New red beers are healthier than normal pints, says Carlsberg

Experimental lager is made from a barley with the same natural compounds as grape skins

A crimson beer made from red barley has been created which is healthier and tastier than normal pints, according to brewers.
‌Scientists at beer giant Carlsberg have created “crossover” beers that are imbued with the colourful chemicals found in wines which have been linked to a host of health benefits.
‌The experimental lager is less bitter and contains fewer hops than normal beer thanks to the addition of anthocyanins, chemicals in grape skins that make wine red.
‌These compounds are naturally occurring and red barley has been bred to contain a high concentration of the chemicals, which have been shown to boost memory as well as reduce the risk of cancer, inflammation and diabetes.
‌Dr Zoran Gojkovic, director of brewing science, yeast and fermentation at Carlsberg Research Laboratory, told The Telegraph: “We have all colours here from our research. We have a green beer, we have blue, we have black, we have red. There is a lot of stuff, and surprisingly for us, they all taste different.
‌“You should eat colours, the more colours you eat the better for you. But in our case, we drink colours.
‌“Luckily, the red one was what we had the most of and we also made it first and it turns out it is extremely tasty.
‌“The colour is from anthocyanins, a little bit like those in the grape skins used in wines,” he said.
‌“There are different compounds, different anthocyanins, there are about 6,000 of them. These beers do have a reminiscence of an amazing taste like a wine, but it is a beer — so it’s a little bit of a crossover.”
‌Red barley is not made with gene-editing but by specialised natural cross-breeding using techniques developed as part of the Carlsberg Research Laboratory’s own technology, dubbed Find-It, which allows scientists to identify desirable genes in other plants and then breed them into barley to create new varieties.
‌Carlsberg has also mapped the full genome of both male and female hops in a world-first scientific breakthrough which will help brewers worldwide create more bespoke beers and this work is currently in the process of being published in a leading scientific journal.
‌But, despite this hop expertise, Dr Gojkovic says his philosophy is to use as few hops as possible in his work. “I very rarely use hops. I often say my beers are hopless – but not hopeless,” the Copenhagen-based master brewer said.
‌Hops, he said, were first used in the middle ages as a way to stop the ale from spoiling but historically beer was more sweet and flavoursome, with Vikings even brewing their mead with juniper.
‌Now, however, with the advent of pasteurisation and other improved sanitary measures the stabilising role of hops and their bitter taste is simply a hangover from a bygone era, he claims.
‌Currently, the healthier and sweeter red beer is in short supply as a result of being an experimental product.
‌But it has found an audience in an unfamiliar setting, with the flavour profile meaning it is finding fans among sommeliers and chefs opposed to just the regulars down the local.
‌“Reducing bitterness does open a new area in gastronomy,” Dr Gojkovic said. “We are collaborating with big chefs and some famous restaurants, and even these biggest chefs don’t know what to match with bitter beer.
‌“But our red barley beer is on the menu of one of the best restaurants in the world. It was a little bit surprising when we realised beer can compete, even over-compete, with certain wines in the high-end restaurants.”
‌The company is now working on improving supply of red barley in order to make it more widely available and cheaper, but it is also looking to the future and focusing on ways to ensure that as climate change makes barley harder to farm, the world will not suddenly be without beer, the third-most consumed drink in the world after tea and water.
‌Carlsberg is using Find-It to track down desirable genes that can be bred with barley to make it more resilient to higher temperatures and drier conditions, but the company is also making beer from other plants, such as fonio, a crop found in Africa.
‌“Barley is a wimpy plant,” explained Dr Gojkovic. “It is a plant that doesn’t like it too hot and doesn’t like it too cold. What if barley disappears? What will we do?”
‌Birgitte Skadhauge, the head of the Carlsberg Research Laboratory, said that resilience and taste are both key to the survival of beer amid global warming.
‌“Find-It is quite a revolution for us,” she said. “It is an alternative to GMO and is a screening technology where we can quickly see the DNA from many plants and within two weeks identify the exact genetic variant that we are interested in.
‌“You can remove, for example, an old flavour, or you can have more enzyme in your barley which is favourable for the brewing process, or you can have a more optimal flavour or beer composition.
‌“I would say this technology, which we published in Science Advances in 2022, has been really a game-changer for us, not only in barley, but also in wheat, rice, hops, and yeast.”