The Brewers Association has gathered a number of important malting barley resources for craft brewers.

Craft Maltsters Guild – The Craft Maltsters Guild’s mission is to promote and sustain the tradition of craft malting, provide services and resources to the association’s members, and uphold the highest quality and safety standards for craft maltsters. Members include craft malthouses, farmers, brewers, distillers, small grains researchers, and industry suppliers such as seed producers and equipment manufacturers. The guild provides technical malting education through courses such as the Advanced Class in Craft Malt Production and Malt for Brewers Workshop. Additionally, the organization hosts bi-monthly webinars on various small grains and malting topics and offers best practices guidance through publications like the Craft Maltsters Guild Quality and Safety Manual.

American Malting Barley Association (AMBA) – AMBA’s mission is to provide an adequate supply of high quality malting barley for the malting and brewing industries. Members include brewers and malting companies. AMBA provides technical direction (for example, encouraging research on rust resistant varieties), and best practices guidance to supply chain members. The links page at the AMBA website is a comprehensive gateway into barley information online.

NDSU Institute of Barley Malting and Science (IBMS) – IBMS provides research and technical information for US barley growers and domestic and international malting and brewing industries.

National Barley Growers Association (NBGA) – NBGA mission is to enhance and maintain the profitability of the U.S. barley growing industry. NBGA posts wide ranging policy position statements.

Canadian Malting Barley Technical Center (CMBTC) – CMBTC provides technical resources for the entire supply chain—barley growers, maltsters, brewers. They also have an e-newsletter with global barley news synopses, sign up by contacting Rob McCaig directly.

USDA Reports

USDA Weekly Crop Progress Report – Updated weekly during spring and summer.

USDA Annual Grain Planting Intentions Report – An annual report is issued in late March. State by state breakdown of planting intentions for acreage for many crops. Barley acreage intentions usually shown on page 9 of this report.

USDA Annual Grain Planted Acreage Report – An annual reports are issued in late June. Reports contain a state by state breakdown of actual acreage planted for many crops. Actual barley acreage is usually shown on page 9 of the report.

USDA Crop Production Report – Use the USDA database to different reports. Reports issued monthly. Highlights from certain months include:

• January – Previous year barley acreage
• July – First yield estimate for current year crop
• August – Updated yield estimate for current year crop
• October – Updated yield estimate for current year crop that includes mostly of the actual harvest, so is subject to little revision after this
• November – Final yield, acreage and production figures

USDA Grain Stock reports are issued four times per year in January, March, June, and September. Reports show inventories held on farms, and off farms (which includes mills, elevators, warehouses, terminals, and processors).

The reports are organized on a state by state and total U.S. basis. Barley stocks are summarized usually on the top of page 2, and broken down in detail on page 9 of each report. Reports also compare previous quarter depletions to the year prior period, allowing you to compare actual total stocks, and also the rate of depletion of those stocks. Depletions (called “disappearance” in the reports) are calculated by comparing the end of quarter total U.S. stock figure with the same figure from the prior quarter.