Malting performance of barley cultivar mixtures from the UK and Poland

Two sets of barley cultivar mixtures, one from cultivars grown in the UK an d one fi om cultivars grown in Poland were included, along with their compo nent cultivars, in trials at the Scottish Crop Research Institute over two seasons. In the second year two levels of nitrogen fertilisation were compa red. Laboratory scale malting revealed three mixtures with extracts equal t o, or significantly higher than, those of all of their components. Increase d nitrogen fertilisation gave higher diastatic power, but reduced hot water extract in mixtures and component cultivars. Polish mixtures and their com ponent cultivars showed a higher Kolbach index but a slower rate of filtrat ion, following malt extraction, than their UK counterparts. It was conclude d that the malting performance of the mixtures was largely determined by th e nature of the germplasm front which they were constructed and the conditi ons under which they were grown. Careful selection of components should the refore, permit development of barley mixture acceptable for malting.