One of the most important components of the alcoholic drink is changing due to the climate crisis. Scientists are trying to understand how this will affect barley, from the field to the beer tap
How do you like your beer? Most likely you are sweating and cold. From here it becomes more varied: light or dark? fruity? Light or strong? for my lover beer Many have their favorite type. The question is whether he will stay that way. Changes in the growth environments of a basic ingredient in the alcoholic beverage - barley - raising the possibility that the beer flavors will also change.
The inhabitants of the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East began to domesticate barley 8,000 ago And since then it has become a useful agricultural crop in many parts of the world. "Barley is one of the first species that man domesticated," says Dr. Eyal Friedman, a researcher at the Research Institute for Plant Sciences at the Volcani Institute.An important food source For humans and animals: Barley provides proteins, minerals and fiber, it has anti-cancer abilities, the ability to reduce inflammation and reduce the level of cholesterol in the body. Another advantage of growing barley is its multiplication factor. "From year to year you can get a lot of seeds", and according to Friedman, this is similar to many types of grains - such as wheat.
According to Friedman, the transition from wild species (growing in their natural environment) to cultivated species (used for agriculture in areas suitable for humans) is related to selection processes that humans have done, consciously or unconsciously. In his famous book Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond writes that the transition of food consumption from hunting and gathering to agriculture was a product of trial and error. The first farmers did not know what agriculture was, and their crops developed "as a byproduct of decisions made without knowing their consequences," Diamond writes. When the experiment was successful, the wild plant turned out to be suitable for domestication. From here on you can build on it and grow it massively.
The use of gardens from wild species is intended to allow farmers to deal better with the climate crisis. Photo: It's an environment - our food - barley.
From the field to the pub
alcohol Formed in a fermentation process of the sugars in cereal seeds - like Wheat and barley - which is made by yeast. Between the two grains there are some crucial differences that affect the alcoholic beverages that can be made from them. According to Friedman, an important difference is in the structure of the grain seed: the barley seed coat has more enzymes that help break down the sugars than the wheat seed coat. For this reason, barley is more suitable for the production of alcoholic beverages - including whiskey, which is considered higher quality alcohol. Another advantage of barley over wheat is related to adaptation to the habitat. "Barley can grow where wheat cannot," says Friedman, referring to the harsh conditions of drought or soil salinity. According to him, in challenging times barley grows better than wheat because of its ability to withstand extreme conditions.
Oat genetics
In recent years Friedman participated in studies Regarding wild varieties (that are not cultivated) of barley - one from the Hermon area and the other from the Ashkelon area. The studies dealt with their genetic characterization in order to optimize the agricultural growth of the cultivated barley. One of the interesting findings is the difference in response to changing heat between the wild species and the cultivated species. The wild Ashkelon species responded well to the heat: it increased its biomass (amount of organic matter) and produced more oats and more barley seeds. On the other hand, the Hermonian wild species did not increase its biomass, produced less oats and less seeds. this connection works in reverse in the cultivated barley. According to him, there is a trade-off - "in a civilized species, if you produce more oats, you will have fewer seeds in each oat."
The use of gardens from wild species is intended to allow farmers to deal better with the climate crisis. "The problem is that growing areas heat up or dry out," says Friedman. The changes in the growing environment affect the food supply, for example by changing the growing seasons of plants, and it is possible to use the genetic sources of the wild species to optimize the response of the cultivation of the cultivated species to the changing environmental conditions. That is to say, it is possible to strengthen the resistance to ecological changes, which is expressed in the ability of the crop to "maintain its level of productivity", he says.
European beer
Not only changes in the growing environment affect the barley, but also changes in the barley itself. For example, an accidental genetic change - a mutation - contributed to the prosperity of barley in more northern regions of the Middle East. This is a type of barley whose biological clock went wrong and it stopped responding to changes in the length of the day. "It usually takes a certain length of day to reach flowering," he describes. Once the mutation occurred, barley could be grown outside of the Fertile Crescent because it no longer required the conditions prevailing in our regions. This makes possible a situation where there is a difference "between the areas where the wild species are grown and the areas where most of the species are grown after undergoing a change. This is what characterizes the success of European agriculture: this particular mutation made it possible to take the barley and grow it in the north, where the warm season is much shorter." , Friedman explains. Imagine what the business of the Bavarian breweries would look like without this mutation.
"The advantage of working with wild species," concludes Friedman, "is that you have a lot of [genetic] diversity there that has been lost [in the civilized species]." Today's crops, he claims, are focused on quantity. However, there is a corresponding demand for quality as well. In the wild varieties, he says, it is possible to find flavors we did not know. While the subject is currently being researched, Friedman estimates that new discoveries about wild types of barley will contribute to the creation of more flavors and aromas in drinks within a few years. If you meet the scientist responsible for this, don't forget to invite him for a new flavored beer. Cheers!
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