is an Australian brewing barley variety developed by the University of Adelaide Barley Program and released in 2005 specifically to suit rice-based adjunct brewing. Varieties from the University of Adelaide are easily recognized by their nautical names such as Clipper, Schooner, Galleon, Flagship, and Commander. Flagship contains a more heat-stable version of the beta amylase enzyme than is present in most varieties and delivers high levels of alpha amylase, which together provide benchmark starch-degrading power during mashing. See diastatic power. Flagship also exhibits low levels of the enzyme lipoxygenase, which are largely responsible for the formation of stale flavors in finished beers, especially light beer styles that are very popular in Asian countries today. Although Australian beer consumption per capita is significant, it is almost trivial in comparison with the scale of national barley production. This allows Australians to export about 70% to 80% of their barley crop as malt or malting barley to China, Japan, and a range of southeast Asian countries, where brewers typically use up to 40% rice-based adjuncts. Such adjuncts require malt of high diastatic power and fermentability to degrade the rice starch to fermentable sugars. Flagship, therefore, has become an important variety in Australia, mainly because of its export potential combined with such favorable agronomic characteristics as its good disease resistance, excellent early vigor, good weed competitiveness, and high yields per hectare. In Australia, by contrast, Flagship’s specific performance quality profile makes it unsuitable for the production of typical Australian lagers because large breweries that use adjuncts tend to prefer sugar syrup to rice. Sugar syrup, however, requires malt of low, rather than high, diastatic power and low fermentability, which makes such traditional Australian barley varieties as Schooner and Stirling the more typical choice for these beers.