A Call to Arms…and to The Pub!  

This, of course, has had a noticeable impact on malt sales, including ours at Warminster. Our industry is already impacted by a significantly reduced demand for malt in Scotland where distilleries are struggling to cope with a huge bout of indigestion. At least that is how analysts describe the problem with whisky. A problem that they say, based on historical evidence, might resolve itself over the next 12 or 24 months.

But there is an overriding question that is open to debate: to what extent is any of this down to a sea-change in drinking habits? To what extent is a whole new generation turning against alcohol, and therefore, unconsciously, contributing to the demise of British Beer, the closure of pubs and bars, and threatening the whole of our supply trade?

The good news is that as far as our sector is concerned, there is an urgent industry wide discussion already taking place, with all stakeholders, from farmers to publicans, contributing. Everything is being talked about from the promotion of British Beer, to how brewers and publicans might address the excuse for not visiting the pub “because it is too expensive”. The latter is partly about the price of a pint, of course, but also the need to change the food offer to simpler and cheaper quality menus.

We, at Warminster Maltings, have ‘signed up’ to do our bit towards addressing this challenge. We are currently channelling our thoughts through the Maltsters Association of Great Britain (MAGB), the maltsters spokesman for the industry wide discussions. But we will be happy to consider other initiatives if invited.

In a very recent survey of our greatest British Icons, ‘British Beer’, and ‘The Pub’ were right up there at the top alongside the ‘Royal Family’. Over recent years the Royals have worked very hard to protect their status, and we now need to work hard to protect ours. Do, please, let us know your views, and anything more we can do to help.

Harvest Review 2025. 

We have just recorded the hottest summer on record, so it is not surprising that our harvest has been one of the earliest in the last 20 years. The sun came out in the third week of February – it has almost been wall to wall sunshine ever since – and the combine harvesters were out before the end of June. It is not what we are used to.

The problem has been that our beautiful summer has hardly been punctuated by any rainfall. Barley crops respond to rains in May, and, for the most part they did not get them. For those crops on moisture retentive soils, like the chalk soils that surround Warminster, barleys have endured. On lesser soils, like the Cotswold brash, and the sandier soils of East Anglia, they have not. So the overall outcome is somewhat like the ‘curates egg’, good in places, but high nitrogen’s and high screenings elsewhere. 

First off the fields have been the winter barleys, ahead of the warmest weather curve. Much of this crop has produced yields in line with the 5 year average, including Maris Otter, but with grain nitrogen content which varies between parcels, with some too high to make the grade. However, there is a carryover of 2024 crop which should comfortably mitigate this outcome.

Spring barleys, much of which is still Laureate, bear all the hallmarks of a hot dry summer – lower yields and high grain nitrogen content. But many samples off the chalk soils are exhibiting big bold grains, bulging with starch. This should spell high extracts and high spirit yield. It is a legacy of all that sun, for which there is no substitute, and is usefully described by some as nature’s disinfectant. But, again, grain nitrogen’s are also very variable, some right off the chart.

But all the barley is dry, and safe, for long term storage. We, as maltsters, just have to ‘cherry pick’ our way through the samples. Probably the best of the national crop is across central southern England, so on our doorstep. It is now our job to make sure we keep it here.

Heritage Varieties of Barley. 

It is widely accepted that Heritage Varieties of barley are those introduced to farmers between 1905 and 1965. 1905 is the year of Plumage Archer, the first genetically true variety of barley in the world, bred by E.S.Beaven in Warminster. 1965 is the year of Maris Otter, bred by Dr Bell at The Plant Breeding Institute at Cambridge. Maris Otter is only the third generation of modern English barleys, a direct descendent of Plumage Archer.

All varieties of barley before 1905 are classified as “landrace”, effectively selections from the wild, made randomly by interested parties, mostly farmers. They are very unstable, which challenges their commercial value, and therefore limits them to generously funded specialist projects.

The list of Heritage Varieties could be extended beyond the two aforementioned. The standout variety that’s missing is Proctor, bred directly from Plumage Archer by Dr Bell in 1953. Proctor totally dominated malting barley production from the mid 1950’s to the late 1960’s, to the point that maltsters’ and brewers’ contracts only carried the varietal name if it was not Proctor. But today there is little appetite to re-commercialize Proctor, as Maris Otter is such a close derivative.

For both brewers and distillers, the attraction of both Heritage and “landrace” barleys is their pronounced flavour profile, something that has almost faded away from barleys bred across the last two decades. Conversely, Heritage Varieties are only one, or two steps away from those barleys that 300 years ago gave rise to that famous description of beer “Liquid Bread”. That, I think, says more than I can about barleys then and now.