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Quaffers: Brewers use Adelaide Botanic Garden's barley

Chris Shanahan

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Adelaide-based Coopers Brewery and Adelaide Hills brewer Lobethal Bierhaus brewed beer from barley grown in the Adelaide Botanic Garden on August 12

Adelaide Botanic Garden director Stephen Forbes said the project aimed to show city folks how plants are used in daily life. The navigator barley used in the exercise was bred by Adelaide University and malted by Joe White Maltings.

Cooper’s managing director Dr Tim Cooper said Cooper’s had sponsored the crop. But because it was “too small for us to process through our brewery”, asked the smaller Lobethal Bierhaus to participate.

Cooper expects to produce about 1200 litres of Botanic Ale. It will be available in bottle and on tap from October at the Lobethal Bierhaus and Botanic Gardens Restaurant. Sounds like another good reason to visit Adelaide.

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