The malting industry desires widely-adapted cultivars for the US and Canada. In addition to agronomic characteristics such as yield (YLD), test weight (TW), and percentage plump kernels (PK), several malting characteristics must also be stable across diverse environments. Among the most important malting traits are percentage grain protein, percentage malt extract (ME), the ratio of soluble to total protein, and enzymatic activity based on alpha amylase (AA) and diastatic power (DP). This study was undertaken to assess these quality characteristics in elite spring barley genotypes across diverse environments. In the 2003 growing season 40 genotypes, including the two- and six-rowed malt industry standards, Harrington and Morex, respectively, were grown at nine locations in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Data for YLD, TW, and PK were collected. Malt quality factors were measured from one plot per location by the Cereal Crops Research Unit, Madison, WI. Relative to the standard cultivars, elite breeding lines from the ARS-Aberdeen program were generally lower in DP and AA activity while being similar or better for ME. Elite lines were generally superior to the malt checks for YLD, TW, and PK. Biplot analysis provided a quick and easy visualization of the relationship of breeding lines to check cultivars with respect to malting characteristics. Biplots combining malt data from all locations showed that several two-rowed breeding lines are close to Harrington whereas none of the six-rowed breeding lines were close to Morex. This information will assist in the identification of potential parents in efforts to develop higher yielding superior quality malt barleys.
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