In late 2017, Coopers Brewery opened one of the most technically advanced malting plants in the world. Almost two years on, Kim Berry caught up with the company’s malting manager Dr Doug Stewart.
The Coopers Brewery malting plant sits on 13,000 square metres at its Regency Park brewery in Adelaide, South Australia.
The $65 million investment by Coopers means that at capacity, the plant can produce 54,000 tonnes of malt a year, giving the company full control over one of the most important raw materials. Coopers uses about 17,000 tonnes of that output, the rest going to domestic and export customers.
In March this year, barely a year after coming into operation, it was awarded joint 2019 Maltster of the Year at the Global Brewing Supply Awards with Swaen from the Netherlands.
But Coopers malting manager Dr Doug Stewart didn’t start his career intending to make award winning malt. He was originally completing postdoctoral study in the American Midwest when beer came into his life, in this case, craft beer.
“I was working in the biochemistry department at Michigan State University, so nothing to do with brewing. But I was researching starch, which lent itself to helping a few little craft brewers out on the weekends.”
It was on his return to Australia and working at the University of Adelaide where Stewart got involved in a micro brewing project. About three years later, Coopers managing director Dr Tim Cooper offered him a job “and that was really the start of it”.
