MARRIS OTTER MALTING BARLEY HARVEST DOES WELL
Robin Appel Ltd, barley merchants and guardians of the famous Maris Otter variety report a remarkable outcome from the 2009 harvest, given a far from ideal growing season.
Over the past few weeks, harvested crops have delivered some wonderful samples of malting barley. From Falmouth to Fakenham, from Winchester to York, farmers have managed to harvest great quality and acceptable yields. Bold corns, and low grain nitrogens, prove once again that both farmers and brewers can rely on Maris Otter.
2010 Harvest
The demand from brewers for premium quality malt remains both positive and resilient. This is the clear message from across the industry both in the UK and overseas, including the USA. So orders for new crop plantings of Maris Otter have remained firm and maltsters have already placed orders with growers to produce another large crop next harvest.
However, Robin Appel Ltd will be changing the method by which they have historically contracted Maris Otter from farmers, so as to avoid all parties being on the wrong side of violent fluctuations in the barley (and other grains) prices, now a constant feature of global commodity markets.
In a pilot scheme for harvest 2010, and going forward, Maris Otter growers are being offered production contracts which guarantee a robust price premium over the prevailing price of feed quality wheat, or spring malting barley. This will help to ensure that the price of Maris Otter remains competitive to all involved in the supply chain.
Maris Otter has risen from near extinction as a variety in the 1980’s when it was taken over by Robin Appel Ltd and their accomplice, Norfolk barley merchant, H. Banham Ltd. Since then, its reputation for flavour and for its brewing qualities has grown exponentially with brewers both in the UK and abroad. In addition, the two trials commissioned by Appels at Brewing Research International in 2007, to demonstrate the different flavours of each of the eight barley varieties tested, proved conclusively for many tasters that ‘all barleys are not born equal’.
It, therefore, retains its place as the ‘Grand Cru’ of malting barleys, grown only by the best growers on a selection of some of the best malting barley soils in the world.
Robin Appel Ltd founded in 1980 by Chairman and Chief Executive Robin Appel, is one of the UK grain trade’s foremost independent companies. From its offices in Hampshire it operates a substantial production portfolio of malting barley from farms spread right across the country. As the joint owner of Maris Otter barley, this portfolio supports supply contracts into all the UK maltsters, including its sister company Warminster Maltings Ltd in Wiltshire.
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