b"Cheers to Being a MaltingSASIKUMAR (KUMAR)Barley Breeder DEVARAJANMANUFACTURINGENGINEERING MANAGERKumar.Devarajan@LET ME GET THIS out of the way right now: Yes, I like to drink beer!olivermanufacturing.comAnd yes, its also one reason I have dedicated a big part of my lifeolivermanufacturing.comto being a barley breeder.Breeding barley, especially malting barley, is fun because a lot of the work and conversation revolves around beer and the people involved in the community are very passionate about what theyAre You Ready for the do. Its hard to get bored in an environment like that.The evolution of the beer culture in North America that weveFull Automation Era?seen over the past 15 years or so has been very exciting. The diversity of beers that were initially produced mainly by small craft brewers, but which are now being made by brewers of allNASA CHIEF SCIENTIST Jim Green recently said that sizes, has reinvigorated interest in beer and brought in a broaderhe doesnt think the world is ready to find life on diversity of North American consumers to the community. another planet. NASAs Mars 2020 rover is set to As a breeder, it is important to pay attention to these trends aslaunch next summer and will be the first to col-this new wave of brewers and beers are potentially looking forlect samples of material from the Red Planet to different malting characteristics in barley varieties than the largersend back to Earth for testing. adjunct brewers that produce lighter beers. In response to this,It will be revolutionary, Green told the we recently released a new malting barley variety, CDC Churchill,Telegraph. It will start a whole new line of which was specifically targeted to all-malt brewers.In addition tothinking. I don't think we're prepared for the having high yields which will benefit the farmer, it has a differentresults. Were not.malt profile from typical Canadian malting varieties, being moreGreens comments made me think of the topic similar to European malting barley, which should suit the all-maltof automation. What most people in the seed brewer. industry do is use semi-automated machinery. But that doesnt mean weve forgotten about adjunct brewersYou can control the machine to start and stop, whose beers occupy 85% of the market. CDC Fraser was recentlyauto clean-out between varieties, open and close released to meet the needs of these brewers, combining excel- gates, etc., but there needs to be a human con-lent agronomic performance, a strong disease package and a malttrolling those functions. profile similar to AC Metcalfe. The next level of automation is a totally Currently, the malt barley industry is dominated by AC Metcalfeself-adjusting machine. These machines will be and CDC Copeland, but those varieties are almost 20 years old.capable of performing virtually all the tasks that Maltsters and brewers love them, but with the newer and betterhumans now perform. performing varieties like CDC Churchill and CDC Fraser comingSeed processing plants still require human into the market there are now excellent and better alternatives avail- beings to be stationed in the plant to perform able that will meet the needs of farmers, maltsters and brewers. various tasks along the processing line. Truly Although releasing a successful malt- automated machines wont require this. Seed ing barley variety takes time andplants that are completely automated will have patience, holding a glass of beerone or two people stationed in a main control and knowing you had a smallroom while the machines literally do all the work part to play in its creation isthemselves. something to raise a glass to! No one will need to go down to the floor to adjust between seed lots. The machines will conduct virtually all the tasks now performed by humans. It will be a different world, and just like with life on Mars, we are not yet 100% ready for it. AARON BEATTIE Not just one part of a seed plant can be BARLEY AND OAT BREEDER, fully automatedevery part of the plant has CROP DEVELOPMENT CENTRE to be and it will take several more years for the aaron.beattie@usask.ca industry get there. When we do, our businesses@usaskplsc will never be the samebut like with any new agbio.usask.ca/cdc technology, we will wonder how we ever did it any other way.NOVEMBER 2019GERMINATION.CA 43"