to grow up, which is the main variety mentioned in the report.

Surviving Spratt-Archer I've not tracked down but it's hybrid offspring is Hunter (Spratt-Archer X Kenida), which was the predominant variety used by Guinness and is still kept in our germplasm collections.

Ideally I'd like to get back to the pre-twentieth century land-races but that is proving difficult (there are some references to the use of 'black barley' in Sligo and Roscommon which sounds intriguing...). I will also take a look at the History you recommend.

Thanks again, and very please to hear from anyone else who has information on this topic!

Peter

There's currently a stand of black barley at Irish Seed Savers in Scariff, Co.Clare!

Hey there,
Was it yourself had the ad in the farmers journal looking for old varieties a few weeks back?
If you're lucky enough to find a few promising landraces I'd love to have a go at growing and malting them!
Send me a PM and I'll fill you in on my own plans, its all in the thread Micro malthouse too.
Paul