CHILTON, WIS. — Briess Malt & Ingredients Co. has acquired a barley storage and processing facility in Ralston, Wyo., and a seed plant in Powell, Wyo., from Riverland Ag Corp. Briess said the acquisitions secure “a consistent source of top quality 2-Row malting barley from this region for the Briess barley procurement program.”
The elevator in Ralston has a storage capacity of 2.3-million bus, and it is located along the Burlington Northern railroad. The facility handles locally sourced, irrigated barley grown in the Wyoming-southern Montana barley production region. Meanwhile, the Powell seed plant has capacity to process, certify and store 100,000 bus of barley seed annually.
“We are delighted to be securing a long-term supply of malting barley grown in one of the top barley growing regions in America,” said Gordon Lane, president of Briess Malt & Ingredients Co.
Mr. Lane added the region is aligned with Briess’s sustainability initiative, which includes a gravity irrigation project in the surrounding mountains to assure a constant source of water to the region. In addition, hydroelectric power produced by the project is fed into the grid system serving three states, he said.
Briess Malt & Ingredients Co. supplies specialty malts and ingredients to the U.S. beer and food industries, and it is the only malting company dedicated to the small scale production of specialty malts for American craft brewers. Family-owned since 1876, the company has malting operations at two locations in Wisconsin and operates a 500-barrel, fully automated extraction plant for the production of malt extracts and gluten-free syrups.