Grain prices creeping up.

[Clarence]

No, invented by the French, in 1954, EU formed in 1957.

It was introduced in France in 54, as you say. In the UK it replaced the 33.3% purchase tax on "luxury" goods, which had been in force since 1940. It was actually "invented" in Germany.

 

[AJA]

https://www.hamsteadhomebrew.co.uk/cart.php
Cheapest I can find. 5.99 postage no weight limits.

The local micro uses Bairds. I asked in Nov and they said they would sell for 19 quid. I’ll drop by today.

That's a bargain, £19 will be cost price in 2022. Might be £4 extra or so today.

 

[user 4749]

CML are now selling 25kg of Malt though its pick up only £38.50 fir Crisps Pale malt .

 

[LeeH]

That's a bargain, £19 will be cost price in 2022. Might be £4 extra or so today.

£25 Bairds Pale.

Collection next week as they don’t hold stock over what they brew.

 

[LeeH]

Nice healthy margin the maltmiller and the likes are making per sack.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

That's a bargain, £19 will be cost price in 2022. Might be £4 extra or so today.

Heh - even at £25 that's "only" a 31% increase which seems to be on the low side compared to some other maltsters, I imagine a lot depends on when their energy contracts renew.

I suspect there's something about the way that Bairds pricing works that makes them attractive to a certain size of micro, I imagine they're relatively cheap. The only time I've used their pale was a sack I bought from a local brewery going into lockdown and I must admit I'm not a fan - it was super-floury and it carried over into the final beer. I don't usually fine that much as my process usually gives me pretty clear beer, but even with fining and a 100u filter it would still leave the beer kind of murky (and not in a good way).

Nice healthy margin the maltmiller and the likes are making per sack.

Sales are vanity, profit is sanity, cashflow is reality. What matters is the margin you make after paying your fixed costs, like rent, utilities, salaries/pension/NI (for 14 people in the case of TMM) and so on. If it's that easy and that profitable, why aren't you doing it?

But just looking internationally, eg in the US the cheapest domestic pale malt at my namesake is Briess at $49.99 (plus a $1 "fuel surcharge!") for 50lb - which works out at £46.63 for 55lb (ie 25kg), and then shipping in the US is generally pretty brutal. Warminster Otter is double that (and it's not like they really make it back on the US domestic stuff like eg Citra is ~£7.50/100g, White Labs are £9.14/pack).

Brouwland's cheapest pale is Castle at €35.49, or £31.51 for 25kg, with Munton's Otter for £37.94.

There's no getting away from it, it's just expensive to do business these days.

 

[An Ankoù]

Brouwland's cheapest pale is Castle at €35.49, or £31.51 for 25kg, with Munton's Otter for £37.94.

It's as well to be careful when substituting continental pale ale malts in British recipes, they tend to be darker and of a richer roast and more suited to Belgian-styles. I tend to use Castle Pilsner in extremis. I'm OK with a sack and a half of Vienna at the mo, but I wouldn't mind trying Castle's Vienna in English-style bitters. Castle also malts Maris Otter and it's about £40 a sack. Can't vouch for it as I haven't tried it, but I like the Castle products I have tried. The closest to an English pale ale that I've come across is Bestmalz.

 

[The Baron]

Nice healthy margin the maltmiller and the likes are making per sack.

I am with Lee re profiteering it is going on across the retail markets in the UK not just in the brewing market. Grain has not gone up as much as the price increases that are being charged and are using it as a claw back from the pandemic, now there's a good excuse and mainly by the major brands.

 

[Rodcx500z]

All the money lost due to covid will be clawed back one way or the other, on the other hand online firms probley made a killing during lockdown, look how many new members came on here

 

[Sadfield]

LHBS are next to nonexistent, what would you all do if you lost the online retailers? A healthy margin on one product might ensure access to others.

 

[The Baron]

Grain prices did rise sharply mid 2022 but then began to fall again in September also the yield of barley was 12% higher than normal with the warm hot summer and the yield quality was the best it has been for 5 years.
Nothing wrong with a good profit margin and I think most brewers would admit that but the margin is higher than price rises warrant to boot with the extra yield and yield quality.

 

[Caramel Ox]

Brewuk have several options for Crisp malt at £36. I don’t know if they are normally considered a cheap supplier but seemed pretty competitive.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Grain prices did rise sharply mid 2022 but then began to fall again in September also the yield of barley was 12% higher than normal with the warm hot summer and the yield quality was the best it has been for 5 years.
Nothing wrong with a good profit margin and I think most brewers would admit that but the margin is higher than price rises warrant to boot with the extra yield and yield quality.

Depends whether you're looking at winter barley which did OK, or spring barley which sufffered more in the heatwave.

Still misses the point - we don't buy barley, but malt, which relies on a huge amount of energy to make and which has shot up with minimal relief for commercial users in the UK.

I've not looked, but I imagine that if you look at the maltsters prices for unmalted barley versus malt versus LME versus DME (which needs another big lump of energy to dry) you would see a trend of bigger increases in the more energy-intensive formats. (although I imagine some will have tried to reduce the extremes by putting a bit more on unmalted and a bit less on eg DME).

 

[LeeH]

Minch pale malt, was 22, now 40
Local micro, was 19 now 25

Someone is taking the piss.

 

[AJA]

This goes on everywhere.
Brewery, puts up price of cask by 10%, so now £1.25 a pint. Pub, puts up price per pint to £6+, cites increasing beer costs, wonders why pub is empty.

 

[The Baron]

I don't think I am missing the point, i know prices have risen overall and so has the malting process but there is a lot of over pricing going on especially by the larger brand names.
What ever we do as brewers we will have to pay it because they drive it if they all follow as has been happening it will stay high until somebody breaks ranks a
and starts discounting to a realistic price.
We the public are being had over by a lot of manufacturers not just in the brewing market.
Let me give you a example not brewing related.
Heinz Tomato soup 4 tins £3.99
Heinz Tomato Ketchup £3.99
Heinz Beans 4 tins £3.99
Supermarket equivalent and not a bargain style
Tomato Ketchup 65p
Tomato soup 4 tins £1.80
Beans 4 tins £1.80
and these are not the crap basement basics but good equivalents that taste very similar and made by a major other brand name at their factories all suffered from extra heating costs as they are cooked products and from extra fuel costs etc
These all contain the same ingredients so where is the extra price from-Profiteering and the same is going on in the Grain market

 

[Rodcx500z]

We have stopped buying Heinz total rip off, They are all at it and all blaming someone else

 

[Agentgonzo]

Brewuk have several options for Crisp malt at £36. I don’t know if they are normally considered a cheap supplier but seemed pretty competitive.

They used to be expensive, but now seem to be the cheapest. I expect their prices will also rise at some point

 

[Monkhouse]

I just picked up 25kg of crisp extra pale ale malt from my local brewery for the princely sum of £16.70

 

[Northern_Brewer]

there is a lot of over pricing going on especially by the larger brand names....Let me give you a example not brewing related.
Heinz Tomato soup 4 tins £3.99
Heinz Tomato Ketchup £3.99
Heinz Beans 4 tins £3.99
Supermarket equivalent and not a bargain style
Tomato Ketchup 65p
Tomato soup 4 tins £1.80
Beans 4 tins £1.80
and these are not the crap basement basics but good equivalents that taste very similar and made by a major other brand name at their factories all suffered from extra heating costs as they are cooked products and from extra fuel costs etc
These all contain the same ingredients so where is the extra price from-Profiteering and the same is going on in the Grain market

The clue is in your first sentence - Heinz is a brand name, you pay for the brand. The fact that Heinz can co-exist with ketchup that is a fifth of the price means that it's the very definition of a premium product whereas grain is a classic commodity product, where everyone charges about the same because consumers don't really care where it comes from, they just buy whatever's cheapest.

So no - Heinz don't tell you very much about what's going on in the grain market. Nor do supermarkets, which play all sorts of games with loss leaders and the like so it's almost impossible for outsiders to see what's going on except in a few cases like milk where you can look at the wholesale price.

But how much profit do you think a company should make? KraftHeinz as a whole made less than 9% net margin on 2022 sales, which is OK but not exactly rampant profiteering.

This goes on everywhere.
Brewery, puts up price of cask by 10%, so now £1.25 a pint. Pub, puts up price per pint to £6+, cites increasing beer costs, wonders why pub is empty.

Trust me, the pub is acutely aware of the effect on demand of rising prices...