One beer style that will be gaining more attention.

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MicroBrewr 033: Wastewater treatment solutions for a craft brewery, with Brewery Wastewater Design.

MicroBrewr 033: Wastewater treatment solutions for a craft brewery

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Wastewater treatment is a key issue for a craft brewery. John Mercer from Brewery Wastewater Design in Montrose, Colorado has more than a decade of experience. He shares wastewater treatment solutions for a craft brewery.

For every gallon of beer produced, a typical brewery uses 7 gallons of water. If your municipal wastewater treatment plant can’t handle it, you could be facing high fees for wastewater treatment.

Brewery wastewater can fall into one of several categories:

  • Floor drains in the brewery, which contain alcohol, sugars, and other contaminants.
  • Kitchen drains, which includes grease.
  • Restrooms, which typically go the sewage treatment plant.
  • Side stream, which is a way to divert extremely concentrated wastewater such as spent yeast, waste beer, fermenter blow-off, and trub.

If your brewery is in an area that has municipal sewage service, you might not have to do anything. If you’re in the county with no sewage service, you’ll likely have to build your own brewery wastewater treatment infrastructure.

Solutions will vary depending on your brewery wastewater characteristics, or who designs your system.

Diverting the very concentrated sources through a “side stream,” could reduce the contaminants in your wastewater by 90%. Which could mean reduced fees for treatment.

Key questions to ask:

  • Is the wastewater facility at capacity?
  • How much would the fees cost?
  • Does your consultant have experience designing systems for breweries or other food manufacturers?

SPECIAL BONUS:

Ask John any question about wastewater treatment for your brewery.

Leave your questions in the comments section below.

John will keep watching the comments for the next 30 days to answer as many of your questions as he can.

Be sure to connect with Brewery Wastewater Design and thank John for being on the show and for helping us out with questions.

UPDATE: Thirty days is up, John is no longer monitoring the questions here. You can still reach him through the links below. Thanks for your great questions everyone!

Tweetable:

“I came back to brewery work because the people are the greatest and the industry is the greatest.” [Tweet This]

 

Listener question:

From Megan Tolbert: How low environmental impact is your business?

Book recommendation:

Check out the entire list of recommended books, click here.

Your Free Audio Book

An upcoming beer style:

Sour beer

Other resources:

You can reach John Mercer and Brewery Wastewater Design at:

Support MicroBrewr

Help keep MicroBrewr on the air. CLICK HERE for ways you can help.

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MicroBrewr 032: Export beer to tap new craft beer markets, with London Ale & Co.

MicroBrewr 032: Export beer to tap new craft beer markets

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Maximus BumSoo didn’t like beer so he told his friends that he was allergic to hops. Finally, one night in London, he drank a London Pride and loved it! He emailed the company and spent the next 3 weeks learning about beer. Then he flew to London and got the exclusive distribution deal.

Now Maximus is CEO and President of London Ale & Co. in Seoul, Korea. They are the exclusive distributor of Fuller Smith & Turner’s beers from the United Kingdom.

If you have excess product or if you want to expand to new markets, you might want to export beer to tap new craft beer markets. American craft beer is popular in Korea, and other foreign markets are craving craft beer from the U.S. and elsewhere.

Some of Maximus tips on how to export craft beer:

  • Contact your local governing agency about legal requirements.
  • Pick an importer who loves your beer.
  • Pick an importer with enough funds to move large shipments of your product.
  • It’s best to ship the product with climate control the whole way, but it’s not always feasible.
  • Get paid up-front.

Listener question:

From Nick Bray: Why are you doing this work?

Book recommendation:

Check out the entire list of recommended books, click here.

Your Free Audio Book

An upcoming beer style:

Sour beer

Other resources:

You can reach Maximus BumSoo and London Ale & Co. at:

Diagram showing the Chief Winds of the World and the Average Rainfall (1922) by Eric Fischer on flickr (CC BY 2.0) was modified from its original state.

You might also like:

MicroBrewr 045: Launch your brewery with a strong opening night, featuring West Cork Brewing Company in Baltimore, Ireland.

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Help keep MicroBrewr on the air. CLICK HERE for ways you can help.

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MicroBrewr 030: Hire a mobile canning system and put your beer cans on store shelves sooner, with Borderlands Brewing Co.

MicroBrewr 030: Hire a mobile canning system and put your beer cans on store shelves sooner

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Myles Stone was in his second year of medical school when he and Michael Mallozzi started Borderlands Brewing Co. in Tucson, Arizona with just $2,000. They both have full-time jobs besides the brewery, but they make it work. “Our secret,” says Myles, “Is to have wonderful people around us.”

Water is scarce in the deserts around Tucson. Conservation is central to Borderlands Brewing Co. operations. They save water in the following ways.

  • Cut water use one-third by running hot water in the heat exchanger, through cool water in a rainwater harvesting system.
  • Save rinse-water by adjusting pH to use it again, before putting it down the drain.

I wasn’t expecting a discussion about mobile canning companies. Yet Myles offers great insight on using mobile canning systems for his craft brewery.

Three years since opening, Borderlands Brewing Co. is already canning beer. Rather than buy their own canning line, Borderlands Brewing Co. hires mobile canning companies to package their product into beer cans.

Mobile canning is becoming very popular for small craft breweries. After investing in all the normal brewing equipment, there is no capital left for luxuries like a beer canning system.

There are now several mobile canning companies in the US. Usually their truck will travel wide, often spanning several states. Reservations must be made well in advance. A large truck will come with fully operational, mobile canning equipment, and package your product on-site.

Check out the resources below and find out whether mobile beer canning is right for your craft beer.

Listener question:

From Sean Myles: Is it important to allow customers to see the production facility? If so, how much do you let them see? What do you want to keep out of their view?

Book recommendation:

Check out the entire list of recommended books, click here.

Your Free Audio Book

An upcoming beer style:

Dark beer

Sour beer

Other resources:

You can reach Myles Stone and Borderlands Brewing Co. at:

If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or Stitcher. When you subscribe, it’ll let you know when there’s a new episode, you won’t miss a thing!

Support MicroBrewr

Help keep MicroBrewr on the air. CLICK HERE for ways you can help.

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MicroBrewr 026: A microbrewery, a taproom, and a brewery incubator, with Platform Beer Co.

MicroBrewr 026: A microbrewery, a taproom, and a brewery incubator

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Paul Benner had been operating his homebrew shop for 2 years before he opened Platform Beer Co., in Cleveland Ohio. Platform is a microbrewery and taproom. It is also an innovative* brewery incubator. Although business incubators are popular across the world and in a variety of industries—especially in technology—none exist solely to assist brewery startups.

The program is free and, as you could imagine, there is already an extensive waitlist.

The 12-week brewery incubator program teaches and assists on every aspect of brewery startup including:

  • Apprenticing with a brewer
  • Guidance on financing
  • Sourcing equipment
  • Selecting a property
  • Designing the logo
  • Writing the business plan
  • Navigating regulatory issues
  • Connecting with investors

“You can’t just take your six pack of an imperial stout that everybody loves and sell it,” says Benner.

“You have to become incredibly leveraged, you have to open a brewery. And most people don’t have the business savvy, or the funds, or the resources, or even know where to start.

“We’re literally creating a platform for these people to have the public taste their beer, which is a dream come true for homebrewers! There’s no vehicle out there right now that allows for that.”

Paul’s advice to a homebrewer wanting to start a brewery:

  • Start making relationships with your local brewery
  • Volunteer, observe, haul kegs, clean stuff
  • Read like crazy
  • Go to a bunch of brewing trade shows
  • Be active in your local homebrew club
  • Perfect recipes, make sure each batch comes out similar to the last

* I wanted to say “first-of-its-kind,” but I found something online about The Brewery Incubator in Houston, Texas. Although it looks like it’s no longer operating. I was unable to confirm whether it ever got going at all.

Listener question:

From Cory Waller: What’s your favorite beer to drink?

Book recommendation:

Check out the entire list of recommended books, click here.

Your Free Audio Book

An upcoming beer style:

Sour beer

Other resources:

You can reach Paul Benner and Platform Beer Co. at:

If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or Stitcher. When you subscribe, it’ll let you know when there’s a new episode, you won’t miss a thing!

Support MicroBrewr

Help keep MicroBrewr on the air. CLICK HERE for ways you can help.

Subscribe on iTunes             Listen to Stitcher