View source for Ind Coope Maltings. Brewing School visits 1968 to 1969

<big>'''[[Ind Coope Ltd]] Maltings, Burton on Trent</big>'''

<big>'''Visit by Brewing School students – November 1968</big>'''

The company has two types of malting at Burton, one is an old floor maltings while the other (20 years old) uses Saladin boxes. The former is situated some way from the main Ind Coope Brewery and is served by wagons from the main yard.

''Floor maltings in Shobnall Road''

The building has three floors and is divided into four houses. Above the malting floors by the barley hoppers is a storage area filled up with each new season and kept in case of bad weather and vehicles being able to get through. Normally dried barley is sent from the main brewery but only enough to fill the steep systems once. Storage area is valuable, the company sometimes pays merchants to store its barley and the 60,000 quarter storage in the main brewery is insufficient. The storage area will be emptied before the six week cleaning period at the end of the season.

180 quarters of barley is steeped every three days to 43% moisture in a stone steep vessel along the length of the middle floor. The steep is four feet deep with no aeration. The schedule is started at midnight, six hours wet, 10 hours dry, 18 hours wet, drain, sparge and refill for another 20 hours wet. The barley stands four hours before emptying. Emptying into conveyors takes two hours. The conveyors raise the barley past a central point where sprays deposit gibberellic acid and bromate onto the grain (0.2 ppm GA and 112 ppm bromate). The quantities are subject to alteration, no bromate being used in winter. GA comes in tablets at 17/6 each, each steep needs six to seven tablets. The barley is distributed without metering devices into heaps at the ends of the floor columns on the three levels.

There is no air control so the process is subject to the vagaries is of the British climate and cannot really be controlled. Germination may take some time to start in winter although GA hastens it considerably but is most effective above 50°F. Day zero is spent in heaps to warm the barley up and remove the surface moisture by absorption. Grain is spread for five days on the floor and is loaded for kilning on the fifth. The turning once manual is now done by a lawn mower type device. The grain is tightened up before the kiln as a matter of necessity due to lack of space. 

Bulldozers shift the barley to tighten up and empty into conveyors to the kiln.  Floor temperatures are 65 to 70°F. 1968 crop barley germinates quite rapidly with nitrogen relatively high although early batches were normal.

The kiln has a 3ft bed on wire mesh, the process takes 48 hours, it is possible to complete in 24. Loading takes four to five hours starting at 2:30 p.m. followed by 130°F for 17 hours, 150°F for 7½ hours, 160°F for 30 hours, 175°F for 4 hours and then to 205°F to cure. Check to decide finish after about four hours. The fan works at 410 rpm all the time. Finish is decided by experience. Saxé burners are self-feeding burning four tons of anthracite for the 186 quarter charge.

''Saladin box malting''

117 quarters are steeped around 9 times a week. In fact 9, 9, 10 cistern in each three weeks cycle. There are six cisterns, A and B are fed, barley is transferred to C and D then E and F as the schedule proceeds. This is the same as at the floor maltings. There is no cistern aeration, that transfer process will aerate to a certain degree. After a two-day steep the barley will spend six days in the box. There is no attemperation of steep water either here or at Shobnall. Sometimes ice has to be broken on the liquor tanks but temperature control is soon to be installed in the box maltings.

There are eight boxes with a three foot deep grain bed. GA is added at 0.2 parts per million (0.075 ppm for lager malts) by means of a watering can. Water may be sprinkled from sprays onto the carriage to 43% moisture if for any reason the steep had to be hurried. They like the grain to chit from the steep. Grain is turned twice a day by the passage of the carriage which has vertical screws into the bed lifting the grain, turning and redepositing it. We noticed that four-day barley on the surface near the air vent had a number of corns whose acrospire had broken out. Air of controlled humidity is fed through the base into the bed, the air may be vented or circulated so that the accumulated CO<sup>2</sup> which would slow respiration so yield is increased. Condensation is a problem so painting is regular.

The kiln is loaded by suction, the suction pipe being fed by hand as the emptied part of the box is cleaned out to allow quick turnover of plant. There are four kilns, each box needs two kilns. The process lasts for 22 hours. The high temperature tends to seal moisture at first so hardening occurs even though at the end of kilning the moisture content is no higher than with a 48 hour killing. The burners are oil fired and the schedules are as follows.

[[File:Brewing School Ind Coope 1.jpg|800px]]

Barley is dried in 50 quarter batches in drum dryers; there are four in total. Drying takes 30 hours. There is grain storage on the premises for 40,000 quarters of barley and 20,000 quarters of malt, all in 1,000 quarter silos. The panel has a plant diagram to allow easier assessment of the process. Each sequence has to be unlocked before the appropriate buttons can be pressed. Silos may be scanned for temperature at four points at various levels.

[[category:Brewing School Visits]]