Coopers may start to offer spec malts next year

[Ducatiboy stu]

Having a beer with the Coopers regional manager last night ( as he plied me with free beer...the ******* ) and he got talking about Coopers building a new malting facility, with the idea of producing all there own spec malts from ale malt to roast barley.

And they would be made available to the public

Would be good to see a range of aussie malts available

 

[Randai]

So do you think they'd fill the role of someone like Weyermann of Bamberg in Germany, that they provide a high quality local malting facility?

 

[Bribie G]

With the duopoly now foreign owned it wouldn't be inconceivable that they could put the bite on Barrett Burston and or Joe White to stop dealing with Coopers or at least throttle the business. Their own maltings would give them true independence.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

So do you think they'd fill the role of someone like Weyermann of Bamberg in Germany, that they provide a high quality local malting facility?

Yes.

They are building a brand new malting plant specifically for this

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

With the duopoly now foreign owned it wouldn't be inconceivable that they could put the bite on Barrett Burston and or Joe White to stop dealing with Coopers or at least throttle the business. Their own maltings would give them true independence.

Basically they want to control and bring in house as much of the production of ingredients as they can rather than rely on external suppliers.. They have contract malt growers and very a long established hop growing contract with a hop grower so that all hops are grown by the one growers in the same place, as they have done for a long time already.

Its more about them able to spec there own malts when they want to

 

[sp0rk]

Yes.

They are building a brand new malting plant specifically for this

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you while I was sending you pics from the tour the other week...
Coopers are building a malthouse...
The SA government are also stealing a part of their golf course to build an EVEN BIGGER intersection, because apparently the existing one isn't big enough
It'll take out their museum, so they have to build a new museum and function room too

 

[Feldon]

Didn't Joe White get busted for producing sub-standard malt (below spec) recently? I recall the news came out just after it was sold to a Japanese buyer? Seems they were short changing breweries for years.

Might be one of the reasons Coopers are going inhouse with malt production.

With access to the vast cereal producing areas in Eyre Peninsular etc in SA I would think they would be looking at exporting malt as well as part of their business plan.

 

[Bribie G]

I want choc chit.

 

[sp0rk]

Didn't Joe White get busted for producing sub-standard malt (below spec) recently? I recall the news came out just after it was sold to a Japanese buyer? Seems they were short changing breweries for years.

Might be one of the reasons Coopers are going inhouse with malt production.

With access to the vast cereal producing areas in Eyre Peninsular etc in SA I would think they would be looking at exporting malt as well as part of their business plan.

Coopers had their own malthouse until around the time they moved to Regency Park, which then spun off into it's own business still supplying Coopers
The sub standard JW malt was a few years ago now and was happening before it was sold, so basically the new buyers got screwed
They seem to be building their own malthouse because they're all about efficiency and reduced environmental impact, their energy generation on site is around 2-3 times more efficient than thermal coal, and any waste heat is pumped through a heat exchanger into the brewery
I would assume they'll use this sort of load sharing for efficiency with the malthouse as well

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Didn't Joe White get busted for producing sub-standard malt (below spec) recently? I recall the news came out just after it was sold to a Japanese buyer? Seems they were short changing breweries for years.

Might be one of the reasons Coopers are going inhouse with malt production.

With access to the vast cereal producing areas in Eyre Peninsular etc in SA I would think they would be looking at exporting malt as well as part of their business plan.

You also need to remember that they BUL some beers here, so it makes sense if they can do the correct malt.

That at the ever expanding Micro and craftbrewer market it is a bit of a no brainer.

They already have the kit market sown up based on reputation alone so going the next step is logical

Imagine if you where a micro and you could just ring up coopers and say " Can I order a batch of malt to these specs "

 

[manticle]

Sounds great.
I'd try it. Closest to local malt I generally buy is nz (gladfield) so I'd love to check out some decent AU.*

You said spec malts but also mention ale malt - can you confirm they will be doing base as well? Presumably if they have proper malting facilities, they'll be doing the lot?

*not a fan of jw

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Dont know full details yet. But it would seem obvious if they had enough production facility.

 

[sp0rk]

Sounds great.
I'd try it. Closest to local malt I generally buy is nz (gladfield) so I'd love to check out some decent AU.*

You said spec malts but also mention ale malt - can you confirm they will be doing base as well? Presumably if they have proper malting facilities, they'll be doing the lot?

*not a fan of jw

I'm told there's a bloke near Tamworth doing just ale malt for about $30 a bag at the moment
However I can't find a contact or address for him

 

[manticle]

Is it any good?
Price isn't the issue, quality/preference is.
Weyermann, dingemans, simpsons, thomas fawcett and gladfields all produce excellent quality that goes very well in the styles I brew regularly. JW simply doesn't match up in the same beers to my palate.

I'll try most things once at least.

 

[DU99]

remember these guys in the Riverina...