A Nordic Malt House - an account and blue print - Nordic Innovation

Summary: A Nordic Malt House
In order to develop beer types, which are Nordic in their origin, the brewers need to
have malt which are malted from grain grown in our region and malted according to
the desires and traditions among Nordic brewers.
Today only a handful of malt houses serve the needs of the beer industry. Small scale
brewing among the microbrewers is mainly carried out with malt imported from either
Germany or UK.
In other words we need to establish malt houses, which can produce malt specialized
to the microbrewers marked, and which cooperate and support the Nordic trend.
Different models have been discussed. In the working group it has been agreed to
develop a malting plant, which may produce batches of ½-1 tonnes. This can be
carried out using either floor malting or malting in a box. Due to a less handwork
demanding technique we have emphazised the box approach and designed a modified
Saladin-box. The box is used both for steeping, germination, drying and the final
curing. Humidity as well as the temperature may be fully controlled during the malting
process by using air, irrigation and a mixer constructed of vertically turning ‘snails’.
Curing at a higher temperature than 150 0 C has to be carried out in a coffee roaster. A
seed cleaner is used to clean seeds before malting and after to remove the rootlets
and acrospires before storing and packaging the malt. The number of boxes defines
the total capacity of the malting plant. With 7 boxes and 7 days up to 7 tonnes may
be malted per week. With 40 weeks the annual capacity is up to 280 tonnes or even
more.
The investment in the necessary equipment is app. 1 mio DKK or 150.000 euro. This
includes facilities to store and clean seeds/malt, seed/malt transport, the malting
itself, roasting and packaging. The malting plant could be houses in a 400 m2 building
with the necessary facilities (water, electricity, air, accessability etc. Yearly costs for
housing is estimated to app. 180.000 DKK or 24.000 euro. A very rough estimate of
the production costs shows that it costs between 7 and 8 DKK or app. 1 euro.
Including the investment and housing the production prize will be app. 9,5-11 DKK or
app 1,5 euro assuming that the total annual production is 100 t. If the production is
300 t the comparable production prize decreases to 8,3-9,6.
Several factors are critical to the economy, however this level is comparable to other
small malting facilities, and should be competitive. Assuming that brewers are willing
to pay for malt with complete transparency and hopefully interesting brewing and
taste qualities, the technical solution and the malting house design should be able to
become a healthy small business. If the malt is sold to an average price of 15 DKK/kg
(ex VAT) the potential profit margin is about 4 DKK/kg. However, as the idea is to
meet specific demans from individual brewers, the costs of each batch may easily
become higher than the most rational approach. Hence, a maor challenge is to create
close cooperation with the brewers in order to meet their demands and get their
acceptance of the relevant price. It is therefore proposed to establish the malting
plant organised as a cooperative business.
Side 2