HOMEBREW Digest #5264 Thu 06 December 2007


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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  Grain prices ("Pat Casey")
  Helping out HBD (Calvin Perilloux)
  RE: Grain Prices (Don Van Valkenburg)
  Grain Prices (Scott Birdwell)
  2008 Upper Mississippi Mash-Out ("Crist, Jonathan")

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2007 16:54:02 +1100 From: "Pat Casey" <pat at bmbrews.com.au> Subject: Grain prices Drought in Australia still, a bad year in Europe, and a bad year in Nth America mean that yields and quality are both down. Many farmers in Nth America and Europe are also switching from barley to other crops destined for the ethanol fuel industry. In April we had a 25% increase in the wholesale price of malt, I am just surprised there has not been another increase. Pat Absolute Homebrew www.absolutehomebrew.com.au Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2007 07:16:40 -0800 (PST) From: Calvin Perilloux <calvinperilloux at yahoo.com> Subject: Helping out HBD As the end of year approaches, and some of us in the USA are thinking of where our tax-year-end charitable contributions might be directed, I'd like to point out that Pat worked hard to get official non-profit 501(c)(3) status for HBD earlier this year. I find HBD to be a great little forum. Sometimes, depending on the brewing season, it gets slow, sometimes it picks up, but there is always a wealth of searchable information that is kept available to us, and it's nice to help support that. It's not cheap, as you can see if you browse the Finances sections, and hats off to Pat Babcock for keeping this up and running. Here are some relevant clips from the Announcements page earlier this year for anyone looking to donate: "We are now Home Brew Digest, Incorporated, a 501(c)3 corporation. We are an educational charity, dedicated to disseminating information pertaining to the home production of fermented foodstuffs, including beer, wine, cheese, sauerkraut, etc." "If you were waiting to make a donation to the HBD because you couldn't deduct it from your income taxes, you can now." "The Home Brew Digest, Inc. EIN as a non-profit is 26-0150215. Under IRS rules, we are a 501(c)3 corporation [...]" However, I note on http://hbd.org/donors_table.shtml that it says this from about 2004: "Currently, the Digest has no bank account of its own. Donations must be made payable to Pat Babcock in order for the funds to be used. Donations can be mailed to: HBD Server Fund PO Box 871309 Canton Township, MI 48187-6309" Pat, is that still the case? Or can we make out checks now to "Home Brew Digest, Incorporated"? Calvin Perilloux Middletown, Maryland, USA Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2007 07:47:53 -0800 From: Don Van Valkenburg <valkenburg at verizon.net> Subject: RE: Grain Prices In addition to crop shortages, I suspect pressure is being put on other grains such as barley as corn is increasingly used for ethanol production. Corn is now not only considered an agricultural commodity, but an energy commodity and is reflecting those market pressures. cheers Don - --- avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 071205-2, 12/05/2007 Tested on: 12/6/2007 7:47:54 AM avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2007 ALWIL Software. http://www.avast.com Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2007 10:02:07 -0600 From: Scott Birdwell <defalcos at sbcglobal.net> Subject: Grain Prices Nathan Hirneisen said: "A homebrew shop that i frequent has drastically increase their prices for both grain and hops. I'm sure that everyone is familiar with the hops shortages world wide, but. I didn't quite expect grain prices to increase so drastically. About 4 months ago i bought 55# of Weyermann Pils for $42. Last week went to the same store and it was $67. A 60% price increase in that short a time. I was shocked to say the least... The only thing i can think is with the price of corn up, less tillable land is in barley. And with the dollar being lousy to the euro, that makes it even worst. Any ideas?" When comes to any imported grains, you don't have to look much further than the exchange rate. The dollar is nearing all time lows against many European currencies, causing their products to soar in price here in the US. Add to that the poor crop that seems to be a problem almost worldwide, and you've got some serious shortages, driving prices further up. Domestically you've got the good ol' US Government throwing money at farmers to encourage them to grow corn for ethanol. Even though you'll never convince me that producing ethanol creates more energy than it takes to produce it, it's all about the money. I can't really fault the farmers. They're trying to make a living, too! My wife works in the food service industry and has received notice that wheat flour prices are going way up for the same reason. FWIW some of my hop costs are going up six-fold, assuming I can even get my hands on them. It's going to be a rough year or two for those of us in the craft beer/ homebrew industry. Scott Birdwell DeFalco's Home Wine & Beer Supplies Houston TX Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2007 13:12:52 -0600 From: "Crist, Jonathan" <Jonathan.Crist at bsci.com> Subject: 2008 Upper Mississippi Mash-Out Get Ready for the 2008 Upper Mississippi Mash-Out, January 25-26 in St Paul, Minnesota. Sponsored by the St. Paul Homebrewers Club and the Minnesota Home Brewers Assn., this is one of the largest contests in the country and offers prizes along with medals for every award. This includes the hand-made wooden chalices for best-of-show winners in beer, mead and cider. Check out the infamous "Eis-Anything" category, and NEW this year there are two categories for first time entrants (1060+ OG and 1060- OG). Entries are accepted January 1-12. All the details can be found at http://www.mnbrewers.com/mashout Jonathan Crist Return to table of contents
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