Environmental Impact of Homebrewing

[alexdagrate]

The transportation costs are minor compared to the cost for moving pre-made beer, because the heaviest ingredient, water, is delivered by pipe. As far as the amount of water, I only use 2-3 gallons per gallon of beer, but some people seem to use much more.

By homebrewing with local water instead of using diesel to transport the water, bottles, and packaging for commercial beer, I'd say homebrewing is a very good way to cut down on carbon emissions.

Re-using bottles or kegs is far more efficient than buying beer in used-once bottles and then recycling them or throwing them away.

I also grow my own hops and compost my grains.

Also, it seems more efficient to have hops sent to me from the Yakima valley (a couple hours away) rather than have those same hops sent to Milwaukee and have that beer shipped back to me.

 

[azscoob]

Start of Rant:

I switched to CFL in every light in my house, drive a car that gets 40mpg, keep my AC at 80 in the summer here in az, maintain a garden to grow my own food, use my IC water in my garden as well as the spent grains, I do all of this not for the environment but for my wallet, it saves me money, but when I see our senators and congressmen jetting all over, going to and from DC, keep them the hell home in their offices! they can use video conferencing and the internet for most of their work.. and keep them more accountable to us! we all do our part to cut back on waste and polluting in our own way and for our own reasons, but when the people telling us we need to cut back, tighten our belts, and be more responsible are the ones I see wasting the most, it makes me SICK! almost makes me want to burn a pile of old tires in protest!

OK, Rant over.. I feel better now

 

[DRoyLenz]

The deeper I get into this hobby, the more I become aware that it isn't the most sustainable activity I could be involved in.
The fuel used for growing and transporting the main ingredients, especially if they are imported, are one problem, while the more obvious one is all the water that I use.
Has anyone thought about these issues, and if so, are there any ideas about ways to soften the environmental blow of brewing a batch of the good stuff?
What do hip breweries like New Belgium and Rouge do?

Leave it to a Spartan to think about the environment. Go Green!

 

[skadalajara]

Don't forget, every time you exhale, you're releasing CO2 and H2O into the atmosphere.

I heard on the radio the other day about a guy who blames 99% of "global climate change" on the fact we eat meat.

I personally don't give a rat's arse about any of this crap. There's too many of us. Fortunately, no one in the current generation in my extended family (AFAIK) has, or plans to have, any children. My family will literally end in the next 50 years.

Anyway, I do recycle some. I use my chiller water on the lawn. Not because I should, but because it saves me $$$. And that's all I care about.

I kinda hope the Maya were right.

 

[bob1852]

One Word: goat

Doesn't smell as bad as compost and quite tasty, too.

what kind of goats do you have? My roommate's goats love my spent grain!

 

[Brewmoor]

I have thought about this a bit. I am working on trying to reduce my footprint a bit with the hobby. I work in IT so electricity reduction is what I have been focusing on at work and has made me think about things a home.

Right now I only do extract brewing. So I started buying starsan so I do not have to rinse. I purchased a 12volt pump so i can recirculate my cooling water over a few blocks of ice. We have been upgrading all of our UPS units at work so I have acquired a good grip of batteries. I built a battery array to run my pump. It is overkill for my little pump but I built it with the idea of me building a two pump HERMS system in the future. The battery array will be getting a solar panel to keep the charge in the batteries.

When I do finally built my HERMS system it too will be electric. I have not figured out the amount of batteries and solar panel I would need for that yet but I was thinking I could figure out a way to make most of it solar. Maybe just plug the boil kettle into the house. I will be working on that project over the winter. Depends on how many batteries I can get my hands on.

I figure the least I could do is try!! Can't hurt to at least be aware of ways to be efficient.

 

[Catt22]

Don't forget, every time you exhale, you're releasing CO2 and H2O into the atmosphere.

I heard on the radio the other day about a guy who blames 99% of "global climate change" on the fact we eat meat.

I personally don't give a rat's arse about any of this crap. There's too many of us. Fortunately, no one in the current generation in my extended family (AFAIK) has, or plans to have, any children. My family will literally end in the next 50 years.

Anyway, I do recycle some. I use my chiller water on the lawn. Not because I should, but because it saves me $$$. And that's all I care about.

I kinda hope the Maya were right.

Wow! There's someone else here who feels the same as I do. Rock on dude! I'm one of the last in my line also and you are absolutely right about there being too many of us. That is the root of the problem and the elephant in the room that everyone ignores. It's all due to overpopulation and sooner or later, nature will make a correction although it's beginning to look like we may beat her to the punch.

 

[Parker36]

what kind of goats do you have? My roommate's goats love my spent grain!

There is only kind of goat: Stupid.

 

[Heineken]

Rdwhahb...

 

[zodeseeker]

Yeast farts contribute to global warming.
\

being green is fine, but man-caused global warming is a hoax.

 

[mitch171]

Actually I think they don't call it global warming anymore because it has been proven to not actually be the case. It is now called climate change. My dad was telling me about when he was younger the whole hype was that we were causing another ice age. The earth cycles and the overall temp changes. That is just what happens. I guess within the next few thousand years a pole change is supposed to happen. I am going to blame that on people reading books...

We think we have control, we don't. Be smart and not wasteful because that just makes sense.

As for wasting water I really can't wrap my head around that. Maybe that is because I get my water from a well and it doesn't have to be "treated." When I dump water on the lawn it seeps back into the well eventually. Not to mention the water isn't contaminated through the brewing process, at least mine isn't. I would drink any of the run off water with no worry about getting sick.

 

[Heineken]

Actually I think they don't call it global warming anymore because it has been proven to not actually be the case. It is now called climate change. My dad was telling me about when he was younger the whole hype was that we were causing another ice age. The earth cycles and the overall temp changes. That is just what happens. I guess within the next few thousand years a pole change is supposed to happen. I am going to blame that on people reading books...

We think we have control, we don't. Be smart and not wasteful because that just makes sense.

As for wasting water I really can't wrap my head around that. Maybe that is because I get my water from a well and it doesn't have to be "treated." When I dump water on the lawn it seeps back into the well eventually. Not to mention the water isn't contaminated through the brewing process, at least mine isn't. I would drink any of the run off water with no worry about getting sick.

+1 on everything you said..

 

[bob1852]

There is only kind of goat: Stupid.

you forgot about the two my roommate has: ornery and mean

 

[seanybubbles]

I think homebrewing is pretty green. If you want to talk about waste, think about all the beer cups used only once at the last baseball game you went to. Each beer you had you used one cup and then you threw it away. I've been using the same 5 cases of bottles for the last 2 years. I've made at least ten batches with these bottles. Sounds pretty environmentally friendly to me.

 

[Homercidal]

I think homebrewing is pretty green. If you want to talk about waste, think about all the beer cups used only once at the last baseball game you went to. Each beer you had you used one cup and then you threw it away. I've been using the same 5 cases of bottles for the last 2 years. I've made at least ten batches with these bottles. Sounds pretty environmentally friendly to me.

Those cups could be recycled if they wanted to. It would be nice to have someone sort them out and ship them to a grinder who could then sell the regrind back to a parts company who uses that material in filler applications.

I think brewing it pretty green. I don't conserve water, but I live in Michigan and everything that hits the ground ends up in the water table again. I *could* use that water to fill the washer, but I never think about it at brew time. I'm too busy concentrating on the brewing.

 

[mmb]

I'm as green as I can be when I brew because it saves me money. I'd like to move towards electric brewing because that would be a huge money saver based on cost of buying used tires to fire my HLT.

 

[ThickHead]

The deeper I get into this hobby, the more I become aware that it isn't the most sustainable activity I could be involved in.
The fuel used for growing and transporting the main ingredients, especially if they are imported, are one problem, while the more obvious one is all the water that I use.
Has anyone thought about these issues, and if so, are there any ideas about ways to soften the environmental blow of brewing a batch of the good stuff?
What do hip breweries like New Belgium and Rouge do?

The thing that I ALWAYS do FIRST when considering how I can reduce environmental impact, increase sustainability, and generally "grean-up" any endeavor in which I persue, I repeat in my head the following: "Local, Local, Local."

Softening the environmental impact of your brewing activity would certainly be best served by initially reducing your dependency on goods that are transported long distances. Additionally, increasing the efficiency of your equipment, recycling your waste and developing as much self-sufficiency as possible are the next steps. Being "green" is a journey, not a destination. I commend you for any efforts you make in reducing your personal impact on the environment.

 

[FxdGrMind]

I don't see this as a "Global Warming" issue, its an issue of conservation.

We all do what we can to conserve resources, and it helps with being frugal, as it applies directly to the bottom line and our walets!

I drive a car that gets 54mpg and no it's not a hybrid, I live frugaly in every aspect I can, and I can say it helps being still single and not having kids.

But to say we are "Saving the planet" .... well that just ain't happening. Sorry, Al Gore... even though he was given a Nobel Prize, is a phoney! He buy's carbon offsetts so he can live his life as the LIFE OF RILEY! That is not saving the plannet!

If all these tree huggers realy tried to save the plannet and were frugal in their consumption, the GLOBAL economy would shrink by 10 fold! And the overproduction and subsequent job losses would be catostrophic to the economies of the world.

The World is Over populated, and it's an exponential equasion that defines the consumption needed to support this ever increasing population. Without a GLOBAL Catastrophy that wipes out 1/2 of the current population, there is no turning back the clock in saving the world. It just will not happen. We will consume it and we will force our ansesstors to look for a new one in time.

I say brew to your hearts content and live life with frugality in mind, but don't claim you are saveing anyone, just that you are doing what you feel is your part to stem the tide.

Cheers and drink up.

 

[ThickHead]

The World is Over populated, and it's an exponential equasion that defines the consumption needed to support this ever increasing population.

But what happens to that exponential equasion when more people practice similar habits to your own? It changes. We have the potential to have a tremendous impact, but the momentum that has been gathering over time appears to many to be insurmountable. I don't believe it is. We will live and learn or destroy ourselves in the process. But to think that we can do nothing but watch is a defeatest attitude.

One day the words "environmental impact" will extend beyond the rivers, the oceans, the fields, the horizon, the air, the o-zone, the atmosphere, near earth orbit, etc. The benefit from lessons learned today about our habits truly do matter, maybe not as much today as in the future. "Tree huggers" have their usefulness, if for nothing else than to be the opposite extreme.

 

[November]

I'm trying to convert my equipment to run on crushed baby seals. If you are really concerned, just send me all your equipment and I'll print and send you a whole bunch of "carbon credits".

 

[MississippiSlim]

Its greener than cooking meth.

 

[Jersh]

Not totally related, but I recently read an article about the Dogfish Head brewery in Milton, DE. Apparently, as the brewery grew, and thus their amount of waste water grew, the bacteria used in the municipal waste water treatment plant were being overwhelmed by the yeast in the waste water from Dogfish, so now the brewery collects all their waste water and they truck it out to local farms that use it to water their crops.

 

[Catt22]

The real problem is the third world countries that are rapidly becoming more industrialized and their populations are growing at a much faster rate than the developed countries. Try telling them they should cut back while they watch us continue to consume the bulk of the resources. Ain't gonna happen. Hopefully, the space aliens will arrive soon and show us how we can save our butts. OTOH, they may simply eat us if they are protein based critters.

 

[Parker36]

The real problem is the third world countries that are rapidly becoming more industrialized and their populations are growing at a much faster rate than the developed countries. Try telling them they should cut back while they watch us continue to consume the bulk of the resources. Ain't gonna happen. Hopefully, the space aliens will arrive soon and show us how we can save our butts. OTOH, they may simply eat us if they are protein based critters.

It may be true that the third world countries are growing population faster than the rest of the world and that their industries are often less environmentally friendly, but it is the industrialized nations (US included) that are producing WAY more waste and greenhouse gases than the rest of the world.

 

[Catt22]

It may be true that the third world countries are growing population faster than the rest of the world and that their industries are often less environmentally friendly, but it is the industrialized nations (US included) that are producing WAY more waste and greenhouse gases than the rest of the world.

I absolutely agree, but the rest of the world is gaining on us in that respect. We are not only producing way more waste and greenhouse gas, but we are consuming most of the worlds resources in the process and many of these are non-renewable such as petroleum and coal. We've set up a non-sustainable system and eventually we will pay for it. Fortunately, I probably won't be around when things start to get really nasty. Maybe none of us will.

 

[ThickHead]

We've set up a non-sustainable system and eventually we will pay for it. Fortunately, I probably won't be around when things start to get really nasty. Maybe none of us will.

We'll be mining the oceans of Titan before you know it.

 

[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.

 

[ThickHead]

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.

You're kidding right?

 

[Scimmia]

You're kidding right?

Maybe a little, but nothing I said was false.

 

[ThickHead]

Maybe a little, but nothing I said was false.

"...the more CO2 in the air the better." is certainly false in my opinion. There would be no need whatsoever for an agricultural industry if CO2 levels were high enough to kill anyone needing those agricultural products of hypercapnia.

 

[Scimmia]

"...the more CO2 in the air the better." is certainly false in my opinion. There would be no need whatsoever for an agricultural industry if CO2 levels were high enough to kill anyone needing those agricultural products of hypercapnia.

That was an opinion, and one meant to be taken slightly in jest, more as hyperbole. The facts, on the other hand, are not false.

 

[ThickHead]

That was an opinion, and one meant to be taken slightly in jest. The facts, on the other hand, are not false.

I know, that's why I asked if your were kidding and gave the . And i didn't take issue with your facts, just the statement of opinion. Now we're clear.....as mud. lol

 

[Pappers_]

Another option is to brew with organic ingredients. If you're interested in learning more, see 7 Bridges Cooperative at www.breworganic.com

I buy organic grain malt at the Chicago warehouse for MidCountry Malts.

 

[Poolplayer]

They say it takes 5 gallons of water to make one gallon of ethanol. But it takes 5 1/2 gallons of water to make 5 gallons of beer. I think we're waaaaay ahead of Al Gore on this one. Now where the hell is my Nobel Peace Prize?!

Cheers

Aaron

 

[lowlife]

edit ... My response wasnt contributing anything. Deleted....

 

[TipsyDragon]

the answer is obvious. grow your own hops and grain..... but then you have to malt and roast the grain. and bugs will eat your hops if your not careful. best douse them with pesticides. oh wait that will pollute the environment can't do that. cant really use yeast to ferment your wart because of all the CO2 they put out. green house gas and all.

really we are all just wrecking the planet.

 

[GuitarBob]

I absolutely agree, but the rest of the world is gaining on us in that respect. We are not only producing way more waste and greenhouse gas, but we are consuming most of the worlds resources in the process and many of these are non-renewable such as petroleum and coal. We've set up a non-sustainable system and eventually we will pay for it. Fortunately, I probably won't be around when things start to get really nasty. Maybe none of us will.

It's the first world nations that are buying the world's resources thusly creating jobs for people in the 3rd world so they can buy food, shelter, etc.

People have existed for centuries claiming that the world is growing too fast, that there isn't enough resources, and that the world is going to go to hell in a handbasket. They have always been proven wrong in the past, and they will be proven wrong in the future.

 

[Pappers_]

the answer is obvious. grow your own hops and grain.....

There are many folks here who grow their own hops and even a subforum devoted to the topic https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/

I thought this spring that I would get into that, but decided I just don't have the right space for it - lots of room but not enough sun throughout the day.

I would love to make a beer with locally grown hops - I know the disadvantages of not knowing exact AA% etc., but it would be great to brew a local hops beer. Anyone in Chicago want to sell me some of your homegrown hops? LOL!

 

[Pappers_]

I think its great that there's a thread for people who want to chat about how to brew beer with an eye towards conservation, ecology and sustainability.

You're not interested in it, great. Why not just move on and let others who do want to talk about it post?

 

[iparks81]

Shouldn't this whole thread be in politics and debate as environmentalism is simply a crisis to empower politicians?

Serously, growing your own ingredients? Isn't their some soft of economy of scale to the polution from farm equipment and pesticides? I mean, once I douse my hops with enough malothinene (spelling?) to keep the bugs out, who am I helping?

Maybe trade the 4-wheel cage for a small displacement motorcycle and forgo air conditioning? While I may come accross as a politicizing ass, I happen to think that brewing a batch of beer makes about the diffrence of a sparrow farting in a hurricane when it comes to the environment.

wow, couldnt have said it better myself