16/09/2026
YQ wheat
What a difference a year makes!
We haven’t talked about a core part of our brewery’s values for a while.
We’re committed to using grains that help restore soil health and form part of resilient ecosystems.
Fred Price has spent the last decade turning his family farm from what might be considered conventional farming into something more agroecological-working alongside nature rather than against it.
There’s also the building of a sustainable business that isn’t tethered to commodity market values. Fred can by and large set his own@price-one that works for all parties.
We’ve been using his YQ wheat since we started, so now we have a couple of crops under our belt. We’re familiar with how it works and the contribution it makes to our b**rs. Interestingly, the previous 2 crops have appeared remarkably similar.
Fred dropped off a large sack of 2026 crops 2 weeks ago. When I ran a portion through our mil, I noticed immediately how much darker this year’s crop is compared with 2025 crop (2026 on the right, 2025 on the left).
I texted Fred to discuss it and his view was that the difference is largely down to protein levels with the more ‘glassy’ rather than ‘mealy’ kernels appearing darker.
So why the higher protein?
There are a couple of possibilities. It could reflect greater nitrogen availability from the soil; or the recent drought may have resulted in less starch accumulation, concentrating the protein in the grain.
Higher protein isn’t usually what a brewer looks for in grain but in our experience these grains have brought some really positive attributes to our b**r-particularly a big persistent foamy head.
This is one of the things we like about working with crops from a particular farm and a particular year. The grain isn’t an anonymous commodity. It responds to the soil, the farming system and the weather. So if every harvest is a little different perhaps our b**rs should be too.
We’ll embrace the change.
