The malting plant in Kroměříž started production in June 1997 Its completion represented an important step in the modernization of the Czech malting industry.
Kroměříž - centre of the Haná region
The town of Kroměříž is situated in southeastern part of the Haná region, an important agriculture center of the Czech Republic. Besides wheat and sugar beat, malt barley is also grown here. Its high quality is the result of optimal climatic conditions and hard work of the local growers and cultivators. Hence, it is not a mere coincidence that the new, large capacity malt house was built on the present day site.
Modern technology of malt production
When selecting the technology, priority was given to a tower malting plantThe volume of one production batch is 330 tons of barley and total annual capacity is 100 000 tons of malt. The entire technological process, including operations with barley and finished malt, is automatically controlled by a computer center.
The tower of the malting plant is 62 meters high. The steeping house with six steeping tanks is situated at the top, each tank has a capacity of 55 tons of barley. The equipment of cylindro-conical steeping tanks enables intensive aeration, mixing of barley by compressed air and exhausting of CO2. Steeping takes one day. Under the steeping house there are five germinating boxes of circular ground plan with a diameter of 25 m. The germinating boxes are equipped with a multi-purpose machine for loading and unloading, turning, aeration and cleaning and also with air-conditioning units that maintain optimal temperature necessary for germination all-year-round. Two circular single-floor kilns with indirect heating work in the tandem regime.
Malt and barley are stored in reinforced concrete silos, with additional 5 unattached steel silos for malting barley. The capacity of each individual silo corresponds to one production batch, which is approx. 330 tons of barley, respectively 270 tons of malt. In total, the malting plant can store up to 5.000 tons of barley and 12.000 tons of malt. Malting barley can be transported in railway wagons or by trucks. The total intake capacity is 2 x 100 tons of barley per hour. For barley cleaning there are two SCHMIDT cleaning and screening machines, capacity of each is 40 tons per hour. The malt dispatching equipment enables loading of large and qualitatively homogenous parts. The capacity of malt cleaners and conveyors is 100 tons per hour and there are 24 preparation bins, each capable of 40 tons of malt.
Quality management system ISO 9001:2000
Existing quality system was extended by the system of environmental protection and system of work safety in 2006 – 2007. This Integrated Management System had been, in spring 2007, certified according to the requirements of international norms ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001. The laboratory equipment enables standard analysis of malting barley and malt. Selected special analysis required by customers are conducted in specialised authorized laboratories. The micro malting plant, being part of the laboratory, is used for the verification of malting value of the purchased barley and for the testing of optimal malting technology.
Thanks to the traditionally high quality of the raw material and top-class production technology, the Kroměříž malting plant is capable to meet requirements of the most demanding domestic and foreign customers.