Malt is the backbone of our beers, but it’s also so much more than that. Here Robin Appel, managing director of Warminster Maltings Colin Johnston, the sales and marketing director at Crisp Malt and Dr. Axel Göhler, the CEO of Bestmalz, share their observations on state-of-play in the sector. 

Following disappointing Autumn sales, from the beginning of January orders have definitely picked up. From a phone around we have learnt that a number of craft breweries have closed their doors for January/February, with some using the break for refurbishment. There are also a few who have just given up, and some who have sadly slipped into administration. But there are still ‘new builds’ all around, and at Warminster, we continue to receive these new enquiries most weeks.

All this on the back of one of the biggest hikes in the price of malt over recent years. It would appear some maltsters were obliged to pass on price increases of up to 30% on the previous year. This can be attributed to the barley price up, year on year, by circa £100/tonne, which equates to £125/tonne on the malt price.

Then increases in energy costs equating up to a further £75/tonne. But this should be put into perspective – every £100/tonne of the malt price is just 1p per pint on the price of beer (1 tonne of malt delivers circa 15,000 pints of beer)! 

At Warminster Maltings, selling purely into the craft beer market, our biggest seller by far remains ‘Maris Otter Pale Ale’. This continues to sell at a premium over ‘Spring Pale Ale’, and there do not appear to be any waverers! Our ‘Czech Malt’, equivalent to our competitors ‘Pilsner Malt’, and introduced just over a year ago, continues to attract a growing following. 

Interest in more flavoursome malts continues unabated, from brewers as well as distillers. There is now scientific evidence that the flavour of modern barleys is being diluted by the constant drive for improved agronomic performance.

The “pool” of varieties from which new barleys are being bred is polarised around a relatively small collection of previous performers (the global cereal seed trade is dominated by x3 major players: Bayer, who bought Monsanto; Du Pont; and Syngenta). To break out of this, the International Barley Hub (IBH) based in Edinburgh and Dundee, needs to come up with something. But based on current progress, probably not in my lifetime. 

Instead, brewers are making ‘one off’ purchases of Heritage or Landrace barley malts, where, everybody agrees, flavour is more pronounced! From Warminster Maltings they choose our ‘Plumage Archer Malt’, Britain’s oldest Heritage Malt, the barley bred in Warminster in 1905. From Crisp Malting they would probably choose ‘Chevalier Malt’, a Landrace barley Malt. Both of these will be for Special or Seasonal beers. 

N.B. The industry is now differentiating between Heritage barley varieties, and Landrace barley varieties. Heritage varieties are genetically true hybrids that range from 1905 to 1965, beginning principally with Plumage Archer, then Spratt Archer, Earl, Pioneer, Proctor and Maris Otter. All barley varieties pre-1905, are termed Landrace varieties (selections from the wild), and these include Chevalier, and Goldthorpe from the 19th century, and hundreds of others, all the way back to Bere, which is at least 1,000 years old, if not a lot more.

The problem with Landrace varieties was that they really belonged where they were first discovered – Chevalier (East Suffolk); Goldthorpe (Yorkshire), i.e. they did not travel that well. Genetically true hybrids, on the other hand, can be grown anywhere, which is why when they came along, everything else was toast! 

When it comes to the crop, following on from the bumper harvest of 2022 (both yield and quality), looking ahead, Winter barleys have established particularly well. Some crops of Maris Otter and Craft barley which I monitor are quite outstanding, they appear to be bursting with new growth. Spring barleys are being planted now and this bodes particularly well. It is well known that the best window for planting Spring cereals is February 15th – March 15th, for optimum yield and earliness of ripening.

Critical for all barley crops, Winter and Spring, is adequate rainfall in May. A big proportion of the English barley crop is grown on a soil type known as the Icknield Series, light loam over chalk. It stretches from East Yorkshire all the way down to the Jurassic Coast.

The chalk subsoil acts like blotting paper, soaking up the moisture in winter, and retaining it sufficiently to sustain barley crops through a long dry summer. It clearly worked it’s magic last year, but there are concerns that East Anglia, the source of much malting barley, is overall getting too dry. The bulk of the barley crop needs to migrate west.

Colin Johnston, sales and marketing director at Crisp Malt

Many brewers had a better Christmas and New Year than expected, and we’re seeing a cautious sense of optimism among them. They are encouraged by the enthusiasm for craft beer – and there are quite a few who are planning expansions in the months to come.

In the USA, it’s interesting to see well-made lagers making a comeback, taking a bit of share from higher abv IPAs and hazy beers. This appetite for reliable, drinkable – and, most importantly, flavoursome – craft beers is reflected in the re-discovery in this country of beautifully produced British ales.

In my view, malt-forward styles of beer, whether craft lager in the US or craft and cask ales in Britain, represent the pinnacle of brewing. There’s no hiding. Raw material quality and choices are paramount, and processes have to be spot on.

It’s wonderful to see these malt-forward beers come into their own, testing the art of the brewer and bringing joy to the palate of drinkers.

And culturally, no- and low-alcohol beers appear to be gaining ground, with more brewers taking on the challenge of producing them. It’s good to see brewers exploring the opportunities; experimenting and innovating in the brewhouse; and engaging drinkers. The fact is, there’s huge competition from other sectors of the drinks industry for this market segment – and unless beer fills the no- and low- voids , some other drink will.

The perspective from Germany from Dr. Axel Göhler

Following COVID-19, markets are coming back strongly. Those that are affected by inflation and still elevated freight cost, such as Germany and North America, are slower in their recovery. Looking at our products, currently we find organic demand rather strong while specialties are also in high demand. Other products are more or less “normal”.

When it comes to demand for 2023, as a result of supply shortages in 2022, large breweries have been careful to ramp up their contracts in 2022. Therefore, many maltsters are sold out for 2023.

For the 2022 crop, this is continuing to perform well but it’s still too early to comment on the 2023 crop. Dryness may become an issue due to lack of water in the soil, and should the “weather markets” start, prices will most likely rise. While most markets understand why these price increases occur, it’s sometimes harder to explain such increases in markets such as China and North America.