One of the geekier, deep cuts for #independent beer world is the annual release heralding the recipients of Brewers Association 2019 Research and Service Grants Program. For 2019, 17 grants totaling $509,058 were awarded to researchers and organizations across the country to scientifically advance the key ingredients in beer.
I went through the list and the items that caught my eye in the world of barley and hops were the following:
Evaluating a Multi-State Breeding Project to Produce Local Malting Barley for the Craft Brewing Industry at the University of Minnesota seems the most important of the group since hyper local is such a key part of craft beer.
Then there are two barley projects that share the same term that I had to Google to understand: The Continuing Quest for Flavor: From the Oregon Promise to the Romp of Otters at Oregon State University and Metabolomics and Genomics Analysis of the ‘Romp of Otters’ Barley Flavor Project at Colorado State University. I now know what a two or more otters are called and I wish more groups were called Romps.
On the hop front, Development of Thiols and Thiol Precursors in Different Hop Varieties During Hop Harvest and their Impact on Beer Flavour conducted by Nyseos, Barth-Haas Group could yield new insights on flavors in the next big IPA style.