Brewers may soon begin to obtain sorghum malt in large quantities for test production when the present plans to upgrade the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, FIIRO Sorghum malt technology comes to fruition.
The director of FIIRO, Dr. Olajide Koleosho said earlier in the week that the institute plant to gradually increase its sorghum malt production capacity from the output of one tone per week to 30 tone per day.
The director said that the institute had already started negotiations with a steel fabricating company based in Ogun State for the manufacture of malt machines.
The institute, he said would have preferred to increase its flour malting capacity by itself but lacked the space and money to carry out the project.
Dr. Koleosho said that response to the invention from the private sector had been impressive but it was not enough to meet the institute’s expectations on the early takeoff of the pilot scheme.
The institute has already started working closely with the newly launched Research and Development Unit of the Nigerian Breweries Limited (NBL) with a view to finding other varieties of grains for malting.
