A £3.5m specialist malting plant in north Norfolk – the first of its kind in Britain – has come on stream this week.
The facility is running on schedule and will expand the range of malts produced by the Crisp Malting Group at Great Ryburgh, near Fakenham, said group managing director Adrian Dyter.
Speaking at the 69th annual meeting of Holt and District Farmers' Club, Mr Dyter said the maltings group, which is the 11th largest in the world, also has maltings in northern Germany and Poland. It produced a total of about 430,000 tonnes a year of malt from all its plants.
The new speciality plant can roast malt inside two vibrating spiral towers, with the level of heat controlling the darkness of the malt, adding extra flavour and body to particular styles of beer.
Mr Dyter told about 40 club members at the Feathers' Hotel in Holt, that the plant would produce new types of coloured malts and would be running fully by the end of the first quarter next year. 'There is keen demand for new malts from enterprising craft and specialist brewers,' he said.
The independent maltster has also invested £3.2m in a malt milling and bagging plant at Ryburgh. This will supply the rapidly-expanding craft brewing market with about 1,000 tonnes of malt a week, said Mr Dyter.
READ MORE: Norfolk maltings invests £6.7m as craft beer bubble shows no sign of burstingMr Dyter, who comes from Woodbridge, started in the malting industry with long-established Ipswich-based firm Paul's in 1990.
Before taking over at Ryburgh in 2016, his most recent role had been head of malt procurement for Carlsberg buying some 1.2m tonnes of malt annually.
My Dyter said Crisp had invested more than £3.5m to produce peated malt at Portgordon, Scotland. This was an exciting and growing sector as distillers around the world, including Thailand and Brazil were looking to meet demand for 'peaty' liquors, he said.
And, specialist malting barley growers in Norfolk were well-placed to produce the vital raw material needed by the group for the future, he said.
A former malting barley specialist, John Cragg, formerly of merchants Adams and Howling, gave the vote of thanks.
Earlier, club chairman Jimmy Fowell thanked Jack Hammond for his 22 years' service to the club. He had been a former chairman and committee member, who had never missed a meeting.
READ MORE: Results of Holt Farmers' Club's annual malting barley competition
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