New Barley Keeps Beer Fresh
Sapporo Breweries develops new line of barley that keeps beer “fresher” longer
Sapporo Breweries Ltd. has developed a new line of barley that keeps beer fresh longer and will start commercial production of the line in Canada in 2008, according to a company press release.
The company has filed patent applications for the barley line in about 30 countries in a bid to launch a beer material business to earn royalties, it said.
The firm said it has taken eight years to develop the barley that lacks lipoxygenase, or LOX, which causes the flavor of beer to deteriorate.
Sapporo Breweries said that in brewing tests the barley was found to reduce the amount of flavor-deteriorating substances in beer to one-third of the conventional level and foam-reducing substances were reduced by half.
The firm plans to produce 3,000 tons of the new barley line in Canada in 2008 before boosting annual production to 90,000 tons in other locations around the world by 2011.
Annual global beer barley output is estimated at 20 million tons, indicating that the firm’s beer material business could be promising, the company said.
