Low protein in Irish Barley puts pint under threat

johnnyskeleton

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0821/1224277318331.html

He explained maltsters need protein levels of between 9 and 10 per cent but Irish malting barley levels were falling below that figure for the past two harvests.
“The malting industry needs locally sourced quality material to survive. The alternative for us would be to import barley but that is not sustainable in our case,” he said.

What effect is this likely to have? On the one hand it could mean more organic type beers, on the other it could have consequences for the smaller breweries which have only started up.

On the other hand, it could force Irish beer brewers to import cheaper better grains.

Anyone know how this will pan out, or is it just another red herring?

BeerNut

Very few Irish breweries use Irish malt. It won't really effect anything very much because we barely have a malt industry at all.

Bigcheeze

BeerNut wrote: »

Very few Irish breweries use Irish malt. It won't really effect anything very much because we barely have a malt industry at all.

I thought Diageo used Irish malt (or mostly Irish malt). I remember a recernt farmer protest because they were using some imported malt. If true, then the vast majority of the beer brewed here is from Irish malt, even if very few breweries use it.

BeerNut

Bigcheeze wrote: »

If true, then the vast majority of the beer brewed here is from Irish malt, even if very few breweries use it.

Yes, that's true too. Those handful of breweries who do use Irish malt can easily flip to using imported, and seem to be in the process of doing so. Going back to the OP's question: this isn't going to change anything much. It certainly is not going to put any pints under threat.

oblivious

An the fires in Russian are going to put a lot of strain on malt the winter/spring so look out fir malt price rises and an increase in the price of your pint!