Winter barley, Buccaneer from Elsoms Seeds, has now been granted full malting status for brewing.

The decision was made following the Malting Barley Committee’s (MBC) autumn meeting which gave approval to Buccaneer – the highest yielding 2-row winter malting variety on the 2024/25 Recommended List.

Grower choice

This gives growers more choice as they look ahead to next year, says Jonathan Arnold of Robin Appel. “We’ve been tracking Buccaneer’s progress through the trials system and there’s little doubt it has all of the right agronomic credentials to become established.

“In recent years there’s been a noticeable lack of new winter malting barley varieties coming onto the RL, and, with historically lower yields and low premiums, I think some growers have moved over to hybrid and higher yielding feed barleys,” he explains.

Jonathan adds that as such, Buccaneer’s arrival is timely. “With a big uplift in yield, particularly untreated, Buccaneer could help to reverse recent trends as long as good contracts and premiums are there next year.

“Following last year’s challenging autumn establishment conditions, which saw a further reduction in the winter barley area, Buccaneer’s full malting approval for 2025 should make it of serious interest for growers either coming back to the crop, or those keen to switch from feed barley back to winter malting barley.”

Step forward

Laura Jones, malting barley trader at Saxon Agriculture agrees that Buccaneer has potential. “When it became likely that Buccaneer would go onto the RL in 2023, we made a strategic decision to place a significant area of the crop in the ground for Harvest 24, demonstrating our confidence and belief in the variety.

“For growers, it’s a definite step forward on yield over the market leader and has shown very strong resistance to both brown rust and rhynchosporium with very low brackling levels.”

Laura adds that another strong winter malting barley variety in the market offers growers and the brewing trade more choice, which is important for a sector that was starting to appear exposed due to being dominated by one variety.

“Although the cropping area for winter malting barley is comparatively small at the moment, there’s certainly scope to produce more for general brewing production in the UK and for specialist export markets.

“Buccaneer offers low screenings and good specific weights making it popular with maltsters based on its suitability for producing roasted malts for craft beers, a growth sector in recent years. While it sits nicely besides spring malting barley for general brewing production, winter malting barley is also becoming increasingly important for producing speciality export malts,” she says.

“Ultimately, growers require strong varieties supported by contracts with good premiums to incentivise them, and, in Buccaneer, they have an exceptional winter malting barley with no obvious weaknesses,” concludes Laura.