Environmental Impact of Homebrewing - Page 11

**Pappers_** · 11-04-2009, 02:54 AM

Sun only half the day would work? I was told full day sun was needed.

mitch171 · 11-04-2009, 03:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BeerCrazy

By the way... huge improvement in efficiency can come from brewing outside and keeping a lid on during boil. You can even ignore the boil over as you don't have to clean outside. Significant heat loss comes from boiling with the lid off.

I hope this isn't too off topic.

I have thought about this before, but wouldn't having the lid on prevent water from boiling off, causing a longer boil to get to final volume?

I guess it wouldn't matter if you aren't doing full boils, but I am. Just checking to see if I could make improvements.

**DRoyLenz** · 11-04-2009, 04:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mitch171

I hope this isn't too off topic.

I have thought about this before, but wouldn't having the lid on prevent water from boiling off, causing a longer boil to get to final volume?

I guess it wouldn't matter if you aren't doing full boils, but I am. Just checking to see if I could make improvements.

This is a good point, plus, if you keep your lid on during the boil, you'll have a greater concentration of DMS in your brew.

If it's winter and you live in a winter state, brew INDOORS, it'll save energy (of course be safe about it, I wouldn't advise using a turkey fryer or something indoors without proper ventilation). If you live in Florida, yeah, maybe you'll want to brew outdoors.

Catt22 · 11-04-2009, 06:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DRoyLenz

This is a good point, plus, if you keep your lid on during the boil, you'll have a greater concentration of DMS in your brew.

+1 Yes, boiling the wort with a lid on the kettle is not a good idea at all. It will likely produce lots of DMS. Also a good call on it inhibiting the boil off. It might be OK to cover the kettle while heating the wort, then remove the lid as it approaches the boiling point. That should save at least some fuel. I prefer the no lid method.

northernlad · 11-04-2009, 06:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pappers

Sun only half the day would work? I was told full day sun was needed.

Full Sun in the gardening world is 6 hours or more. I am sure you can find that in the flat world of Illinois, no?

FreakinA · 11-04-2009, 07:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kanielb1

I would think that brewing your own beer would be more "green" than buying commercial. Commercial beer uses some of the same ingredients that we use and they have to get it shipped to there brewery. Then once the beer is made, a distributor has to distribute it. I would think that carbon footprint would be bigger than the ingredients form my homebrew.

Yeah but its more efficient shipping enormous loads then LTLs and any sort of amount of product we can buy. They can get '1 truck' to deliver all their grains, we need one truck to deliver our grains to each one of our houses. If you goto the LHBS, bam, thats another 1 car trip to get 1 persons grains. You would need to implement improved accounting to actually 'green' up your brewing supply chain.

FreakinA · 11-04-2009, 07:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbambuti

Here in Chicago, while we are supposed to be a 'green city', there is nothing that requires bars to recycle glass bottles. It always bothered me and when I was going to bars regularly, kept me drinking beers from the tap.

Now that I'm a home brewer, I not only reuse bottles that I buy, but accept bottles from others, so they don't end up in the landfill or in the recycling bin. My wife and I recycle as much as we can, taking a weekly trip to the recycling center. But, reusing bottles multiple times is way better than recycling.

Reducing society's impact on the environment is a very complicated proposition, but the way I look at it, if everyone takes a few important steps, then it will make a huge impact on the whole.

So, while my homebrewing isn't totally carbon and pollution neutral I use mostly natural products, recycle what I can, reuse all those empties, and don't burn the gas in the car that I used to going to the bar.

The best ways to help are implemented by you.
#1 Reduce- Use less of what you can. Often times keeping your supplies at the 'correct' level will encourage more efficient use of supplies. Think of the "shampoo effect"
#2 Reuse-Use what you can over and over again. Bottles, yeast, foodsafe buckets
#3 Recycle- Not as good for the world as people make it up to be. Recycle Glass, aluminum, and those are the biggies. Often times recycling takes alot more energy output that it is worth.
#4 Landfill- Use it and dispose it. Not the preffered method really, try and reduce or reuse things if you can.

Those four points are a great way to start analyzing your brewery and looking for what you could do. You need to know what is inefficient before you know what to remove. Also anyone that wants to be more 'green' in their brewery should obviously not be using turkey fryers, talk about inefficient. Switch to E!

shek · 11-04-2009, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scimmia

As someone involved in the agricultural industry, I'll say the more CO2 in the air the better. CO2 makes plants grow better, which means more food for everyone. How can that be a bad thing? Especially since there's no objective proof it has an impact on the climate one way or the other.

I know this is partly snark, but CO2 can have some very adverse effects:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_acidification

As for brewing beer (this is what we're here to talk about right?), I recirculate my chiller water and use it to clean my equipment afterwards and/or water the lawn/hop garden. I also keg or occasionally bottle in flip-tops. Also have been using some spent grain to make doggie treats which I'm actually working on setting up a deal with a friend of my wife's who has a dog grooming biz to sell her the treats. I currently rent so getting any kind of direct renewable energy would be difficult, but when/if I get my own place I'd probably try to go solar and start using electricity for heat.

**Pappers_** · 11-04-2009, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by northernlad

Full Sun in the gardening world is 6 hours or more. I am sure you can find that in the flat world of Illinois, no?

That made me chuckle. My problem isn't hills, but trees. I'm not sure I could find a spot with full sun for six hours - but now you all have me wanting to grow my own hops again, trying to figure out how I might do it. Didn't I go through this last winter?

**Pappers_** · 11-04-2009, 12:05 PM

I don't currently compost (spent grains or anything else for that matter). I live in a suburban village, I suppose I'd need to check with the village hall to see about any regulations, and maybe the village might have a composting program? Does anyone have any good links or a primer on composting? It would be great to turn the spent grains into good soil.