Little Creatures Ancient Traveller Ethiopian Black Barley Stout is a new limited release beer showcasing a unique heirloom barley variety roasted to the brewer’s own specifications.
Head brewer Russ Gosling told Drinks Adventures the unprecedented collaboration evolved from some discussions with Voyager Craft Malt founder Stu Whytcross about the Ethiopian black barley variety grown in Australia since 2008.
“I had this idea to make an Ethiopian stout that uses Ethiopian black barley,” Gosling said.
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“It requires less water to grow, so there’s sustainability advantages to growing it in Australia.”
An heirloom variety dating back to 4500BC, Ethiopian black barley was once an important food source for the ancient civilisations of North Africa, the Middle East and the Himalayas, prized for its flavour, colour and nutritional value.
Voyager’s Stu Whytcross sourced a very small amount of the seed from the US in 2008, which he propagated over several years, starting with a small patch in his vegetable garden.
“After seven years of propagating this up to several tonnes, we discovered another grower, Mark Murphy in Benalla had the same variety of grain that he’d bred up in a similar fashion,” Whytcross told Drinks Adventures.
“We combined his grain with ours to accelerate the commercialisation of this variety.”
Once enough grain was propagated, [Victorian farmer] Hamish Sinclair commercially grew the grain under licence.
Gosling asked Voyager to roast the barley to four different specifications that would form the basis of a new stout.
“We did some trials with the material they roasted for us, and we landed on a recipe,” he said.
‘No gimmicky ingredients’
Voyager says European black barley offers distinctive nut and biscuit aromas that segue into an earthy and cereal grain-like flavour, with a slightly oily mouthfeel.
“It has a distinct umami, miso-like character, that once further roasted brings out the earthy nuttiness,” Whytcross said.
“It’s six-row, and hull-less, which enables us to roast it quite dark without fear of the typical bitter astringency you’d get from the husk on most barley when roasted.”
He said the variety grows a lot more canopy and foliage, which helps it to compete with weeds. This eliminates the need to spray chemicals, and increases the amount of soil carbon.
Gosling said Ancient Traveller is, “a straight up, very good stout, with no gimmicky spices or other ingredients”.
“We didn’t want anything to interfere with the Ethiopian black barley, in terms of the aroma or palate.
“We’ve just let that roasted malt do all the work for us in this beer.”
He hopes the resulting Ancient Traveller Ethiopian Black Barley Stout (six per cent ABV) will be the first of many beers developed in partnership with Voyager.
“What they’re doing in terms of different varieties of barley and other materials that you can grow more sustainably is really exciting for me,” he said.
“It’s really forward thinking and it’s something we want to be a part of.”
Added Whytcross: “Little Creatures Pale Ale was my epiphany beer, and was the beginning of what’s been a pretty amazing journey for me the past 20 years, so it’s a quite surreal to be now working with them on such unique projects like this.”
Little Creatures Ancient Traveller Ethiopian Black Barley Stout is available now from Dan Murphy’s with an RRP of $19.99 for a four-pack.
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