TOPIC:

What does this mean for us , craft brewers and the farmers?

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Although I remember Cuilin saying that it would be cheaper to grow barley here and have it shipped to the UK for malting and then back again to be used in a brew than to buy Irish malted barley.

It may have been posted before but I heard it on the wireless there last week.[/i]

Replying to my own post <!-- s:oops: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_redface.gif" alt="" title="Embarassed" /><!-- s:oops: --> but it seems they will keep the Irish malting operation going....but for how long who knows!

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Was talking to my father-in-law today who used work for Greencore when it was Irish Sugar. Unrelated but he was telling me they used malt their own barley at home when he was a kid, for the purposes of making alcoholic beverages, specifically poitín.

I rang the Athy plant today and was told that they've stopped selling malt at the weigh bridge, which is bad news indeed for us all-grain homebrewers. Unless you own a business and have an official contract, you will no longer be able to drive in and pick up malt.