St Austell Brewery harvest of barley for 24 million pints

The brewery, which has been collaborating with Cornish farmers for nearly 25 years, collected around 2,000 tonnes of barley from 19 farms across Cornwall.

This is the equivalent weight of six Boeing 747 jets or 13 adult blue whales.

Every year, the brewers visit the fields to check the quality of the crop.

The brewery also invites its partners, including Simpsons Malt, seed suppliers, and the farmers, to join them.

The barley varieties, Maris Otter and Laureate, are used in popular beers such as Tribute, Proper Job, and Cornish Best.

Laureate is processed into Cornish Gold, a malt exclusively used by St Austell Brewery.

Despite the challenging weather conditions this year, the crop has done well.

The brewery sources as much Cornish barley as they can (Image: St Austell Brewery) Georgina Young, brewing director, said: "Sunshine, especially during ripening, is critical for barley quality and yield.

"The weather this year has been some of the worst, wettest, most sunless and grey months, and the winter barley harvest across the country has been indifferent at best with a massive range of both quality and yield.

"So, our hopes for the crop weren’t high - but all fears were allayed as we zigzagged through the golden swaying fields of winter barley, which has done extremely well despite the weather conditions, the quality has been excellent."

St Austell Brewery aims to source as much Cornish barley as possible.

Any additional barley comes from East Anglia.

The Cornwall Maris Otter Partnership, set up in 2002, remains strong.

Its aim was to reintroduce the variety as a staple crop in the county and form long-lasting relationships with farmers, to ensure a ready supply for the brewery.

In total, almost 900 acres of Cornish farmland has been cultivated to grow Maris Otter barley exclusively for the brewery.

The partnership is one of St Austell Brewery’s initiatives in supporting the local economy and cutting transport mileage.