Malting and Brewing Industry Barley Technical Committee

The Malting and Brewing Industry Barley Technical Committee (MBIBTC) is comprised of technical malting and brewing experts from Australia's major malting and brewing companies. Among the MBIBTC's roles within the Australian barley industry is the technical evaluation of new malting barley varieties to examine their suitability for malting and brewing - for both the domestic and export marketplace.

Member companies of the MBIBTC are:

• Barrett Burston Malting
• J. Boag & Son
• Coopers Brewery
• Foster's Group
• Malteurop Australia
• Joe White Maltings
• Kirin Australia
• Lion Nathan Australia

For each new variety of malting barley bred in Australia, there are a rigorous series of evaluations and hurdles the variety must pass in order to gain accreditation as a malting barley variety.

After the breeding organisations screen the variety with agronomic and quality (micro-malting) testing, the variety is submitted to Barley Australia. MBIBTC companies then commercially malt the barley and evaluate the processed malt, using analysis methodology from both IBD and EBC.

The results of the commercial malt are reviewed by the entire committee in the context of other micro evaluation previously carried out. When the committee is satisfied with the malting performance and malt quality under commercial conditions the barley variety is passed on to Pilot Brewing Australia for brew evaluation.

The results of the brewing trials are returned to the MBIBTC committee for review and a recommendation for Stage 1 or Malting accreditation is declared or declined. This recommendation is then forwarded to Barley Australia where if positive the variety becomes nationally accredited as malting.