With rising energy costs and the increased price of hops and malt, German breweries have been spending some 8 percent more to make their products, said German Brewery Federation chief Peter Hahn on July 2nd, according to Associated Press.

That will now be passed on to the consumer, with price hikes in the range of 50 euro cents (80 U.S. cents) to €1 (US$1.60) per case of 20 beers, Hahn said.

He added that further increases could not be ruled out, if the price of energy and raw materials continues to rise.

Brewer and pub owner Greene King has reported a rise in annual profits despite facing what it said was an "unprecedented set of challenges".

Financial Highlights �� Revenue £960.5m, +5% �� Operating profit* £236.2m, +8%; +4.5% excluding acquisitions �� Operating profit margin* 24.6%, +0.8 percentage points �� Profit before tax* £142.0m, +2% �� Adjusted earnings per share* 74.0p, +14% �� Dividend per share 26.0p, +14% �� Free cash flow £31.1m after capital expenditure and dividend �� Successful £350m securitisation tap (post year end); no further refinancing needed until 2012

Business Highlights �� Retail Operating profit* +5% Strong growth in food: now 34% of sales Loch Fyne successfully integrated and trading well �� Pub Partners Operating profit* per pub +8% Operating profit margin* +3.1 percentage points �� Belhaven Operating profit* +18% Food sales +31% �� Brewing Company Own-brewed volume +6% Market share gains in on- and off-trade

Rooney Anand, Greene King chief executive, comments: “The year saw an unprecedented set of challenges for the industry but I am pleased to report exceptional performance across the business. Our results in Scotland, with operating profit up 18% in the second year of the smoking ban, give me some encouragement for future prospects in England. The economy is not likely to improve in the short term, and we are not immune to the difficulties this presents for ...More Info

Barley harvest has started in France and parts of Germany, with yields apparently up on last year and quality in line with expectations, Farmers Weekly Interactive cited Glencore's Nick Oakhill on July 3.

"Harvest prices still look good, but the biggest thing that could put downward pressure on UK prices will be crop quality. If we get good weather and quality, it puts us in a healthy position for selling the expected 3m-tonne exportable surplus. But if we get a poor run, that surplus will have to compete with cheap supplies from eastern Europe and the Black Sea regions."

With the European barley harvest under way and the UK expected to start in some south-eastern areas next week, traders are optimistic about prospects for new-season crops

Wheat production across the EU-27 was likely to hit 130m tonnes, compared with 111m tonnest last year, David Sheppard of Gleadell said. "There will be some rebuilding of world stocks by 15-20m tonnes, but if all crop predictions come in, we will see prices come down."

Barley production was expected to be 5.6m tonnes, up 0.5m tonnes on 2007/08, leaving an exportable surplus (malting and feed) of just under 1m tonnes, he said.

Ongoing speculation over crop size ...More Info

R. C. Agu, T. A. Bringhurst and J. M. Brosnan

Abstract
J. Inst. Brew. 114(1), 62–68, 2008 Studies carried out on normal husked barley, normal hull-less (naked) barley, acid dehusked barley and acid dehusked hull-less barley, as well as the malts derived from them, showed that when acid dehusked barley samples (obtained from either husked or hull-less barley), were processed using commercial enzyme preparations, they produced more alcohol when compared with the alcohol yield obtained from the barley samples from which the acid dehusked samples were derived. When the husked (Optic) control, acid dehusked and hull-less barley samples were malted, Optic control barley produced malt that gave higher dextrinising units (DU) and diastatic power (DP), whilst acid dehusked Optic and hull-less barley produced malts that gave similar DU results on day 5 of the germination time. When mashed, acid dehusked (Optic) barley malt produced wort that filtered faster than the wort obtained from the malt made from hull-less barley. This observation is very important because it shows that the husk of the barley is not the only factor that determines the filtration performance of the malted barley, since both the malt samples made from husked and acid dehusked barley had similar filtration rates on day 5 of the germination time. The slow filtration rate observed for the wort made from hull-less barley suggests that other factors play some role during the filtration of the mash made from hull-less barley malt. Although hull-less malt appeared to develop lower DU and DP enzyme activities, when compared with the values obtained for the Optic control, hull-less barley malted faster and produced optimum predicted spirit yield (PSY) at day 4 of the germination time. In contrast, the control husked Optic barley malt that had higher DU and DP produced equivalent (optimum) predicted spirit yield one day later at 5 days germination time. This is an advantage for hull-less barley, both in terms of time and energy saving during the malting of barley. Although the acid dehusked Optic barley produced more alcohol than the husked control when commercial enzyme preparation was used to process barley, it was surprising that when the derived malt was assessed, it gave a lower predicted spirit yield than the husked control, even though it produced a higher amount of hot water extract (HWE). The higher extract yield and lower predicted spirit yield obtained from the malt made from acid dehusked malt confirmed that high extract yield is not necessarily associated with high fermentable extract. Key words: Alcohol yield, acid de-husked barley, barley, diastatic power, dextrinising unit, filtration rate, hull-less barley. ... Load full article, 6 pages, 1504 Kb, PDF file