A high-quality barley harvest is being predicted for 2014, with Maris Otter barley particularly looking good, according to Jonathan Arnold, of barley merchants Robin Appel Ltd.
Maris Otter being checked in Norfolk last month
With much of the crop already safely in store, the low nitrogen levels required by ale brewers have been achieved with an average of 1.37 to 1.40% against a five-year average of 1.65%.
Yields of Maris Otter, which normally average two tonnes per acre, look like running at nearer two and a quarter, with good harvests reported from all the counties which grow this award-winning variety: Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Yorkshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Cornwall.
Maris Otter is a winter-sown variety, and the wet winter and wet May have ensured good yields, while a disease free growing season meant that the highest ever planted area of Maris Otter looked better than it has done for many seasons.
Demand is strong from UK brewers, who have seen Maris Otter used by such an overwhelming number of CAMRA’s champion beers of Britain, across wide range of styles of ales. And demand from US brewers is rocketing.
Spring barley plantings, such as Propino, Odyssey and Tipple, were back to normal after good weather last autumn, and although sown slightly later than usual, look good, says Robin Appel. The ever-growing distilling industry will suck up more than half the UK crop this year and therefore low-grain nitrogens are a necessity. More than 50% of all malting barley is used by distillers and a declining percentage by the British brewing industry.
Prices for malting grade barley to farmers for this summer’s crop have dropped considerably as feed barley and feed wheat prices for cattle food have plummeted worldwide. However, the cost of top-grade Maris Otter barley malt is still a mere five pence per pint of 4% ABV ale, and it gives beer its alcohol, its sparkling bubbles, and all its majesty and body.
Robin Appel said: “It is also good to see so many brewers contracting with local farmers to grow their corn, as the rain which makes the beer also grows the all-important corn.
“This shows the importance of ‘terroir’, both from an emotional and a gastronomic point of view. Local sourcing is a national movement, with breweries like St Austell of Cornwall, Hobsons of Shropshire, Woodforde’s of Norfolk and Moorhouse of Lancashire all involved in this truly inspiring crusade.”
