Cultivar · Barley cultivar
Optic
Optic is a two-row spring malting barley from a British breeding programme that became the most widely grown spring malting variety in Britain in the mid-2000s before being superseded by newer cultivars.
Record
Cultivar / variety- Variety of
- Barley
- Botanical taxon
- Hordeum vulgare
- Type
- Cultivar
- Breeding method
- Cross-breeding (pedigree selection)
- Origin
- United Kingdom
- Breeder / institution
- New Farm Crops / Nickerson barley breeding programme (later part of Syngenta)
- Registry status
- Historical · as of 2026-07-12
- Adaptation
- A spring malting barley grown in the United Kingdom and other temperate regions.
- Intended use
- Spring malting barley for brewing and distilling
Registry listing or variety protection is jurisdiction- and date-specific and does not by itself indicate current commercial availability, universal cultivation approval, patent status, or a recommendation.
Optic is a two-row spring malting barley (Hordeum vulgare) developed by a British barley breeding programme (New Farm Crops / Nickerson, later part of Syngenta). It was approved for malting through the industry assessment process and grown widely for brewing and distilling.
For a period Optic was the most widely grown spring malting barley in Britain, particularly in the mid-2000s. It has since been largely superseded by later malting varieties, and is now of chiefly historical and reference interest.
History and adoption
Optic came from a British spring-barley breeding programme and was taken up widely as a malting variety after passing the malting industry’s assessment process. In the mid-2000s it was the leading spring malting barley grown in Britain.
As newer varieties with updated agronomic and malting characteristics were introduced, Optic was gradually replaced in commercial cropping. It remains a well-documented reference point among modern British malting barleys.
Classification and use
- Species
- Hordeum vulgare
- Spike type
- Two-row
- Growth habit
- Spring
- End use
- Malting for brewing and distilling
Official variety registration
Entries recorded for this denomination in official variety registers. Registration is a legal fact about marketing or ownership, separate from where the variety is grown or whether seed is available.
No entry for this cultivar is currently listed in the registers AgricultureID reads.
Entries that are no longer current
Each register decides separately, so these are grouped by instrument and jurisdiction and never combined into one timeline.
DenmarkNational list entry
- Observed 2026-08-27Expireddate not published by the sourceThe EU Plant Variety Portal — national list entry records this entry as “Expired” and publishes no date for the change.
- These registers publish a grant or listing date but no date for an entry ceasing to be current, so when this ended is not established here.
IrelandNational list entry
- Observed 2026-08-27Surrendereddate not published by the sourceThe EU Plant Variety Portal — national list entry records this entry as “Surrendered” and publishes no date for the change.
- These registers publish a grant or listing date but no date for an entry ceasing to be current, so when this ended is not established here.
History records what an official source published at a point in time. Where the source states the date a change took effect, that date is shown; where it does not, only the date AgricultureID observed the change is shown, and it is labelled as such.
Each history is specific to one jurisdiction and one legal instrument. A right that expired in one country says nothing about a listing in another, and they are never combined.
A variety registration permits marketing; a plant variety protection right is ownership. They are granted by different bodies under different law and are never added together.
Entries are matched to this cultivar by identical denomination and by matching botanical species. Registers do not publish a global variety identifier, so a same-name entry in the same species could in principle be a distinct variety.
Registration is jurisdiction-specific, is granted under a particular legal instrument, and changes. A variety absent from a register may still be grown; confirm the current position with the responsible authority before acting on it. How registration is recorded.
Scope & limitations
Geographic scope: Documented United Kingdom two-row spring malting barley, widely grown in the 2000s; adaptation and performance are region- and season-specific.
Climate context: A spring malting barley grown in the United Kingdom and other temperate regions.
- Adaptation and trait notes are region- and season-specific, and performance varies by environment.
- No release year is asserted here because a reliable date was not confirmed; Optic has been largely superseded, and its current variety-list status is not verified here.
Sources
This article draws on the following authoritative sources. See our sources & methodology for how they are selected.
- [1]AHDB — Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (opens in a new tab)High
Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB)
Cited for: United Kingdom spring malting barley variety and Recommended Lists context
- Type:
- Government agency
- Jurisdiction:
- United Kingdom
- Accessed:
- 2026-07-12
- High
Cited for: Classification of Hordeum vulgare
- Type:
- Reference database
- Jurisdiction:
- Global
- Accessed:
- 2026-07-12