Along with his colleague John Wishart and Orkney’s Barony Mill, Peter has played a crucial role in the resurrection and research of Bere, an ancient six row landrace grain. Here, he talks about some of Bere’s agronomic advantages and history.
Since 2016, in collaboration with scientists at the James Hutton Institute and University of Copenhagen, the University of the Highlands and Islands’ Agronomy Institute has been investigating some of the characteristics of Bere which have made it such a valuable crop in Scottish agriculture for such a long time. The aim is to identify the genes which are responsible for the most useful traits so that plant breeders can incorporate them into modern barley varieties.
One trait in Bere which has been of particular value to farmers in Scotland in the past is its ability to produce a crop of grain in a very short period. This is especially crucial for successful growing in the north of Scotland where the growing season is cool, planting is late and crops need to be harvested before weather deteriorates in late September. Trials in Orkney have shown that local Bere is usually ready for harvesting about two weeks earlier than most other traditional or modern types of British spring barley.
Another trait of major importance is the ability of some types of Bere to grow successfully on coastal sandy soils which are very deficient in manganese and other trace elements.
These soils are very common in both the Western and Northern Isles and are locally important for agriculture. In some places, they also form part of a dune pasture ecosystem (‘machair’) with rich biodiversity.
One of our growers, Magnus Spence, farms on such land and likes to grow Bere because it does not need any additional trace element sprays. Our own field at Burray, where we grow Bere for Bruichladdich, is also on this type of soil and has been the site of trials since 2017 investigating Bere’s tolerance to such soils.
This research has shown that the tolerance trait is not present in all Bere, but occurs in Bere which originated from areas with sandy soil in each of the three groups of Scottish islands (Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles). Dramatically, the trials have also shown that, in contrast to tolerant types of Bere, a wide range of modern barley varieties grow only very poorly on this soil.
On a global scale, manganese deficient soils are a significant constraint on crop production, and greater understanding of Bere’s tolerance could lead to improved modern varieties which are able to grow better on such soils.
On a global scale, manganese deficient soils are a significant constraint on crop production, and greater understanding of Bere’s tolerance could lead to improved modern varieties which are able to grow better on such soils.
Initially, this concentrated on the possibility of extracting DNA from barley grains from archaeological sites for comparison with today’s Bere, but this has not been successful since these grains are all carbonised (i.e. have been through a burning process) and this destroys the DNA.
Another approach which has been used is geometric modern morphometrics (GMM) and this has found a distinctive signature in the shape of Bere barley grain. So, samples from dated archaeological sites in the Northern Isles are being analysed with this technique to see whether there are any similarities with the Bere we grow today.
Very useful information has also come from comparing the genetic composition of Bere with that of other old types of barley from other parts of Europe. This has shown that Bere is genetically distinct from most of these other types, providing support for the view that Bere was introduced to Scotland in pre‐Viking times, and possibly much earlier than this.
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Two New Barley Vintages 
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The figures below state the average representative values per serving giving 10g alcohol, or per standard 25ml measure:
| Product | The Classic Laddie | |
|---|---|---|
| Alcohol (% by volume) | 50% | |
| Nutritional values: | Per 10 g alcohol (25,3 ml serving): | Per 25 ml serving: |
| Alcohol (g) | 10 | 10 |
| Calories (Kcal) | 69 | 69 |
| Fat (g) | 0 | 0 |
| – of which Saturates (g) | 0 | 0 |
| Carbohydrates (g) | 0 | 0 |
| – of which Sugar (g) | 0 | 0 |
| Protein (g) | 0 | 0 |
It started with our friend ‘Demolition Dave’ helping Duncan McGillivray and his gang to demolish the old Inverleven distillery – buying up all the old equipment for scrap and loading it onto barges on the Clyde. All so Duncan had some spares to keep Bruichladdich running in the days of No Money.
As this odd flotilla was being towed round the Mull of Kintyre and up to Islay, Laddie MD Mark Reynier received an email from the Defence Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) in the USA who had been monitoring distillery webcams on the grounds that our processes could have been ‘tweaked’ to produce the dreaded WMD. ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’.
Never one to allow the opportunity for a good story to pass him by, or to get his beloved distillery in the news, Reynier embellished the tale, which soon grew to involve spies and the CIA and visits by weapons inspectors. All of which made great headline-grabbing copy in the febrile media atmosphere then prevailing around WMD.
One of the stills from Inverleven was dutifully set up outside the old Victorian buildings, and became an iconic sight, with a pair of Duncan’s old wellie boots sticking out of the top to represent those weapons inspectors searching for dangerous chemicals deep in its copper bottomed interior.
A special bottling was commissioned (of course) and dubbed the ‘Whisky of Mass Distinction’ (geddit?) and much hilarity ensued. At least among the Laddies, the rest of the whisky industry having long since given up on the noisily irreverent rebels.
Things were about to get even more eccentric because, shortly afterwards, Islay fisherman John Baker was heading home to Port Ellen when he spotted something awash in the sea off the bow of his boat. Being a resourceful man, he attached a rope to said object and towed it into the pier where Gordon Currie lifted it out of the water. It proved to be a very beautiful yellow submarine.
Very conveniently, the yellow vessel had ‘Ministry of Defence’ and a telephone number stencilled on it, which was of course immediately called. What happened next was to become the stuff of legend. He was connected to the Royal Navy. “I have found your yellow submarine” said John. “We haven’t lost a yellow submarine” said the Navy. Which was an odd response as the evidence to the contrary was overwhelming.
John and Gordon then loaded the submarine onto a lorry and took it to a secret location in Port Ellen (actually fellow fisherman Harold Hastie’s back garden). The local newspaper was called, then the nationals, and the following day the red-tops were full of pictures of the two friends astride the lethal-looking machine, carrying fishing rods, and asking: “Has anybody lost a yellow submarine?”
Hilarious… unless you were the Royal Navy – who did eventually admit to it being theirs. HMS Blyth, the minesweeper that lost it, eventually came to pick it up, slipping into the pier at dawn to winch it aboard. By that time, Bruichladdich had (of course) commissioned another bottling, WMD2: The Yellow Submarine, and a box of lovely liquid was graciously offered, and accepted by the captain as a goodwill gesture.
The figures below state the average representative values per serving giving 10g alcohol, or per standard 25ml measure:
| Product | Islay Barley 2009 | |
|---|---|---|
| Alcohol (% by volume) | 50% | |
| Nutritional values: | Per 10 g alcohol (25,3 ml serving): | Per 25 ml serving: |
| Alcohol (g) | 10 | 10 |
| Calories (Kcal) | 69 | 69 |
| Fat (g) | 0 | 0 |
| – of which Saturates (g) | 0 | 0 |
| Carbohydrates (g) | 0 | 0 |
| – of which Sugar (g) | 0 | 0 |
| Protein (g) | 0 | 0 |
The figures below state the average representative values per serving giving 10g alcohol, or per standard 25ml measure:
| Product | Port Charlotte Scottish Barley | |
|---|---|---|
| Alcohol (% by volume) | 50% | |
| Nutritional values: | Per 10 g alcohol (25,3 ml serving): | Per 25 ml serving: |
| Alcohol (g) | 10 | 10 |
| Calories (Kcal) | 69 | 69 |
| Fat (g) | 0 | 0 |
| – of which Saturates (g) | 0 | 0 |
| Carbohydrates (g) | 0 | 0 |
| – of which Sugar (g) | 0 | 0 |
| Protein (g) | 0 | 0 |
The figures below state the average representative values per serving giving 10g alcohol, or per standard 25ml measure:
| Product | Octomore 07.1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Alcohol (% by volume) | 59.5% | |
| Nutritional values: | Per 10 g alcohol (25,3 ml serving): | Per 25 ml serving: |
| Alcohol (g) | 10 | 12 |
| Calories (Kcal) | 69 | 82 |
| Fat (g) | 0 | 0 |
| – of which Saturates (g) | 0 | 0 |
| Carbohydrates (g) | 0 | 0 |
| – of which Sugar (g) | 0 | 0 |
| Protein (g) | 0 | 0 |
