Chariot is a UK barley variety that was prevalent in the 1990s and 2000s. It was a hugely successful spring variety bred by Plant Breeding International (PBI), the successor to the UK state-owned breeding station in Cambridge (now part of seed-breeding and seed-selling company RAGT Seeds Ltd.). Chariot was bred as a cross between the variety Dera and an unnamed crossing strain, itself a cross between Carnival and Atem. Armed with resistance to mildew, yellow rust, brown rust, and scald (Rhynchosporium), it showed much-improved disease performance compared to varieties available to the grower in 1992, when it entered the UK Recommended lists. As such it produced a large increase in yield from plots not treated with fungicides, compared to established varieties such as Blenheim, a daughter variety of Triumph, which had accounted for nearly one quarter of the cultivated barley acreage in Europe.

In treated plots, the yield remained superior. Good brewhouse extracts and excellent malting, brewing, and distilling performance led to its recommendation by the Institute of Brewing (now the Institute of Brewing and Distilling; see institute of brewing & distilling (ibd)) in 1993. It became the spring variety of choice throughout the UK—the first universal choice since Triumph—and remained so for a decade until superseded by Optic. Chariot possessed classic malting properties of low wort viscosity and β-glucan. See beta- glucans. Protein modification was moderate, giving low soluble protein in worts.

PBI were so confident about the quality of this new variety in 1992 that they claimed in their product literature that pubs would soon be named for it. While this was perhaps an overstatement, Chariot was certainly a major step along the quality and yield improvement route in malting barleys at the end of the 20th century. In recognition of Chariot becoming outclassed for agronomic yield by newer varieties, growers reduced its area until it was no longer being grown by 2003, when it was removed from the list of IBD Approved varieties.