This spring saw malting barley; LG Diablo, receive Full Approval for malt distilling use by the Malting Barley Committee, and it has also been moved to Provisional Approval 2 for brewing. This makes LG Diablo the highest yielding spring barley variety on the AHDB Recommended List with Full Approval for malt distilling.
“Based on its move to Provisional Approval 2 for brewing, if Full Approval for brewing is also obtained next year, LG Diablo will be the highest yielding dual-use spring barley”, says Matt Shand, National Sales Manager for Limagrain UK.
LG Diablo’s UK yield sits 2% above the current market favourites, at 105% of control. Last year, LG Diablo outperformed other leading varieties such as; RGT Planet and Laureate, by a significant amount, in the key malting barley growing areas across the east (106%) and north (107%) regions, in fungicide treated trials.
LG Diablo’s untreated yields also sit at the top of the yield table, alongside Laureate at 94% of control, and 1% over that of RGT Planet, demonstrating the variety’s very robust disease resistance profile.
“In terms of agronomic package, LG Diablo has straw characteristics similar to RGT Planet, and is medium in height (73cm) with good lodging and brackling resistance. Although rated slightly later maturing, this would not appear to have an effect on its high yield potential, as seen in the very testing season of 2018.”
LG Diablo has a very good specific weight, which is important in the malting industry, as malting is a volume-based process and low specific weights can cause reduced throughput in the processing plants.
“So growers with low specific weight parcels will incur penalties if specifications are not met, particularly in times of overproduction.”
“Its hot water extract is a similar level to that of Concerto – a trait that helped Concerto to become a benchmark variety.
“A high hot water extract is heavily desired by the end user, in order for them to achieve higher sugar extraction rates from the malt and create more alcohol – and LG Diablo offers this.”
Paul Huntley, Seed Grain Director at Simpsons Malt Ltd, based in Berwick-upon-Tweed, is excited about the performance of LG Diablo to date, and believes that it will have a significant impact on the malting barley marketplace. “For the three years that we have had the variety in testing, it has performed very well. Even in this summer’s challenging conditions, it has stood well when some other varieties
have gone over.”
“In our macro-scale trialling last year, LG Diablo malted well and distilling customers were very happy with its performance, which led to its Full Approval for malt distilling”
“From a Scottish malting barley perspective, it’s always good to have a new variety on the block, broadening choice and reducing the reliance on a single dominant variety, as we have seen with Concerto and latterly Laureate.”
