ABI Cardinal and Regina land on U.S. recommended malting barley variety list for 2022

The American Malting Barley Association (AMBA) Board of Directors annually develops a list of recommended malting barley varieties for U.S. growers for the upcoming crop year. AMBA is a nonprofit trade association of 60+ malting, brewing, distilling and food companies that are end-users of U.S. malting barley.

The AMBA Recommended List is intended to provide U.S. growers with guidance as to what varieties the industry may be contracting or purchasing in the coming year. It is not intended as a list of approved or certified malting varieties for the use by brewers, distillers, food companies or maltsters. There may be many suitable malting barley varieties grown domestically or internationally that are not on the list yet have quality characteristics desired by the industry. Some varieties will be used in large quantities and many others are only utilized in niche markets, so producers are encouraged to contact their local elevator, grain handler or processor to gauge market demand for any variety grown in their region prior to seeding.

Changes from the previous year include dropping Conlon and the addition of ABI Cardinal and Regina. ABI Cardinal, bred by Anheuser-Busch at Global Barley Research in Fort Collins, Colo., delivers competitive yield with an earlier harvest maturity time and a better disease resistance package compared to other major two-row varieties while maintaining excellent brewing quality. ABI Cardinal represents a 12-year journey that Global Barley Research began when switching over from breeding six-row barley for the Midwestern United States to two-row. ABI Cardinal is the first generation of materials from this breeding pipeline which looks to strengthen the productivity and sustainably of two-row barley production in this region. Regina is a German bred winter variety that is being grown in Ohio and surrounding states. It has proven to be a versatile variety with acceptable quality and agronomic performance.

With these changes from last year, the list of recommended malting barley varieties for 2022 is as follows: