SOUTH Australian brewer Coopers has entered the malting game, unveiling a $65-million state-of-the-art malting facility today.
Connecting to Coopers’ Regency Park brewery, the 13,000-square metre malting plant was officially opened by SA governor Hieu Van Le in front of a large crowd including members of the grain supply chain.
Constructed by local firm Ahrens and incorporating malting equipment from Swiss company Buhler, the facility features six 510-tonne barley silos, three 60t steeping vessels and four 180t grain germination vessels.
It will be powered largely by Coopers’ onsite co-generation plant, with water drawn from saline aquifers beneath the brewery and desalinated onsite.
The malting plant will turn about 65,000t of South Australian barley into 54,000t of malt each year, with Coopers using 17,000t and selling the remainder to domestic and international customers.
Coopers expects its first beer brewed using malt from the new plant to be available before Christmas.