EPISODE S.5, E.22

[CROP IT LIKE IT’S HOT: 2024 HARVEST UPDATE]

Toby (00:09):
Happy holidays to you.

Heather (00:13):
Of course you’re going to sing.

Toby (00:15):
I know you like singing.

Heather (00:16):
I do enjoy some singing.

Toby (00:19):
Yeah. Maybe we should jump on a holiday tune here and all the listeners would just completely hang up on us.

Heather (00:25):
Most likely. I would.

Toby (00:27):
Yeah. Well, let’s just skip that. Let’s just go right into it. Yeah. Happy holidays everybody, and I’m glad you’re taking a listen to this episode today. And ’tis the season for our annual barley summary and crop update. This is a good one. Like all agricultural products, barley is influenced by unpredictable environmental factors, as we mentioned, such as weather and soil conditions. And barley farmers, especially ours, they work diligently to navigate these challenges while expert maltsters that we have in-house apply their craftsmanship and definitely their knowledge to perfect the recipes and ultimately help ensure consistent high quality malt that wind up in our brewers’ and distillers’ hands.

(01:14)
So it’s really cool that we can get together once a year and talk about the barley crop and what’s going on historically and what we’re looking at in the future. Again, this is one of my favorite episodes. Heather, I’m sure you enjoy it as well. We look back on the year and appreciate our growers and what they do for us and our industry. And then also a nod to our maltsters who work very closely with ever-changing agricultural product that come in the door to make everything consistent and quality every time. So looking forward to it.

Heather (01:47):
Yeah. And we’re going to have Jon Mendrick jump on and join us, their territory manager, to help us talk about that. Before we jump into it though, a couple of things, a couple of housekeeping items. I suppose it’s Spotify Wrapped season. Now Toby, I don’t know if you want to tell me who was on your Spotify Wrapped list for the year.

Toby (02:08):
I don’t even know what Spotify is until y’all brought it up last week.

Heather (02:11):
Oh, okay.

Toby (02:12):
Honestly. I heard it’s good though. I think we’re doing some things on Spotify, right?

Heather (02:18):
Yes, yes, we are. So if the BrewDeck actually made your top five podcasts this year, please send us a screenshot. We want to mail you some goodies. We don’t get to know who’s listened as much, but we do know that I think we were number one for 24 people out there, which I mean, feels pretty big for us. So if that was you, send us a photo, we want to see it. Send it to us or tag us on Instagram at Country Malt Group or send us an email, BrewDeck@SouffleMalt.com. Some exciting news, and I know we’ve kind of been talking about this for a little bit, but Durst Malt is here.

Toby (02:57):
Yes.

Heather (02:57):
It’s available.

Toby (02:57):
Yes, it is.

Heather (02:59):
You can buy it now.

Toby (03:00):
Yeah, I’ve seen it in the warehouses, so I know it’s ready to go.

Heather (03:04):
That’s very, very exciting. So we’ve got a few different varieties of Durst Malt that is now available for you to buy. Durst Malt is a legendary German maltster that has over 200 years of history. We just did a really great training with them the other day. Getting to learn about the history of Durst Malt was really, really cool. They’re produced in the heart of Germany and they combined centuries of tradition with cutting edge quality. So make sure to reach out to your rep if you want to order. Another little housekeeping item. We have new calendars this year and they’re really, really nice. Have you got to see them yet?

Toby (03:36):
I have actually saw them yesterday and they’re really, really cool. They’re dry erase, right?

Heather (03:41):
Yes, yeah.

Toby (03:42):
And two-sided.

Heather (03:44):
Yep. So first side is your calendar and on the back side when you’re done with the calendar, it’s got a really cool poster that you can keep hung up. I think our team did a really great job on them. I really liked them. So if you do want one, let one your rep know, but they’re going to be showing up on some palettes throughout the rest of December and probably into January as well. And then last but not least, Pink Boot Tops. The season for Pink Boot Tops and Pink Boots brews are going to be starting up in the new year. So the eighth annual Pink Boot top blend from Yakima chief is available for purchase now, excuse me. The blend features Chinook, Simcoe, Mosaic and Krush Hops. And best of all, you can also add some Pink Boots malt to your order. Just saying.

Toby (04:29):
That would be cool.

Heather (04:29):
It would be pretty cool. So I know everybody’s used to pre-orders. We did not do pre-orders for this this year, but we do have them in stock and available now, so you can order that now. One thing we do want to note that unfortunately the Hot Blend will not be able to make its way up here to Canada this year. Due to some minimum residue levels, they are not compatible with sale for in Canada. But don’t worry, our Canadian listeners and brewers, we’ve transferred all of the remaining previous crop years’ Pink Boots blends up to our Canadian warehouse here in Vancouver and we’re kind of selling them at a nice little discounted price too, so we can still get the donation into the Pink Boots Society that way.

Toby (05:08):
Absolutely great idea to make sure that we can get something up there for them to use. So really good.

Heather (05:13):
Absolutely.

Toby (05:14):
Cool, Heather. Well, we not only have Jon Mendrick we’re about to bring on too, but we’re also bringing on another guest that I really, really love is Heather Jarrett. That’d be you, right?

Heather (05:23):
Oh, that’s me. That’s me. Thank you.

Toby (05:26):
Going to step in and help us out on the Canadian side. Let’s get to it. I’m excited.

Heather (05:30):
Let’s go.

Toby (05:31):
Hello.

Heather (05:31):
Hi.

Toby (05:34):
Hello. Got two of my good buddies here. Good buddies.

Heather (05:38):
Good buddies.

Toby (05:38):
I think good listeners know Heather Jarrett very well and Jon Mendrick, otherwise known as Mendo, who’s been on the show many a times.

Jon (05:46):
Yes sir. Hello.

Heather (05:47):
Welcome. Welcome back, Mendo.

Jon (05:48):
Thank you. It’s good to be back.

Toby (05:51):
Welcome back.

Jon (05:52):
Thank you sir.

Toby (05:53):
Are y’all-

Heather (05:54):
Actually, sorry, we tapped Jon for this episode last year as well, I think. I’ll just say Jon’s our crop update experts.

Jon (06:02):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Happy to carry us into ’24, ’25.

Toby (06:07):
There you go.

Jon (06:07):
Good to be here.

Toby (06:08):
I don’t know about y’all, but I’m not a Grinch by any means, but I certainly, there’s several things that I’m looking forward to not having come New Year’s around the holidays, specifically like Christmas.

Jon (06:25):
What’s that?

Toby (06:26):
Any guess what those might be?

Heather (06:30):
No.

Toby (06:32):
Number one, the sheer amount of mail order catalogs I’m getting around the holidays. Do y’all get those things? I don’t know why they just start blasting in come mid-November all of a sudden. It’s so much, the mailman can’t even fit in my mailbox.

Heather (06:48):
Well, our mail is on strike right now, so I’m not getting anything while the Canadian Postal Services are on strike.

Jon (06:55):
Yeah, no, I get a few, but I seem to get more Uline catalogs actually. So who knows?

Toby (07:03):
Dude, I was just thinking I got in those Uline catalogs, they’re about 600 pages.

Jon (07:07):
And 600 pounds.

Toby (07:09):
Yeah.

Heather (07:09):
Do they ever send you the free pen though? Do you ever get a free pen with them?

Toby (07:13):
No.

Heather (07:13):
We used to get like, “This is what we could do for you and here’s a free pen with your business name on it.”

Jon (07:18):
They just mail me 10 pounds of paper.

Toby (07:20):
That’s right. Well, and I had to think about it too. I was like, I don’t think I’ve ever ordered anything from Uline. I really don’t. I just don’t. Anyways.

Jon (07:27):
I’d love to see their budget for that. And they’re ready to return.

Toby (07:33):
Oh, number two on Toby’s what he’s not going to miss is the song by Mariah Carey, All I Want For Christmas Is You.

Heather (07:46):
Yeah.

Toby (07:46):
I’m sorry. I can’t do it.

Jon (07:46):
Yeah, I’m ready to retire that one myself.

Heather (07:48):
I feel ready to retire Christmas music in general. I’ve never been a fan of Christmas carols.

Jon (07:53):
Settle down Heather, settle down.

Heather (07:54):
I just don’t-

Jon (07:55):
You don’t have to take it that far.

Heather (07:57):
Too far. That might be a little bit of a Grinch. I’m not not a fan of Christmas, it’s just not up there in holidays for me that are my favorite.

Toby (08:06):
But you know how much she made off of that song or she makes off that song every year?

Heather (08:11):
Enough.

Toby (08:12):
$3 million just from that song. Isn’t that crazy?

Heather (08:18):
We need to come up with a song. Write a Christmas carol.

Toby (08:21):
Yeah. Terrible Christmas song that just, I got to turn it off every time. I’m sorry.

Heather (08:26):
It’s bad.

Jon (08:26):
Probably [inaudible 00:08:30].

Toby (08:33):
He’s got, like, over-vibrato. I’m sorry, Mariah.

Heather (08:39):
You did really good. Yeah, you should apologize.

Toby (08:42):
Oh gosh. Well the other thing I dislike is setting up the Christmas tree because there’s always that one light that’s bad and the whole tree doesn’t light up and you spend like an hour and a half under the tree trying to figure out the one bulb that’s burned out.

Jon (08:59):
You got one of those secret tools that lets you check that or you just go one by one? What’s your technique?

Toby (09:06):
There’s a secret tool?

Jon (09:07):
I think so. Yeah, you go to Amazon, it’s always sold out though, so I don’t know if it exists.

Heather (09:12):
It’ll definitely be sold out at this time of year.

Toby (09:15):
Right. I got a cut off of two hours messing with that thing. Then I just throw the tree off the balcony in the back and just go get a new one.

Heather (09:21):
That’s probably for the best.

Toby (09:22):
Just can’t do it.

Heather (09:23):
Yeah.

Jon (09:24):
Something’s broken, you just kick it. It works.

Heather (09:27):
Words to live by.

Toby (09:31):
Yeah. Well, before we get started, anything else that comes to mind as far as the things you’d like to retire over the Christmastime?

Heather (09:44):
Honestly, again, I might be the Grinch. I’m not really doing anything for Christmas. I’m going to Mexico first thing in the new year, so I am having the lowest key Christmas ever. So I’m going after Mexico.

Toby (09:57):
There you go.

Jon (09:59):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m getting to ready to retire my teen and preteen children’s attitudes and getting ready to get some new ones coming up. I’m going to retire those and request new ones for Christmas.

Toby (10:10):
You’re going to box those new attitudes up with a bow on and everything or how are you going to give it to them?

Jon (10:16):
Ah, man. Man. To be determined, to be determined.

Heather (10:20):
I think you have a few years left of that, Jon.

Jon (10:23):
Torture. I know, I do. I do. It’s like arguing with a rubber band. You get nowhere.

Toby (10:28):
Oh, geez.

Jon (10:29):
I don’t know.

Toby (10:30):
Have a good time. Well, you know what I’m not ready to retire? Just talking about crop, the barley crop.

Heather (10:38):
Yeah.

Toby (10:38):
Because this time of year is very important because in North America, both US and Canada, we’ve got a lot of action going on. We’ve got the older crops starting to dissipate and then the new crop starting to come online in all of our malt houses. So it’s a really good time for us to chat with the listeners and spread the good word of what’s going on in market as far as the barley crop and then what to expect and what to look forward to or what to have eyes on as far as the 2024 crop that they will be utilizing in 2025. I know there’s a lot of things this time of year that may get overlooked depending on the brewery, but obviously there’s a lot of different sizing, kernel sizes, there’s mill adjustments because of the inclusion of new crop. So happy that the two of y’all could jump on.

(11:39)
We’re going to do it this pretty unique this year. We’re going to split it up between an overview on the US barley crop and also what’s happening in Canada. So I’m happy to start chatting about this. So I guess we should start with kind of a history of what we’ve seen over the past three or four years. Because as y’all know, we’re really handcuffed by the weather, like a lot of crops. So depending on what happens, that particular year really depends on the strategy, not only for us, but what’s available and potential quality or lack thereof for the following year. So if we jump back to 2021, as y’all know, it’s just a terrible year.

Heather (12:31):
It’s the worst year.

Jon (12:33):
Trying not to talk about it.

Heather (12:35):
We all have PTSD from that year. The funniest thing is that-

Toby (12:37):
Do you want to box that up and send it away?

Heather (12:41):
Absolutely. That was the first year that I had to sell that I started selling. That was the first crop that I sold bulk malt in.

Jon (12:51):
Oh.

Heather (12:51):
Yeah.

Jon (12:51):
Man. Well, you could only get better from that.

Heather (12:54):
I know. It just-

Jon (12:56):
But you got thrown right into the fire.

Heather (12:57):
Good news came on every time I would talk to anybody after that. I am certain that all the customers are like, “Who is this person and why is she coming at me with this?”

Toby (13:06):
I know.

Jon (13:08):
It was the bringer of doom.

Toby (13:12):
Well, it’s like 13 million metric toe planted and I think we ended up with what, a little over… I say we, the industry as a whole, right?

Heather (13:20):
Yeah.

Toby (13:21):
For malting barley, a little over 7 million.

Jon (13:24):
Yeah, just about seven and a half. So a huge decline in production that year. It was awful.

Heather (13:30):
Yeah, it was the worst year in, I think they said like 35 years. It was horrible.

Toby (13:36):
High proteins.

Heather (13:38):
Low yields.

Toby (13:39):
Yeah, low germination.

Heather (13:42):
Small sizing. Like very little pumps. Yeah.

Jon (13:47):
World events, trade wars.

Toby (13:48):
That’s right.

Jon (13:50):
Everything blighted at once.

Toby (13:51):
It’s a snowball.

Heather (13:53):
Yeah.

Toby (13:53):
Gosh.

Heather (13:55):
Let’s forget that year happened.

Toby (13:57):
Yes, yes.

Jon (13:57):
Moving on.

Toby (13:59):
Yeah. So what do y’all know about 2022? Obviously there were some changes, right? Anything was positive over 2021.

Heather (14:07):
Well, that’s definitely I think the way to look at it. If we reflect on 2021 prop, we know that it could always be worse than it is. So 2022 was obviously a lot better. Production was up. I think it was a little less than the ten-year average, but it was still up quite a bit. I think what we were at over 9 million metric tons.

Jon (14:28):
Yeah, we hit just under 10, Heather, that year. And I mean the bar was set so low with ’21 that we could only go up hopefully. And we did. So we did see a slight yield increase and we saw the overall production yield increase. So yeah, it wasn’t the recovery everyone was hoping for as far as pricing and that, but holy smokes, it was such a relief to get a good crop in that year. Yeah, got us on the right track again.

Heather (14:55):
Yeah, we definitely needed that.

Toby (14:58):
And then moving into the current or the 2023 crop that we’ve been utilizing this year, that’s kind of slowly being phased out for the 2024 crop, a little bit less as far as total overall production, I think it was a little shy of 9 million metric ton. They anticipated the industry anticipated another, I don’t know, million metric ton. Proteins somewhat stable compared to the prior year. So 12, 12.5% proteins.

Heather (15:33):
Yeah, quality was good. Yields were down.

Jon (15:37):
Yeah, yields were down. I think what you’re seeing here though in this yield decrease is a state of the actual industry. Contracted acres are down, planted acres are down because the industry demand is down, but overall quality was pretty average, right slightly below or right around average, but definitely a sign of the industry with this decline here.

Toby (16:01):
Yeah, for sure. Well, I think it’s a good segue to roll into the 2024 crop and chat about that. And I think Jon, we’ll start with you specifically talking about what you’ve seen and what’s going on here in the U.S specifically.

Jon (16:23):
Yeah, yeah. We actually had a really decent crop again this year. I’d say came in at average. About 70% of that came in really good to excellent, which is great. The winter crop came in with really good quality. From our growing regions, a great western I can speak to specifically. Washington did struggle a little bit. It’s dry land farmed. The heat and the drought still affects those regions and it’s getting harder, consistently harder to produce good quality out of dry land farming regions for barley specifically. So Eastern Washington did struggle. Idaho looked really good. Idaho’s irrigated. Had a fantastic year. Sub-soil moistures were great going into the season. The harvest came off on time without rain or any issues at harvest. Couple pockets here and there. Very small pockets of some early season frost that helped decline those acreages a little bit. But overall it’s a pretty average crop.

(17:28)
But excellent crop out of Idaho. North Dakota, Montana, however, different picture in the U.S. Parts of Colorado, everything was looking good till about July. Then we got some odd heat spikes there, which wasn’t good. And then unfortunately right around harvest, they did experience some late season rains, which caused sprout pre-germing and some spotting in areas. So the crop coming out of Montana, the Dakotas, some parts of Colorado did struggle a bit towards the end and we are seeing that in market now. But overall, the amount of barley produced in the U.S this year for malting purposes was more than enough to handle the demand in market. So good stuff.

Toby (18:14):
And as far as inclusion, Jon, do you know specifically great Western where they’re at as far as moving into that new crop?

Jon (18:24):
Yeah, yeah. We’ve got that new crop going into our blends now. We’re at about 50% inclusion as of this week and probably by Jan one or sooner we’ll be at 100% inclusion. So this new crop is making its way into your mash tons now and a hundred percent coming here shortly.

Heather (18:47):
Check those COAs.

Jon (18:48):
Go check those COAs, upper right hand.

Toby (18:50):
That’s a question I had actually for both of y’all too, is timing wise when you’re out chatting with customers now the time, again, now is the time to be checking COAs. What are some of the differences or changes they might see this time of year with inclusion of the crop?

Heather (19:09):
Kernel size is going to be a big one. You’re probably going to need to adjust your mill. So that’s a big one that I always see with people.

Jon (19:23):
Yeah, depending on the crop year, you’re going to want to look at your proteins, your extract potential. In a good average year you should see proteins come down and your extract potential come up. That is the case this year. We did see some lower proteins come in, which is good. And as Heather said, man, right on, check your COAs 100% and most importantly, you’re going to want to check plumping on the COA and you’re going to want to adjust your mill accordingly. So those two things and you’ll be good to go.

Toby (19:57):
And I will say that luckily we’ve got a really, really solid group of maltsters here and their goal is obviously to make the transition as smooth as possible that hopefully the brewer or their end user will see very little if any change. But obviously they can’t control the plump size or some of those other factors too, but that’s why they blend it slowly and really work hard on making sure that it’s pretty seamless.

Jon (20:30):
No, we have world-class maltsters at both Canada Malting and GW that are able to take crops for many different regions and produce out consistent quality, given what mother nature has provided time and time again. And that’s where the outlier is as a maltster for sure. They do a great job.

Toby (20:50):
Absolutely. So Heather.

Heather (20:52):
Yeah?

Toby (20:53):
What about north of the border? What’s going on up there in Canada?

Heather (20:56):
Up here in dear, sweet, Canada. CliffsNotes version, it was a very average prop year, maybe slightly below average. However, there’s nothing wrong with being average. I think, like we said, looking at the 2021 prop year, if it’s not that it’s better. So very average. Planting started a little bit early due to we had a pretty dry spring, which is honestly not ideal and ground moisture wasn’t great going into planting season, so that kind of hindered us a lot. Coming along what Jon was saying, those locations where he had a very dry hot summer. We’re just north of that and again had a very dry hot summer. And then some late season rain, which caused some pre-germ, mostly around southern central Alberta is kind of where we saw most of this. Alberta, which is our largest growing region, was showing a wide range of plumps and proteins. However, Saskatchewan, which is just to the east, had a really great prop year, great yields and much lower protein. So it’s really great for us at Canada Malting, having our strategically having our grain elevators scattered around the Canadian prairies between Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Jon (22:16):
Yeah, it’s tough.

Toby (22:18):
Well, it sounds like at least North America wise we’re in pretty decent shape here.

Jon (22:24):
Yeah, yeah. Great. I think it’s an improvement over last year and certainly an improvement over the three or four year trend and we are trending in the right direction. Yields are down, but there’s reasons for that. It’s not weather related. And so far things, if you look at the long-term weather projection scales, things are looking okay right now for growing into ’25. So fingers crossed we get another great year. We see stocks go up, barley stocks and we can see pricing continue to stabilize or improve.

Heather (23:01):
Well, like Jon said, yields are down, but we have more than enough barley to meet the demands that we have and more, so we are looking good going into the 2025 brew year.

Toby (23:14):
So the three plants up in Canada. Heather, do you have any info as far as their 2024 crop inclusion or does it depend on the malt house?

Heather (23:25):
I think it depends on the malt house, but in general we’re already seeing it included into your blends now, but I think we’ll be about 50% in the next week or two.

Toby (23:38):
Okay, good. And then just a random question here. I know we talked about it in prior years, but as far as the users that aren’t taking bulk that are actually using product out of the bag, are we expecting or can we expect maybe mid to late January to start seeing that stuff roll in or even February?

Heather (23:59):
I’d say so. I think in my area you’ll probably see it a little bit sooner just because of where I’m located, because I have a malt house in my territory, so I’m getting the stuff right off the line. But yeah, I think you’ll start seeing it peppered in around January.

Jon (24:16):
I know, Heather, I’m kind of spoiled. You and I are both spoiled being so close to malt houses. Those poor guys out in, I don’t know, Chicago and other places, but no. Yeah, Toby, that’s about right. Late January, February in the bag, you’ll probably start seeing that inclusion if not 100%. So it does lag behind bulk obviously because it’s processed in stocked inventory, but late January, February, you should start expecting that to see that new crop come in.

Toby (24:46):
Sure. Okay. Well, I’m sure folks, listeners, maybe the listeners don’t know, but we are now a part of Soufflé Malt, which has been in the headlines for what, gosh, probably eight, nine months, months already.

Heather (25:04):
I think it said over a year, Toby. [inaudible 00:25:10].

Toby (25:10):
Well, you know what I’m saying.

Jon (25:11):
That’s news to me.

Toby (25:12):
Eight, nine months. Yeah, it just happened yesterday.

Heather (25:14):
Yes, it’s brand new.

Toby (25:15):
It happened yesterday.

Jon (25:16):
Right. Brand new.

Heather (25:16):
Unless you haven’t noticed that our email addresses have changed.

Toby (25:21):
Let’s not go there. Let’s not go there.

Heather (25:22):
It’s been fun.

Toby (25:24):
Yeah, no, it’s been good. So that said, when it comes to barley in general, I think it’s huge to know not only are we now a part of the largest malting company in the world, just the sheer access that we have as a organization under Soufflé Malt when it comes to available barley, right? So you can never be shielded 100% by the weather. However, it is a nice way to feel a little bit protected here in North America knowing that we have access and a lot of doors open under Soufflé Malt if we have challenges going forward on the barley crop.

Heather (26:10):
100%. We’re operating in over 20 countries now with this.

Toby (26:15):
That’s right.

Heather (26:17):
So yeah, we’ve got a lot.

Jon (26:20):
Let ’21 be an example. Great Western was, if not the only, one of the only North American maltsters that did not have to import malt from other parts of the world. Canada Malt had to go to Denmark for instance. Others went to other places in Europe to secure barley for the North American market. In our case, now we’ll be able to buy malt internally from our own companies. And so security of supply now is awesome. It’s great. Not that we want to pull that trader, but if we do have to, it’s there and it’s a great safety net for us and our customers.

Toby (27:03):
Overall capacity under the umbrella as far as all of our facilities worldwide, 3.7 million metric ton capacity with, I think we’re doing 150 plus types of malt worldwide. So it’s great.

Jon (27:22):
Pretty impressive. Yeah, that’s great.

Toby (27:25):
It really is. Speaking of worldwide, there are some tidbits of some action going on and something that I think the listeners might be keen to hear as far as what the global 2024 global crop is looking like. So we mentioned in the US there’s predictors of between 3.75 and 4.25 million metric ton production. Put that into at a little bit of perspective here, there should be five to 6 million metric ton coming out of Argentina and South America this year. Different season obviously. I think they’re currently mid-season compared to what we’re here in North America, but looking like it’s pretty competitive pricing down there. They’re not a major player as far as malt quality barley, but it is a growing area.

Heather (28:26):
And also, sorry, big feed barley area too, which is good.

Jon (28:31):
Yeah, I mean Argentina, I mean it’s a humongous beef growing region, so most of the barley in South America does go to feed, but there is a pretty niche malt in barley in the community down there that’s producing some pretty interesting stuff.

Toby (28:48):
For sure. Well, as you know Heather, I’m always completely switching gears here, but I was just thinking there’s been an argument, I’ve been up to Canada many times and I always hear about how great Canadian beef is because it’s finished on barley. Here in Texas, they’re all, we don’t have access to growing barley, but it’s corn finished. Yeah. What do you think?

Heather (29:18):
I’ll stand by Alberta beef I think until the day I die because it is amazing. But to be fair, I have never-

Jon (29:27):
How many Canadian steak houses do you see out there, Heather?

Heather (29:29):
Quite a few.

Jon (29:30):
We get to Texas Roadhouse, for Christ’s sake.

Heather (29:35):
Right. All right, guys. Do you need me to take you guys back to Calgary? You’ve both been to Calgary before. I feel like I need to take you back through Calgary if you feel like there isn’t a steakhouse around. I will stand by it. However, I have not eaten a steak in Texas. I’ve had barbecue in Texas, but I have not eaten a steak in Texas. I went down to Argentina earlier this year and I will say, delicious.

Jon (29:59):
Yeah, I bet.

Heather (30:03):
But I spent 18 years of my life in Alberta, so I’ll die on that hill.

Toby (30:13):
Sorry for sidetracking. I was just thinking about steaks because it’s getting late in the day and yeah, we’re talking about barley and corn. Anyways.

Heather (30:19):
Almost dinner time.

Toby (30:20):
There you go. Australia. What do y’all know about Australia? What’s going on there? Obviously we’ve got some roots in Australia with Barrett Burston.

Heather (30:34):
They’ve been having great crop years, honestly, for the past four or five years have been amazing.

Jon (30:42):
Been good. They struggled several years ago, 5, 6, 7, 8 years ago they were struggling, but like Heather said, the last four or five years have been outstanding down there. They got the trade agreement kind of worked out with China, so they’re exporting to China again. So Australia’s in pretty good shape. I think right now they’re pumping out like 11, 12 metric tons or something like that. So pretty big market compared to the U.S, which sits at about four metric tons.

Heather (31:14):
The trade agreement, now that that has been worked out, that alleviates some of our exports, which ups the amount of barley that we have here versus exporting over to China.

Jon (31:25):
Yeah, it’s a huge piece of our fairly stable price right now on barley is the fact that those two worked it out, which is good.

Toby (31:33):
Yeah. Well the other one, and I’m going to mention this, but obviously it’s obviously been an area of a lot of eyes are on and a lot of things going on politically, but the Black Sea. So Russia and Ukraine, surprising to know that they’re expecting, what? 25 to 26 million metric ton of malting barley coming out in that area.

Jon (31:58):
Our basket of the world right there. They pump out a lot of barley, but most of their barley again is going to feed. So Asia, Southeast Asia, India, most of their barley heads down to Africa and obviously they’re very challenged being able to export those with what’s going on with the war between Russia and Ukraine. So pretty sticky situation over there. It is affecting barley prices globally, but not as much as it certainly did when the war started a couple of years ago. So yeah, most of that stuff’s for food down there.

Toby (32:36):
Yeah, it’s true.

Heather (32:40):
Delicious.

Toby (32:43):
And then moving over to kind of a bread basket of where we import here, import a lot of our product from is Europe, obviously. They’re in the range of, what? 57 to 59 million metric ton of production.

Jon (32:59):
Leader of the world, yep. They pump out a lot of barley out those little European countries. If you look on a map, it’s hard to believe that they can produce more than the country the size of the US or Australia, but it’s pretty impressive what they’re cranking out of Europe, volume-wise. Absolutely.

Toby (33:16):
Yeah, and I’d heard that France has some quality concerns rolling into 2025 brew year. Again, especially under the Soufflé brand, we’ve got just a wealth of knowledge and some fantastic maltsters. So maltsters that really take a lot of pride in balancing and working with what they have on hand. So I’m sure it’ll be mitigated and won’t see a whole lot of change of product coming out of France. That said, I think there was some poor performances from winter barley specifically

Jon (33:53):
There were. Yeah. And that puts a lot of pressure on the spring barley because if you don’t have that extra inventory through with the winter crop coming out, then the spring barley has to perform or else you could be in trouble. So that’s the situation there in France it looks like.

Toby (34:11):
Yep. Denmark, Sweden, Germany, looking good, but pricing’s probably going to be dependent on the quality in all of those regions combined. I know we bring in quite a bit from best malts out in Germany and those folks are always keeping us rest of the crop situation over there and things look pretty decent.

Heather (34:34):
Yeah.

Toby (34:37):
All that said, let’s talk a little bit more about 2025 and for the listeners out there of planning accordingly with adjusting to the new crop. So in summary, things in North America look pretty decent, especially in comparison to some prior year crops, but things look pretty good. We mentioned the importance of understanding the COAs. I don’t know if either one of y’all can just dive into a little bit more detail of what exactly or if there’s anything specifically they need to look for. I know we talked a little bit about plumpness.

Heather (35:16):
Yeah, sizing, you’re going to have to look at your proteins. I mean just in general, everything.

Jon (35:23):
Yeah, yeah. There’s some beta cans. Your fan package, Like Heather said, plumps. Extract potential. There’s several key things on there, but yeah, right now we’re sitting with a pretty good crop. And ’25, like I said earlier, everything looks like it’s pointing in the right direction for another good year. Obviously we’re way ahead of the game and anything can happen as we’re well aware of in today’s climate, but fingers crossed we’re looking towards another good year for 25.

Heather (35:56):
Yeah, we’re hoping for a lot more snow on the prairies this year. I’m sorry to all my prairie folk, but you guys got dumped on already and we’re hoping for a bit more to keep those ground moistures up going into planting for next year is that it’s just super beneficial. It’s something that we really need.

Toby (36:12):
Yeah, the other thing I want to mention too is we’ve made mention of really taking a look at the mill settings because of sizing. I know there’s a lot of folks out there that have sieve trays and have done some testing. I know a lot of our team actually have those and can travel with them. So for those listeners out there that maybe it’s not something they typically use or have sieves, reach out to our sales team. They’d be happy to share what it is they can do to start looking at making adjustments on their mill. It’s something that we find helpful for our customers, and if it’s something that y’all need some help with, certainly reach out to us.

Jon (37:02):
Yeah, absolutely. And if you want to get a little extra eyes on your mill settings, talk to your sales manager. They can usually arrange, they can arrange to have a sample of your malt, your ground malt sent into our lab and we’ll take a look at it for you and get some professional eyes on your malt and let you know exactly where your mill gap is sitting if you have problems or you’re just curious. So that’s something we can help you with.

Heather (37:28):
Absolutely. And I do want to point out, obviously Jon and I were just touching on some basic information about the crop, it’s the CliffsNotes. If anybody wants more information, if you want any of us to do presentations for your staff, for your guild, for anything, we’re able to really break this down a little bit more for everybody. So just reach out to your territory manager for that.

Toby (37:51):
That’s a good point. That’s a very good point.

Jon (37:53):
We’ll just do anything for a steak.

Toby (37:54):
Sorry to interrupt.

Jon (37:55):
We’ll just do anything for a steak. That’s always true.

Toby (37:57):
That’s right. Well, no, I know a lot of our team will actually do these crop update presentations at local guild events too. So really I think it’s very educational for our brewers out there and customers to figure out and hear more about the details of what’s going on with the barley crop. So I know in preparation for this, Mendo earlier on the call, he’s like, “What, we only have 30 minutes to do this thing? My presentation is like an hour and a half.”

Heather (38:33):
Yeah. And it can be long.

Jon (38:34):
Yeah.

Heather (38:34):
We’ve got all the info if you need all the info, and it is super important, especially looking back at what the past crops, how we got to where we are. This was a really important thing in 2021, 2022 is how we got here because they were such difficult years and how things that are happening in Russia and Ukraine can affect us here. There’s a lot of really great information in there that we can dive into.

Jon (38:56):
And difficult years will happen again. If you look back at the cycle of barley as an agricultural crop in this industry, it’s about every 10 years, you’ll get one of those ’21 years every 10 to 20 years. But I have a feeling that gap’s going to shorten as we deal with climate change. So bad years will happen again, and if you’re in this industry long enough, you’ll ride that rollercoaster a few times. So just be prepared. Be prepared. It could happen again and it will happen again. So we all need to understand how we need to change, how we need to adapt, and how we need to understand the very most important ingredient that we work with, which is barley.

Toby (39:41):
Yeah, 100%. I am thankful for having the two of y’all on our team and having y’all join today. Oh, well, Heather, you’re here all the time.

Heather (39:54):
I’m here all the time.

Toby (39:56):
Jon, I appreciate you taking out time of your day to come hang out and…

Jon (39:59):
Oh my goodness.

Heather (40:00):
Yeah, thank you, Jon.

Jon (40:01):
You guys are two of my favorite people and always a pleasure to hang out with you.

Heather (40:05):
I’m telling the rest of the sales team immediately that you said that.

Jon (40:07):
You can, Heather. You go right ahead.

Heather (40:07):
Jon said I’m his favorite.

Toby (40:16):
Well, I appreciate the time. I’m going to go out and check my mailbox and see what kind of catalogs I get in today and how much I have as fire starter for my grill next week.

Heather (40:26):
There you go.

Jon (40:26):
Yeah, I’ll take the red satin smoking jacket please.

Heather (40:33):
My goodness.

Toby (40:34):
I love y’all.

Heather (40:35):
Thanks guys.

Toby (40:36):
We have the honor of welcoming back our pretty consistent guest we have on, Abi Connor is our product manager up here at CMG. For those listeners who don’t know Abi, Abi pretty much, gosh, you pretty much do everything up here. I don’t know how you have the time, but yeah, thanks for joining us. Well, we wanted to get Abi on and just take a trip down memory lane, for lack of a better term, just to talk about everything we’ve done in 2024 from things that we’ve released and what we can look forward to in 2025. So it’s all yours.

Heather (41:16):
That’s a long, long last, Abi.

Toby (41:17):
Yes, it is.

Heather (41:19):
Been busy this year.

Abi (41:19):
We had a really busy year, really busy year, and lots of fun was had as the product manager. One of my favorite things that we did, I was so proud of it. Our entire marketing team is made of women, and so we were really excited to launch our very first Pink Boots malts this earlier this year, and that was a low RGN to grow that can be used for distilling our brewing. So that’s still available. We’ve still got some of that product available and with every bag that we sell, we donate $5 back to Pink Boots. We’ve got a new variety coming out next year in 2025 for International Women’s Day. It’s going to be a Canadian barley through Canada Malting. We do have this year’s variety still available. And remember, it is always great to brew for women year round. So go snag some of that while you can.

Toby (42:15):
Abi, I got to tell you, I got to cut you off there. That was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. I mean, y’all do some great stuff, you and the marketing team, but just seeing the bag and seeing the effort and energy that went into that really cool project, it was awesome. And I’ve actually been into a couple breweries where they were brewing with it, so really, really cool.

Abi (42:39):
Awesome.

Toby (42:39):
I’m glad that we can continue that.

Abi (42:41):
Yeah, the bag is beautiful. I mean, it was just such a fun one. We’re really excited about it. So yeah, thank you. I’m excited for next year as well. At CBC, we also released Aroma Sciences, which that’s an evaporated barrel extract that can be added to basically any beverage. Your beers, your RTD, seltzers, distilling products. Just adds a really cool tannic flavor. We also released a few new concentrates of pineapple and a cherry. Those are 36 bricks, so they go a long way. That was CBC. It was really fun. A couple of releases there alongside with YCH. We launched a few new cool products through them, the DynaBoost and HyperBoost extracts. We have a few varieties in each of those at this point. The DynaBoost is kind of a whirlpool hop extract, and then the HyperBoost is an oil-based hop extract. So definitely grab those and give them a try.

(43:40)
They’re a lot of fun. We also launched Castle earlier this year. We have a total of 18 products from them, anywhere from a two row, six row all the way to their specialty malts. That’s what they’re known for. They’re really great quality. We’re going to be launching a few New Castle products in January as well. And then most recently we launched Durst Malts here at CMG. We’re really excited about this one as well. It’s a German malt that you may have seen in the US before. We’re now the exclusive distributor for Durst, and we’re going to carry six products from this line. We have a Pilsen, a Pale, a Wheat Vienna, and then two Munics, a 40 BC and then a 20. It’s just really cool. It’s a really great price point. So definitely get your hands on some of those. So that was this year.

Toby (44:33):
Yeah, sorry. I was up at the Garland Distribution Center yesterday, and it was really awesome to walk that very clean facility, by the way, and see both Castle and Durst sitting on the pallets. It was really cool. Excited about those.

Abi (44:48):
Yeah, I was out at Chicago last week too, and I saw it and I was very proud. Very, very excited for it. So yes, definitely get your hands on it.

Heather (44:57):
I was out last night for a beer and I ran into another brewer and dropped that we’re going to be having it really soon, and he was super excited about it. Yeah, really looking forward to that.

Abi (45:07):
Super exciting, very fun stuff. So speaking of fun stuff, there’s a launch coming up here early next year that I’m super excited about. Everybody loves a good Czech malt and we’ve got Czech malt coming in January, and we’re going to be carrying four Czech products from them. One of the ones that I’m most excited about is a floor malted Czech pils. So definitely keep your eyes out for that launch. It’s going to be really exciting. Really great brand, really great product. So yeah, super fun. And then we’ve got a couple new distilling yeasts coming out from Pinnacle as well, is they’ve got American whiskey as well. So these are some really great flavors that you can get straight from the yeast.

(45:55)
There’s really innovative flavors. I forget the names of them, but there’s Berry and Banana and different ones like that. So it’s just really cool. Keep your eyes up for that. And then last, we have a couple products that I am very proud of. I’ve been developing them over the last couple of months. They’re going to be releasing at CBC through Great Western. I can’t tell you what they are yet, but I can tell you that they’re innovative and they’re going to be cost-efficient. So definitely stop by our booth at CBC and come say hi. I’ll be there. Our sales reps will be there and we can tell you all about them.

Heather (46:34):
Ooh, secrets.

Toby (46:37):
Heather, I don’t even think you and I know what the hell she’s talking about.

Heather (46:38):
I have no clue.

Toby (46:40):
Yeah, right. Yeah. well that’s exciting. I’m going to go to CBC and try to figure out what’s going on. That’s cool.

Abi (46:48):
Come see Toby night.

Heather (46:49):
We’ll have a microphone, I’m sure.

Abi (46:51):
Exactly.

Toby (46:53):
Well, very good, Abi, as always, thanks for joining us and appreciate what you and the team do up there. And you always make our offerings and our jobs exciting because we always have something new that we’re either working on or have recently launched, and I think it’s good that we continue to throw products out there that our consumers and customers are looking for.

Abi (47:14):
Yeah, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. We definitely strive to always be that one-stop shop for your everyday brewing needs. And if you ever see something that you don’t see in our portfolio and you want it, let us know.

Toby (47:26):
Absolutely. All right, thanks Abi. Thanks Abi. Well, we appreciate Jon Mendrick coming on for year two, talking about the ongoing historic and future crop. And also, Heather, thank you for putting in the time and efforts and doing a little dig on what’s happening in our Canadian malting world.

Heather (47:43):
My pleasure.

Toby (47:44):
Appreciate everybody’s participation. And that’s a wrap for another great season. I think this is, I always forget season five, we’re wrapping up.

Heather (47:51):
This is season five. Yeah, we will be back in January for season six. I can’t believe we’re doing it for this long.

Toby (48:00):
Whether it’s your first time tuning in or you’ve been listening since season one, we really, really appreciate y’all joining us.

Heather (48:07):
We do. Thank you so much. We’ll be back in January with our annual countdown of our most listened to episodes from this past year. So take a listen to that. There were some really, really good ones this year to go back and take a listen to. What has been your favorite episodes of this season? Toby, do you have one?

Toby (48:27):
I always like this one. You know what? I like all of them, but since you and I were tasked to go through and piece together the top 10, I’m excited about it. What about you? Is there something you can remember specifically?

Heather (48:41):
Well, it’s actually really funny. I’m not even on it, but it was the dark malt one. The roasted malt one.

Toby (48:45):
Oh, yes.

Heather (48:46):
Because I love a dark beer. I know I’ve said that probably 20 million times on here. But I love a dark beer and I love that episode because I love learning about our roasted malts and stuff. I think it’s really cool. They just add so much to your beers and I just really, really like that one. So yeah.

Toby (49:03):
Well, make sure you pull that.

Heather (49:04):
Yes. So if there’s one that our listeners really like, please leave us a review or let us know in the comments what’s your most liked episode of the 2024 season and maybe what you want to hear in 2025. But be sure to just subscribe to the BrewDeck Podcast on Spotify or on Apple Podcasts. Cheers everyone.

Toby (49:26):
Cheers. Bye, Heather. Happy holidays.

Heather (49:28):
You too.