UK: Winter malting barley Electrum approved for brewing use

The top yielding winter malting barley variety Electrum has gained full approval for brewing use in the UK, the Farmers Weekly reported on May 29.

From breeder Syngenta, the two-row barley has been granted full approval by the Maltsters’ Association of Great Britain in its annual review.

It joined the AHDB Recommended List back in 2018, and is the highest yielding winter malting variety on the list at 97% of the controls.

Electrum effectively replaces the other Syngenta winter malting variety, Venture, which has been removed from the list for brewing.

In the spring category, Asteroid has been removed from the list for both brewing and malt distilling, but retains provisional approval 2 for grain distilling.

Other changes are Cosmopolitan moving to provisional approval 2 for brewing, while both AHDB Recommended List newcomers Iconic and Splendor gained provisional approval 1 for brewing.

Both Firefoxx and Tungsten gained provisional approval 1 for malt distilling; the latter variety also has the same status for brewing.


Approved malting and distilling list for harvest 2021:


• Winter varieties for brewing use

Full approval: Flagon, Craft and Electrum


• Spring varieties for brewing use

Full approval: Concerto, Laureate, Planet and Propino

Provisional approval 2: Diablo and Cosmopolitan

Provisional approval 1: Iconic, Splendor and Tungsten


• Spring varieties for malt distilling use

Full approval: Concerto, Laureate, Sassy, Sienna and Diablo

Provisional approval 1: Tungsten and Firefoxx


• Spring varieties for grain distilling use

Full approval: Fairing

Provisional approval 2: Asteroid

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