Barley ready for harvesting with admixture                     

of late maturing green ears                                              

News

PRESS RELEASE

Warminster Maltings Ltd

NATIONAL BARLEY CROP REVIEW

 

On Friday 23rd September Warminster Maltings staged a first ever National Barley Crop Review for around 80 of its brewer customers at Fisherton Manor Farm in Wiltshire. The location, courtesy of farmers Mr and Mrs Andrew Watson, was deliberately chosen so that brewers could see at first hand all the latest technology for conditioning and grading malting barley down on the farm.

 

But the primary reason for the event was to provide brewers with an insight into the national malting barley crop, particularly in light of the indifferent quality harvested from some of the traditional producer regions.

 

Introducing the event, managing director and head maltster Chris Garratt acknowledged that there had been much rumour and speculation within brewing circles about the quality of the barley harvest this year, and it was time to quantify the damage and plan accordingly. He also explained that he had long wanted to come up with an event that reflected the now well established Hop Harvest Review held annually at the beginning of September, and circumstances this year had helped to shape his thinking.

 

Jonathan Arnold, malting barley director for grain merchant Robin Appel Ltd, began the morning’s proceedings by projecting the background to this year’s barley harvest – reduced plantings, a prolonged dry spring, and a rain interrupted harvest once farmers pulled their combine harvesters out of the shed. Overall, this resulted in a much better harvest in the western half of the country than in the east, with higher nitrogen barleys than normal featuring right across the crop. But looking forward, there was still another challenge to be met. The profitability of growing malting barley compared to other cereal crops was a serious issue, and Jonathan was adamant that the malting and the brewing industry needed to drive demand by ensuring they paid a truly competitive price to farmers.

 

Peter Crisford, director of grain brokers CS Commodity Solutions, then followed with an epic performance reporting the European barley harvest and global demand for malt. Right across Europe malting barley nitrogen content is high, and key to the global supply of malting barley is whether French barley in excess of 12.5% protein (estimated in excess of ¾ million tonnes) makes the cut or not. Against a global demand for malting barley of 26 million tonnes, little over 4 million tonnes crosses borders against a projected import requirement of 4.36 million tonnes, 2 million tonnes to China alone. The supply/demand balance is so finely poised that the wrong decision over the French barley crop outcome could seriously impact the market.

 

So with high nitrogen barleys clearly a fact of life for brewers going forward, Don Burgess, director of Freeminer Brewery and SIBA’s technical director, attempted to address what steps brewers might take to overcome this challenge. ‘Don’t Panic’ was the message, and Don suggested brewers should ‘Go Back to Basics’. Optimising finings on a batch by batch basis was one possible solution he came up with.

 

Rounding up the mornings presentations Alastair Scott, marketing consultant and publican, wanted to see brewers making a lot more of the role of barley in brewing. It was ‘the’ ingredient, and was hidden from consumers perception. Then, joined on stage by Rupert Ponsonby, champion of all things brewing and beer, Alastair  and Rupert together performed a dramatic and entertaining routine, the perfect ‘aperitif’ of good news stories and ideas before the conference adjourned for lunch.

 

After lunch, Robin Appel, chairman of Warminster Maltings, opened the ‘Corn Exchange’ a regional display of malting barley samples presided over by farmers, barley merchants and barley brokers from the respective regions. Brewers were also invited to walk down to the impressive Manor Farm complex where more than 22,000 tonnes of grain storage is supported by a whole range of equipment for cleaning and grading up malting barleys. All this is backed up with a comprehensively equipped and fully accredited grain laboratory on site, which the brewers found of particular interest.

 

At the end of the day the feedback from delegates was very positive indeed. It seems there is a vacuum when it comes to reporting the barley harvest to the brewing industry, and Warminster Maltings’ Chris Garratt confidently stated “I believe that we have now created an event that we can repeat year on year, regardless of whether or not the West Country has the best barleys”. Clearly the West Country and Warminster Maltings does have the pick of the barley crop this time!

 

Notes to Editors:

Warminster Maltings, Britain’s oldest working maltings (1855) continues to make malt in the traditional way, on floors, by hand. It principally supplies over 200 breweries in the craft brewing sector, as well as bespoke parcels of malt to the larger established family brewers. The maltings is owned by Robin Appel, the Hampshire based grain merchant, who is also the custodian of Maris Otter barley. Maris Otter, bred at The Plant Breeding Institute in Cambridge in the mid 1960’s, is the most revered malting barley in the world, and the preferred choice of the artisan brewer, having captured 10 out of the last 12 outright championships at the annual Great British Beer Festival. Much of the Warminster Malt output is made from Maris Otter.

 

For more details contact Chris Garratt on 01985 212014 or email chris.garratt@warminster-malt.co.uk

 

 

28/09/2011