CRISP Malt is opening a new £2 million packaging line that it said provides more access to barley that is grown, malted and packaged in Scotland.
It said it is increasing its support of Scottish farmers and Scottish craft brewers with the new automated line can bag malt in relatively small quantities, which it says suits its growing customer base of smaller Scottish craft brewers, as well as larger amounts.
It means craft brewers will have greater access to barley that has been grown, malted and bagged in Scotland.
The Alloa maltings currently produces 28,000 tonnes of malt for brewers and distillers across Scotland. The new packaging facility has four 60-tonne silos capable of packaging up to 7,000 tonnes a year.
READ MORE: Glasgow Beer Works brings Phil MaCan to Scottish drinks market
It packages whole or crushed malt into 25kg bags, and whole malt in 500kg and 1 tonne.
Crisp’s investment in infrastructure in Scotland, which comes as the company celebrates its 150th anniversary this year, supports two key issues around sustainability and supply chain identified in the recent Scotland Food & Drink Partnership strategic report on the brewing sector.
The report set a goal for the Scottish brewing sector to reduce its environmental footprint, and also highlighted a lack of local product in the supply chain.
Hilary Jones, chair of Scotland Food & Drink’s brewing industry leadership group, said: “We really welcome this response to one of our recommendations for unblocking barriers to growth for brewers in Scotland. The craft sector in particular has been crying out for Scottish-sourced small batches of malt, in bags rather than through bulk delivery. This is great news.”
Around 90% of the barley is sourced from Scottish farms within a 50-mile radius of the site, and the new facility supports Crisp’s local sourcing policy and its commitment to supporting Scottish farming, it said.
John Hutcheson, who grows barley less than 20 miles from the site at Leckerstone Farm, Dunfermline, and has been supplying Crisp for five years, said: “From a farmer’s point of view, we’re pleased to work with a company like Crisp which is committed to developing a lasting relationship and shortening the supply chain.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here