One in five beers in the world is brewed with French barley. Driven by a dynamic of innovation and quality, the sector continues to evolve for greater competitiveness.
Constantly improving varieties
“Varietal selection advances barley quality to meet the demand of farmers and manufacturers”, underlines Frédéric Lievens, technical and marketing director at Semences de France. If yield remains the main improvement criterion sought from producers, adaptation to climatic and biological hazards is also progressing: the introduction of varieties resistant to the barley dwarf yellows virus is an example.
Decarbonize the sector
“The Beer Malt Barley Committee supports us in improving the protein composition of grains in relation to nitrogen efficiency,” adds Guillaume Roullet, director of the breeder Unisigma. “We are also interested in varieties that make it possible to reduce water consumption during “tempering” or energy consumed during “kilning”, to decarbonize the sector », adds Christian Leveau, responsible for varietal choice for Malteries Soufflet.
Watch the full video “Varietal selection serving the brewing industry”, a round table organized by Terre-net Factory and proposed by Bioline by InVivo
“Sustainable” sectors are developing
Widely aware of environmental issues, consumers expect companies to adopt more sustainable practices to limit their carbon footprint, via a range of good practices. “The farmers involved commit to a production contract with specifications to be respected and receive bonuses accordingly,” explains Justine Mauclert, “sector” facilitator at Soufflet Agriculture.
In full development, the approach Let's sow meaning thus makes it possible to track the origin of the grains while promoting farmers' practices to provide brewers with barleys and malts with a positive impact. “The objective is to show that our farmers are capable of doing a lot for the agroecological transition and that for this, we support them economically and technically,” adds Justine Mauclert.
Watch the full video “Malteries Soufflet: promoting sustainable sectors, barley, malt, beer – Sowing sense”, a round table organized by Terre-net Factory and proposed by Bioline by InVivo
Artificial intelligence at the service of malt production
Combining the expertise of the malting professions with the computing power of artificial intelligence: this is the ambition of the project led by Malteries Soufflet in partnership with InVivo Digital Factory to bring the beer industry into the era digital and factory 4.0. Its acronym, MAITÉ (Malt Artificial Intelligence Technologies), was not chosen by chance. “The objective being to support the adaptation of malt recipes, it is of course a nod to the famous cook,” smiles Stéphane Marcel, director of digital transformation of the InVivo group.
Machine learning
Powered by data, MAITÉ works on the principle of machine learning. “After analysis, the tool recommends to production managers the best parameters and conditions for transforming barley into malt (temperature, energy, pressure, etc.) to obtain a result perfectly suited to the expectations of Soufflet Malteries customers,” explains Romain Affanni, Chief Product Officer at InVivo Digital Factory.
Already in operation in two or three factories in France, InVivo's AI is attractive. “Its recommendations streamline the process by allowing operators to have greater autonomy,” confirms Vincent Graille, CEI Operational Director at Malteries Soufflet.
Watch the full video “Malterie 4.0: when AI revolutionizes the brewing industry”, a round table organized by Terre-net Factory and offered by Bioline by InVivo. Here is the link.
This co-branded communication is written by Terre-net Factory, a service independent of the Terre-net editorial team, on behalf of an external company. The subject is proposed by the client and submitted for consultation to the editor-in-chief of the title, who may oppose a project going against its editorial line.
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