Breeding a Better Beer
photo by David Stobbe
By Craig Silliphant
A glistening trail of condensation rolls down the side of a frosty glass; a mug filled with amber waves of grain and topped with a regal and frothy crown at its head. “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy,” Benjamin Franklin famously said. Franklin had it right; there isn’t much in this world that can be more satisfying than a cold beer, something most university students, past and present, can identify with.
However, in a sad twist of the cosmos, with everything being finite, beer can spoil through the process of chemical oxidization. It can also be more difficult to produce with certain barleys. It is not something your average beer drinker thinks too much about, but thankfully, a skilled team at the University of Saskatchewan is building a better beer by engineering superior barley.
Though he is quick to stress the collaborative nature of his work, semi-retired Professor Emeritus Bryan Harvey (BSA’60, MSA’61) is still quite active with the Department of Plant Sciences, where he was an early pioneer in the area of barley breeding. As a graduate student, Harvey helped to develop important techniques for rapeseed and contributed to the development of canola. He officially began his career at the University of Guelph, but returned to the U of S in 1966, where he began the maverick task of breeding two-row malting barley in a six-row barley world. Harvey and his research partner, Brian Rossnagel (U of S Crop Development Centre), created more than 50 types of barley, including the well known Harrington, which has been a dominant variety in Canada for over 20 years. With a higher yield, stronger straw, and early maturity, Harrington can be malted directly from the combine, which reduces its dormancy and the chance of spoiling. Its high enzyme level allows brewers to reduce their costs while still producing a delicious, quality beer.
Harvey took into account the harsh climate and short growing season of Western Canada and resolved to create a superior product that could compete on the world market.
“Just going for high yield isn’t going to get you anywhere,” Harvey explains. “You have to have a quality product that you can deliver when in competition with others. When I was offered the job of barley breeder here, that’s the approach I took. I brought that experience from canola to barley, and now the quality in malting barley is considerably more complex than oil quality in canola.”
Working with Rossnagel, a team of specialists and companies like the Japanese beer giant Sapporo, Harvey also has to maintain a relationship with the multifaceted beer industry, from the malters and brewers to the agricultural producers themselves, who often have different perspectives on their respective requirements.
“That’s absolutely vital,” says Harvey. “I’m talking about quality; but if I don’t know what quality means to the end user, I can have all the preconceived ideas that I want. They won’t go anywhere. So I had to talk to farmers to know what they thought was right or wrong about our varieties growing in the field. Then I talk to the maltsters and brewers about what they want in an ideal variety.”
It is easy to form the mental image of a scientist in a lab wearing a white coat surrounded by test tubes, but for Harvey, the real lab is out in the field itself, in the open air, where inspiration can take many forms. Harvey’s work can be sterile and mathematic, but conversely, can also bear a high degree of creativity.
“Any good breeder has an element of both,” he says. “You have to understand the science to it, but there’s an art to it as well. I can’t draw worth a damn, but I think I have an eye for what makes a good looking barley plant in the field. And there’s nothing prettier to me than a nice field of barley, standing there, doing well.”
Though most university students would argue that making better barley for beer makes Harvey akin to a superhero, he also uses his powers for the good of humanity. He is the chairman of the board of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, an organization that utilizes agricultural research to better the lives of poverty stricken people around the world, primarily in Africa.
“We can increase the economic health and welfare of these people by giving them better access to food,” says Harvey of his altruistic passion. “They can move from a diet that is basically a survival diet, to [eating] more exotic things. They begin to have a better way of life, and they’d have enough production left over to make a little bit of money.”
As one might expect, Harvey’s varied career has brought him success and accolades from around the globe. He is a member of the Saskatchewan Agriculture Hall of Fame, received the Saskatchewan Order of Merit and has been recognized by the Canadian Seed Trade Association and the Master Brewer’s Association. In 2005, Harvey was also honoured in Japan at a conference highlighting his work, after the Asahi Brewing Company used the famed Harrington barley to impress beer drinkers so much that the brand moved from third place to first place on the Japanese market.
At the end of a long day of saving the world and being one of the wizards behind our favourite barley drink, Harvey can sit down for a beer and literally enjoy the fruits of his labour.
“Most people don’t think of beer as a sophisticated drink, but it’s far more complex than wine and has a broader range of flavours,” he says. “I manage to have one or two [beer] a day. On a cool evening, I like a dark ale, and to go with dessert, a porter or stout is great. For all around enjoyment, I enjoy a pilsner-type beer with a fairly high bittering level. It comes with getting old and having your taste buds deteriorating. After a hot day in the field, an ice cold beer does the trick.”
