Plan to increase use of Irish wheat in alcohol

Sinead Morris of South East Technological University Carlow at the Irish Grain Growers Group AGM at the Clanard Court Hotel, Athy, Co Kildare. Picture: Michael Donnelly

A four-year research project is looking at the potential for substituting imported maize with Irish wheat for the drinks industry.

Large amounts of grain imported to Ireland are used in the drinks industry, particularly maize for whiskey production.

The project, DABBING CAP, is hoping the results of its project will provide an additional market for growers.

It aims to develop the knowledge to produce and effectively utilise natively grown cereals, mainly wheat but also rye and spelt, in Irish whiskey distilleries.

The Department of Agriculture funded project is a collaboration between South East Technological University (SETU), Technological University Dublin, and Teagasc.

Comparability 

Speaking at the Irish Grain Growers Group AGM event on Monday in Co Kildare, SETU’s Sinead Morris explained that SETU’s role in the project is in developing lab-scale alcohol yield and grain quality tests, optimised for the Irish whiskey industry.

It is also working on identifying the grain characteristics that render wheat suitable for Irish grain whiskey production, along with characterising grains (rye, wheat, Irish maize) in terms of their suitability to the Irish distilling sector.

“Any of the big distilleries we would work with are shocked that our wheat yields are comparable with our maize yields, how much alcohol we’re getting per tonne of grain,” Ms Morris said of the research being conducted.

“They’re definitely comparable and showing promise.” She said that distilleries she has spoken to about using wheat and rye, are “incredibly open to it”.

“There are some of the big players already processing it, some of the smaller players are also starting to run their own trials of running these through their settings to see what products they can get,” she explained.

“The big thing that it’s going to come down to for wheat and rye is the flavour it’s going to add to the whiskey, and that it’s something that they want in their style of whiskey.”

Meanwhile, speaking at the event, Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue said there is “significant potential” to increase production of grains such as malting barley, “driven by success in relation to Irish alcohol products, particularly, Irish whiskey”.

The Irish whiskey industry purchases over 100,000 tonnes of Irish barley and malt annually, according to the Irish Whiskey Association, and the association’s recently-published roadmap for making Irish distilleries more sustainable commits to buying more from Irish farmers.