b'Bells Brewery in Michigan makes a wheat ale called Oberon, and Anchor Brewing Company in San Francisco, Americas oldest craft brewery, makes several. Anchor was the place where the first wheat beer in America since Prohibition was made, in 1984, called Anchor Summer Beer. The brewery also offers Anchor Mango Wheat and most recently launched Anchor Winter Wheat, a blend of malted barley and four varieties of wheat from Belgium, Germany and the Midwest, plus a locally-grown soft red winter wheat. Michael Cooper, executive director and CEO of the premium malting company Independent Barley & Malt (IB&M), notes that aside from some craft breweries that seek out specific varieties, most wheat malt, roasted wheat, wheat flakes in the U.S. are not marketed as varietal-specific. Indeed, most of the wheat used for malt-ing in the U.S. is Canadian hard red spring wheat, but theMost of the wheat used for malting in the U.S. is Canadian hard red trouble is that type of wheat is primarily used for bakingspring wheat.or milling and not malting. Among other qualities, wheat for baking purposes has higher levels of protein, and thats not desirable for malting. This situation is the reason Vince Coonce, IB&Ms director of malting, is work-ing with scientists at Michigan State University and the Michigan Craft Beverage Council to select a soft winter wheat that is better for malting.Genetic DevelopmentsThe study, now in its second year, involves the measure-ment of traits of four Michigan wheat varieties grown under different fertilizer treatmentsagronomic traits as well as traits that lend themselves to high-quality malt production such as grain plumpness (larger kernel size), friability and extract. In terms of breeding wheat specifically for distil-lation, some years ago the GreenGrains Project was initiated at the James Hutton Institute in Scotland. The project breeders aimed to identify traits that contrib-ute to high alcohol yield and also locate the genetic and environmental factors controlling these traits. High alcohol yield (related to amount of nitrogen in the grain) had already been shown to be influenced by environ-mental factors. Senior James Hutton Institute Scientist Joanne Russell reports that 38 gene regions were identified as account- Stumbletowns Purple Wheat Vodka was an experiment to try and get new ing for variation in the 11 measured traits.flavour into a drink thats hard to experiment with.Since GreenGrains finished, we have focussed on barley and projects that have both a wheat and barleylarge firms and small craft distilleries and breweries are component, she explains. Such as a recently-fundedstill experimenting with wheat in their products.European Union project developing genomics tools forHowever, a perennial grain cousin of annual wheat legacy collections of both crops.called Kernza, developed by the Land Institute in Kansas, may have an even brighter future. It is so far being used Looking Forward in a beer offered by Patagonia of Portland, Ore., and Wheat has certainly earned itself a permanent place inwho knows what other brewed or distilled beverages will the making of the many spirits and beers we enjoy. Bothfollow. 50GERMINATION.CANOVEMBER 2020'