Coopers maltings benefit from craft boom

Australia | Adelaide’s Coopers Brewery is willing to shrink its golf course to make room for an expansion of its malting plant. Of course, the golf course has always been a joke – or Coopers’ tongue-in-cheek terminology for the vacant piece of land around its brewery, which has been earmarked for potential expansions.

The original golf course was three-part-three holes, but one was lost to the 54,000 tonne maltings, which Coopers opened in late 2017, and which cost AUD 65 million (USD 47 million) to build. In fact, the kiln now sits slap bang on top of where one of the greens was.

In March 2019, Coopers’ malting manager, Dr Doug Stewart, told local media that the plant is at 90 percent capacity, thanks to stronger-than-expected demand for its malt from the domestic craft brewing and distilling industries. 

“Coopers is a well-known brand but we just weren’t known for producing malt and we thought it would take a while for the brewing community to become familiar with that,” he was quoted as saying. “We’re probably 50 percent above budget ... about 12 months ahead of schedule.”

Dr Stewart estimates the company’s domestic craft customers will use 5,500 tonnes of Coopers malt this year – more than 10 percent of the group’s annual capacity. Coopers uses approximately 16,000 tonnes per year for its own needs, with the balance available to domestic and international brewers and food producers.

To accommodate growing demand, the maltings may have to be enlarged. Dr Stewart reckons that “if we built the kiln on the third green, we’d lose the fairway if we expanded, but we’re prepared to do that.”

A typical Coopers’ way with words, I’d say.