Malt whisky and cereal experts at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh are testing barley grown with ‘green fertilisers’ in a bid to reduce emissions from production of the crop.
The so-called ‘biostimulants’, made from algae, bacteria and yeast, are being assessed against traditional nitrogen fertilisers. Growth, health, quality and yield are all being compared.
“It’s not enough to know if we can grow barley without fossil fuels,” said Heriot-Watt plant pathologist Angela Freeman. “We need to know what changes using biostimulants could have on them, whether it’s their quality, resistance to disease, how they respond to high heat or whether their flavour changes.”
Barley makes up 63% of Scotland’s cereal crop and is used for malting and distilling, as well as animal feed. Its production depends heavily on nitrogen fertilisers that are made from fossil fuels.
Heriot-Watt has been funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh to put the new approach to the test over two years and ensure it doesn’t damage the dram – exports of which are worth more than £6 billion.
The Irish BioCrop project, funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, will supply three barley varieties: Cassia, Valeria and RGT Planet.
The grains will be tested at Heriot-Watt’s International Centre for Brewing and Distilling to ensure they meet industry standards on size, enzyme values and soluble protein content. Nitrogen content is key to barley meeting market specifications with malt distilling requiring a nitrogen level of below 1.65%.
