Just wondering if you are aware of what has happened to the price of say for instance corn, or hay over the past year?. Here in the Midwest the price corn has doubled in the past year. Hay has more than doubled. A bale that just 2 years ago you could have bought for $2.50 is now selling for $7 and upwards.....if you can find it. We feed horses and a few cows so I am totally aware of what is and has happened in the grains and feed markets. I watch the futures markets and although I am no expert I see the trends that when one of them shoots up the others follow. Last growing season was a terrible one in the midwest for grains of all sorts. Add to this the ever increasing diversion of foodstuff grains to ethanol production and the price of not only the remaining grain stock but also everything made from it skyrockets. You may not brew with corn but when the price of corn goes up you can bet other grains will not be left far behind. Supply/Demand/Greed......whatever. And then you add in the international trade of all of the above and the increasing demands for them in China and other areas of the world.I am not here to start a point the finger or blame this one or that one thread. All I am saying is that before you begin to put the word out on end producers you might want to consider what has happened to their costs and prices. The maltier has to buy his barley from someone. The guy growing the barley has to put ever costlier diesel in his tractors and fertilizers on his crops. And we will end up paying more at the end of the chain. Is it just this one supplier that has increased his pricing or is this a general trend that is or will soon appear in the pricing from all of them?I applaud and support the guys that supply our hobby and am not too quick to turn them against us making it even harder and more expensive to obtain what we need to brew.Just a few thoughts.......