Capacity at the UK’s largest malting site has increased further following the commissioning of a new germination and kilning vessel (GKV) at Simpsons Malt Ltd’s Tweed Valley Maltings.
The new vessel, which became fully operational in late 2024, has increased annual malt production capacity by up to 15,000 tonnes per year. This bring total production capacity at the Berwick-upon-Tweed site up to 260,000 tonnes per year, around 90% of which is destined for the distilling industry.
Groundwork on the GKV, which is where the second and third stages of the active malting process — germination and kilning — take place, started in May 2023 as part of a £10 million investment. It is the tenth GKV to be built at the company’s Tweed Valley Maltings, with the total capacity of the vessel being 400 tonnes per batch.
Malt produced in the new vessel — as well as the other nine GKVs on site — has a significantly lower carbon footprint than the industry average, with energy for the kilning stage supplied by the site’s neighbouring energy centre.
Developed in partnership with AMP Clean Energy, the energy centre — comprising three six megawatt biomass boilers and one 12MW electric boiler powered by curtailed wind energy — reduces carbon emissions from kilning by 90%. Due to how energy-intensive the kilning stage of the malting process is, this equates to a reduction in scope 1 and 2 emissions at the Tweed Valley Maltings site of up to 80%, and up to 55% company-wide.
The company’s GKV project has been swiftly followed by another multi-million-pound investment in the shape of a peated malt production plant with storage facilities. The £6m plant has the capacity to produce 25,000 tonnes of peated malt per year. Its bespoke design provides the ability to seamlessly monitor and tweak phenol levels – the measurement of how lightly or heavily peated the malt is — to customers’ desired specifications. The development also includes an abatement technology in the form of air centrifuges, which reduce particulate emissions by up to 90%.
“Investing regularly in our infrastructure is a key strategic and operational priority of our fifth generation family business, helping us to drive the quality, consistency, and sustainability of our products and processes,” said Tim McCreath, managing director of Simpsons Malt Ltd.
“In recent months, it has been fantastic to welcome many distillers to our Tweed Valley Maltings, where they have been able to witness not only the investments that have been made with the new GKV, but other projects, including our energy centre development and the construction of ten new malt storage silos.”
