News Some Malt Relief

Cargill will reopen plant in Wisconsin

In a period of tightening supply of both hops and malt, Cargill announced that they will reopen its malting facility in Sheboygan, Wis., three years after it closed.

The facility will focus on producing limited quantities of specialty malt products for the craft brewing industry.

“That’s great news,” said Russell Klisch, president of Lakefront Brewery Inc., a craft brewer based in Milwaukee. Klisch said the prices of malt and hops – both key ingredients in beer – are increasing.

The addition of a new malting facility in Wisconsin will help reduce shipping costs for the state’s brewers, Klisch said.

However it won’t alleviate higher costs brewers across the nation are facing. Many will pay 30% to 100% more for barley malt in 2008 than they did in 2007, and similar increases hop prices are common.

Cargill has used the site as a distribution warehouse since it quit malting there in 2004. The plant’s reopening will create 11 jobs.

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0 Comments on “Some Malt Relief”

  • gitchegumee

    says:

    Good news for Cargill specialty malt users, BUT I don’t see this as much of a relief: Is the bottleneck with malting, or with growing the malt? Where will increased plantings of malting barley come from with corn being used more and more for ethanol, with other crops used for biofuels, and with increased demand from developing countries? I think there’s more demand for malting barley and hops than supply. And I don’t think there’s anything that will change that any time soon.

  • scmorgan

    says:

    I reckon most barley farmers in Australia would like it to rain once in 5 years!

    Scotty

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