A malting plant has been built in the Swiss canton of Aargau. Schweizer Mälzerei AG has ceremoniously opened its production hall in Möriken-Wildegg according to a post on LinkedIn. Founder Christoph Nyfeler told the Aargauer Zeitung that the first Swiss beer with malt from Aargau should be produced at the start of 2022.
According to information from the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, around 70,000 metric tons of malt are needed for Swiss beer production. However, to date only 650 metric tons come from Switzerland. The new malting plant in the canton of Aargau now plans to change this. In addition to basic and special malts for breweries, Schweizer Mälzerei will also produce malt for the food industry, such as baking malt for muesli and fitness bars.
Initially, the company will produce 1.5 million metric tons of malt per year at three plants. This corresponds to around 2 percent of the Swiss market according to a quote from Nyfeler in the Aargauer Zeitung. However, he is already considering expansion, adding: “The idea of a second malting plant is already being considered.”
Schweizer Mälzerei is using the sun’s power for production. According to a press release, AEW Energie AG has installed a photovoltaic system on the roof of the production hall for this, which should provide 150,000 kilowatt hours of energy per year. Janick Lehmann, Project Lead at AEW, explains: “We assume that around 50 percent of the energy generated will be used on site. The rest will be fed back into the grid and will be enough to supply 15 four-person households.”
In addition to solar power, the malting plant will also use renewable natural gas. “Together with the renewable natural gas, we are producing malt sustainably and placing importance on sparing use of natural resources. This ranges from construction to production and is in line with our philosophy,” Founder Christoph Nyfeler states in the press release from AEW.
