Maris Otter Barley Is Released

In 1966, the British Plant Breeding Institute released Maris Otter, a two-row winter barley variety developed under the direction of plant breeder Dr. G. D. H. Bell. The institute was then based on Maris Lane in Trumpington, near Cambridge, England, and the first part of the variety’s name came from that location. The institute remained at Trumpington until its operations were reorganized and moved from the site near the end of the twentieth century. Maris Otter was created by crossing two earlier PBI varieties, Proctor and Pioneer. Pioneer, bred in 1943, was Britain’s first commercially viable winter-hardy malting barley. Proctor was a spring barley introduced in the early 1950s and descended from a cross between the Danish variety Kenia and Plumage Archer. Plumage Archer was an English spring barley developed at Warminster around 1905. The combination gave Maris Otter the winter-growing habit of Pioneer and the established malting qualities associated with Proctor. It subsequently became one of Britain’s most important malting-barley varieties and remains closely associated with traditional British ale production.