Page 29 - Food&Drink Magazine August 2019

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is the most energy intensive component for Coopers.
The solution was to heat water to between 80-90 degrees Celcius, which is then used to reheat the air coming into the kiln. “We’re saving around thirty three per cent of our entire gas bill and more than 100 gigajoules a day. It ticks the financial and the sustainability boxes for sure,” Stewart says.
For Stewart the lack of industry environmental standards and sustainability goals has surprised
LEFT BOTTOM: Dr Doug Stewart. FAR LEFT: A beer drinker’s dream. LEFT: The grass is greener at the new plant.
industry, so we’ll malt from a specific region, and then bag products and tag where that barley came from,” he says.
There are some craft brewers that like to target a region. The brewery has a collaboration with the former Kangaroo Island Pure Grain coop. Traditionally the coop grew broad beans, soft wheat and canola, specialising for the high end Japanese market. Coopers worked with them to develop a barley crop which is now at around 5000 tonnes.
“ There’s a revival of wonderful old style ales coming to the fore, IPAs, IIPAs, and lots around the origin of ingredients, which is great to see.”
him. While there has been an increase in hygiene, food safety, biosecurity, and raw material flexibility, the uptake of sustainable practices has been slower than expected, he says.
He sees this changing by European brewers with South East Asian interests who will set the benchmarks.
BARLEY PROVIDENCE
With craft brewing, while the volumes aren’t huge, Stewart says the sector’s raw material use is. “They’re putting more malt and hops, so they’re punching above their weight, very much so. They’re making beer interesting again,” Stewart says. “There’s a revival of wonderful old style ales coming to the fore, IPAs, IIPAs, and lots around the origin of ingredients, which is great to see.”
Stewart says that “from day one” the malting plant has done single original malts. “We offer single origin malts in the craft
“You’ve got a single origin barley that couldn’t get more unique. We’re growing a maritime influenced barley,” he says.
The malter is also keen to trial new barley varieties. The University of Adelaide is a commercial partner that has developed a new variety called Leabrook, named after Coopers’ old brewery. “The craft space really generates interest. It’s probably only ten per cent of our production, but we sort of dedicate seventy-five per cent of our storage resources to it because we want to grow that market segment,” Stewart says.
The brewery also does an annual vintage ale. “We always try to do something a little special for that. It’s normally around the hops. But this year we’re doing a little something on Pinaroo, a little town in the South Australian Mallee, near the Victorian border. They’ve had a pretty tough year but have still produced barley for us.” ✷
www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au | August 2019 | Food&Drink business | 29 FoodAndDrinkBus_Aug19_95w x 277h.indd 1 7/17/2019 2:39:20 PM