Environmental Impact of Homebrewing

[Coprinus]

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?

 

[bernerbrau]

You can always grow your own hops; lots of brewers here do that. Growing and malting your own barley is a bit more difficult but some people have done that with success. Many homebrewers also collect their own water in rain barrels, reducing the dependence on municipal water. You can even harvest wild yeast right out of the air!

 

[buffalobrewer]

pricey, but would get you renewable fired brewing. Think Strohs.....

http://www.stovetec.net/us/index.php?option=com_ixxocart&Itemid=&p=product&id=8&parent=1

 

[khanti]

I've spent a lot of time thinking about this as well. The chance to lessen the environmental impact of my love for beer is what drove me to try homebrewing in the first place. I'm guessing that just by not having to transport and recycle all the glass I used to go through has been a help already, but I'm still looking for ways to reduce impact. Other things I've done or plan to do:

• Use locally made DME (Breiss is only about 50 miles from here)
• Grow my own hops (will start this next year as I just moved)
• Harvest/wash yeast
• when buying hops or specialty grains, go domestic
• Use grolsh-style bottles or keg (don't do either currently, but I don't like the single-use of bottlecaps)

Anyone used that stove buffalobrewer linked to? Looks interesting...

 

[quickerNu]

I grow my own hops and use lots of rainwater. I recirculate all of my cooling water. I recycle thousands of bottles. I am not too worried about the impact of growing wheat and barley- it's gonna happen no matter what. I think my brewing for myself is a lot less impact than 1 customer's share of what the big boys do.

 

[david_42]

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.

 

[Hex]

I've actually been concerned with the 'carbon footprint' of making alcohol! Yeast farts contribute to global warming.
I can't imagine beer and wine being as bad as distillates. Depends on how drunk I get, I guess...

My wart chiller flows into my swimming pool, add water when needed.

 

[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.

 

[atromic]

I was thinking about this the other day... Between the amount of propane used, the wasted water, and the yeast farts there must be some ways to cut down on the environmental impact.

The point about the cost of transporting beer is a good one though, and definitely sets my mind at ease a bit.

 

[kornkob]

And then there is the oft missed environmental cost of commercial products: sales and marketing. The sales and marketing folks have a huge amount of waste in their processes. Homebrewers have none of these costs.

 

[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.

 

[bierhaus15]

I read somewhere that a single AB brewery uses upwards of $100,000 in water and electricity for each day it is in operation. And that's not even considering the cost/ impact of growing and transporting the stuff that goes into a batch of beer.

Now, tell me why should I be concerned about using 8 gallons of water and $3.00 worth of propane for a batch of homebrew?

I dunno, but if we are all so worried about killing our planet by homebrewing, maybe we shouldn't be drinking beer.

 

[jkarp]

I had no kids so I brew guilt free!

A parents' carbon footprint multiplies 5.7 times per child.

 

[Loweface]

I've actually been concerned with the 'carbon footprint' of making alcohol! Yeast farts contribute to global warming.
I can't imagine beer and wine being as bad as distillates. Depends on how drunk I get, I guess...

The actual fermentation should be near enough carbon neutral, the boiling and transport of ingredients on the other hand could possibly be reduced.

 

[yogensha]

I saw an article somewhere about Brittish brewers using bacteria to derive methane from spent grain. The methane is then used to produce about 80% of the energy required for brewing. This requires significant scale to pay off, so it's not exactly something we'll all be doing, but it's interesting nonetheless. I also saw somebody rig up a big fresnel to heat water and wort using solar energy.

Personally, my biggest concern is waste water, primarily for wort cooling. I saw somebody on this forum dumping their waste cooling water into the washing machine to do a load of laundry, which I plan to start doing. Pick the low hanging fruit firstl

 

[atromic]

I dunno, but if we are all so worried about killing our planet by homebrewing, maybe we shouldn't be drinking beer.

Haha... Not enough to stop drinking, or brewing, but definitely something I think about.

 

[jbambuti]

Put me in the crowd of not giving a S&^%..... I don't loose any sleep over my 'carbon footprint' or if I can brew 'greener'. Do I recycle?...sure.... Do I try to conserve?....sure...Does it keep me up at night?....Hell no..... First time it crossed my mind was reading this.... Wait...wait for it.... nope...still nothing...sorry.....

I think the OP's point was to see if others thought about this, not whether anyone is losing sleep over it. Awareness is the first step to giving a S&^%.

 

[Brewin_CRAZY]

I would have to say guys, if you are worried about the environmental issues you really have nothing to worry about. First off, water issues, yes we waste a bit but there are so many ways to cut that down, more efficient heat exchangers... But if you compare it to larger breweries the waste water produced is far worse due to the caustics that they use to clean their equip. However most have CIP systems that do save a TON of water based on the amount of water they already use.

The whole carbon foot print issue... seriously guys, compare it to the daily use that you expel in your car. I have no hard data however a whole years worth of brewing is most likely about even with a days worth of car exhaust.

If you are really worried about the environmental impact do everything you can to conserve energy, but dont worry you are not causing a detrimental impact on the environment. There are much much MUCH worse issues out there. Personally I try to keep all my waste down as many ways as possible and just try not to be wasteful in general.

 

[Brewin_CRAZY]

I had no kids so I brew guilt free!

A parents' carbon footprint multiplies 5.7 times per child.

LMAO, YES so all I have to do is not have kids and im fine. PERFECT!!!!

 

[northernlad]

I have thought about how I can reduce my water usage for cleaning and chilling but it is solely a financial concern. The idea that one is wasting water when it comes out of a pipe and goes right back into a pipe has baffled me for years. Yes there is additional water and utilities used in the processing of waste water but running water down your drain is not waste. Watering your lawn at 2pm in August in Texas is wasting water.
The rest you are merely trading for the commercial beer you would buy anyway and with the exception of increased packaging for smaller ingredient units, may come out ahead in other ways.
It takes the same amount of work to heat the water, mill the grains, etc whether it is for a 10,000 batch or a 5 gallon batch.
And yeast by-product induced global warming? Seriously?

 

[Parker36]

The best ways to save water are to recirculate the chilling water and to reuse starsan (also avoid using the dishwasher). You can also use wort chilling water for gardening or save it for later.

As far as boiling, electricity is way more efficient (and cheaper per batch, too). If you get your electricity from solar or wind (like New Belgium), more power to you.

As for the solid "waste", I sometimes make bread or cookies and anything else is dumped in compost.

 

[Parker36]

There is also this: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/brewing-green-87644/

 

[kornkob]

As for the solid "waste", I sometimes make bread or cookies and anything else is dumped in compost.

I don't even compost it but just scatter the spent grains into the yard.

 

[Parker36]

I saw an article somewhere about Brittish brewers using bacteria to derive methane from spent grain. The methane is then used to produce about 80% of the energy required for brewing. This requires significant scale to pay off, so it's not exactly something we'll all be doing, but it's interesting nonetheless. I also saw somebody rig up a big fresnel to heat water and wort using solar energy.

Personally, my biggest concern is waste water, primarily for wort cooling. I saw somebody on this forum dumping their waste cooling water into the washing machine to do a load of laundry, which I plan to start doing. Pick the low hanging fruit firstl

I believe NBB does something similar.

 

[flyangler18]

Reclaiming waste water is what lots of commercial breweries do to minimize water loss. The water run through the plate chiller is diverted to the HLT to serve as strike water for the next batch. Probably somewhat impractical on a homebrew level, but something that we could scale to fit our needs. Count me in the 'use the waste water for laundry' camp, though. I average about 15 gallons of waste water from the CFC per batch.

 

[agroff383]

I read somewhere that a single AB brewery uses upwards of $100,000 in water and electricity for each day it is in operation. And that's not even considering the cost/ impact of growing and transporting the stuff that goes into a batch of beer.

Now, tell me why should I be concerned about using 8 gallons of water and $3.00 worth of propane for a batch of homebrew?

I dunno, but if we are all so worried about killing our planet by homebrewing, maybe we shouldn't be drinking beer.

This is along the lines on how I feel about this.

Scrolled through to find a poster that agrees with me....When I go into an urban area and see thousands of lights on in vacant buildings at 3am or trash cans full of wasted food at restaurants, it is our society as a whole is a problem with waste and I don't think us homebrewing in the whole scale of things is any better than Anheuser-Busch brewing 1000x more than us per batch.

Unfortunately most people are all talk with all this great "green" talk but no one ever follows through. To me it is just a bunch of bull**** because the people that actually have money in this world could give a rip, look at Al Gore, these people just do that for PR.

I'd be willing to bet we use more energy per gallon than any big brewer does by a wide margin.

 

[agroff383]

And don't anyone think I am anti-environmental, I recycle and use compost and have a small vehicle, (not a hybrid, these pollute more in total than any larger vehicle, do the research) but by no means am I a tree hugger, the resources are there for us to use, so use them. No reason not to be smart and conscious of your impact though, it wouldn't hurt us to step back 100 years and use our brains with energy and what not.

 

[agroff383]

Reclaiming waste water is what lots of commercial breweries do to minimize water loss. The water run through the plate chiller is diverted to the HLT to serve as strike water for the next batch. Probably somewhat impractical on a homebrew level, but something that we could scale to fit our needs. Count me in the 'use the waste water for laundry' camp, though. I average about 15 gallons of waste water from the CFC per batch.

Yes I took the tour of the brewery at Stoudts in Adamstown PA and the owner mentioned that is what they do. I thought that was pretty cool and a no-brainer once you stepped back and thought about it.

 

[Parker36]

This is along the lines on how I feel about this.

Scrolled through to find a poster that agrees with me....When I go into an urban area and see thousands of lights on in vacant buildings at 3am or trash cans full of wasted food at restaurants, it is our society as a whole is a problem with waste and I don't think us homebrewing in the whole scale of things is any better than Anheuser-Busch brewing 1000x more than us per batch.

I agree, but often times green=more efficient=$avings. That makes me happy.

 

[Orogenic]

You can make up for your water consumption if you drink homebrew instead of water when thirsty. Its a win-win.