A new Adelaide-based malting company launched this week but, while the business is new on the scene and eager to supply local craft breweries and distilleries, it is also steeped in history.
Australian Malting Services and Technology (AMSAT) initially appeared as part of Adelaide Maltings in the 1990s but, by the early 2000s, sales and marketing manager Andrew Munro says the operation was spun off and switched its focus.
Instead, for the last couple of decades, the focus has been on roasting oak alternatives for the wine industry. Now, however, after longtime employee Simon Ewart bought the business outright a couple of years ago, the M in the name has become more relevant than ever with the arrival of AMSAT Character Malts.
“We’re returning to our roots,” Andrew says. “The company was originally a joint venture with Coopers, making malt for Coopers Brewery and for export.”
While AMSAT will continue making oak chips, he says they're well positioned to produce a range of specialty products, such as crystal, roasted and peated malts for the country’s brewers and distillers, training their focus on specialty rather than base malts for a number of reasons.
“We are roasting experts,” Andrew says. “We roast products all day, every day, and the system we use to roast oak was designed to roast malt.
“Base malt is not what we do best so it just doesn’t make sense for our business model.”
Although not officially part of AMSAT, Richard Chabrel is something of an honorary team member: the farmer went to school with Simon and Andrew and grows their much of their barley on his farm in the Adelaide Hills, thus allowing the business to provide South Australian-grown malt to the local brewing industry.
“We think that will mean a lot to Adelaide breweries,” Andrew says.
“Craft breweries always talk about supporting local and drinking local. So, we want to offer the market locally-made specialty malts that are made by an independent, Australian-owned business.”
AMSAT are partnering with Ellerslie to get their malt to brewers across Australia.
“The value of freshness is really clear,” Andrew says of the benefits they see in offering a homegrown product. “A malt roasted a month or a few months ago versus one that was malted a year ago and then sat on a shipping container just doesn’t look the same.”
While their focus is predominantly on specialty malts, AMSAT do have some plans for producing base malt but these involves partnering directly with local brewers. They’re setting up a contract roasting and contract malting service for anyone who wants to take advantage of their floor malting setup.
“It does create a richer, deeper and more complex flavour profile," Andrew says of this traditional and labour-intensive method of producing malt. "But there are many more multiples in the costs of production that not everyone is willing to pay.
“But for a brewery that’s farm-based or has their own supply of barley or wheat, we want to supply small batches of malt for them.”
AMSAT Character Malts officially launches this week, with further details of their range available here.
Will Ziebell is a history graduate who knows more about The Wire than he does about beer. He was awarded the AIBA Best Media trophy for 2018; HBO have told him to please send his fan mail elsewhere. He can be found on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
The beer(s) or moment(s) that turned you on to good beer:
Spending time living in the UK (and backpacking across Europe) when I was 21 certainly gave me a better understanding of the beer and different styles of the world. But I'd say it was a holiday to the High Country a little while later when lunch and a tasting paddle at Bridge Road Brewers created an obsession with Australian breweries and locally made beer.
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
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Boatrocker's Miss Pinky: It's a raspberry-packed Berliner Weisse that neither looks or tastes the way many people conceive of beer.
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Bad Shepherd Hazelnut Brown: A luscious mix of chocolate and hazelnut that can appeal to the sweet tooth within us all.
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Stone & Wood Pacific Ale: As the father of my oldest friend once said to me: "It's the perfect refreshing pint that smells like they've loaded it with the God's herb."
The last beer you enjoyed:
Garage Project's DFA while sitting at the bar at Miss Moses as the sounds of The Rolling Stone drifting in the background.
Three things that represent you:
- Bruce Springsteen
- Ken Burns
- The State Library of Victoria
