There was a crop report that talked about issues with this years crop. I asked Poptop and Denny to get someone from County Malt Group on to talk about it but I haven’t seen anything yet.
“Key grain growing regions in North America experienced record-breaking, sustained heat in early summer 2021, resulting in damaged grain crops, causing elevated proteins, lower than expected yields, and fewer plump kernels. Considering these changes, it’s important for brewers to understand the tools and strategies available to them to produce the best beer possible with 2021 crop malt.
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This year, we anticipate seeing increases of 1.0 – 3.0 % in the total protein in your malt.
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The easiest way to address this is to use more malt, however if your equipment limits the use of additional malt, other alternatives exist such as malt extracts or sugars.
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increased variability of kernel sizing can be expected this year. It’s important that brewers evaluate their crush on a regular basis…”
https://countrymaltgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Crop-Whitepaper_US.pdf