For most breweries, wastewater treatment fees are even higher than the cost of incoming water. But brewers who account for water lost to evaporation, spent grain, and packaged beer are successfully negotiating lower bills.

Reducing Costs

Not all the water that enters a brewery leaves as wastewater. Significant amounts of water leave as product, evaporate, or are lost in other streams. Proactive brewers in many locations are negotiating decreased wastewater treatment costs with their city or local wastewater treatment facility that account for these streams that are not going down the drain.

Case Study

Christian Ettinger of Hopworks Brewery, in cooperation with the City of Portland Bureau of Environmental Services (BES), developed a simple system to deduct three key components from the wastewater volume portion of the brewery’s bill for water that leaves the building and does not go to the treatment plant.

Ettinger, using agreed upon calculations, determines the amount of kettle evaporate, spent grain moisture, and finished beer volume that does not find its way to the treatment facility. He sends a worksheet to the BES a week before the billing date who then deducts the volume from his monthly wastewater treatment bill. Result? Hopworks Brewery saves thousands of dollars a year.

Other Opportunities

Other opportunities may exist if brewers are exploring other streams that divert water from treatment facilities. These opportunities include diverted high strength wastewater streams, such as spent yeast, and water used for landscaping or irrigation.

Be Proactive

It is worth noting that most municipalities consider a brewery, no matter the size of the operation, to be an industrial user subject to the often strict and restrictive regulations governing the strength and volume of the facility’s wastewater. Brewery wastewater is often high in biological oxygen demand (BOD) and total suspended solids (TSS) which are difficult and expensive for treatment plants to process to stay within their discharge regulation parameters. As populations continue to increase and aging wastewater treatment facilities struggle to stay in compliance, the Brewers Association recommends all brewers maintain clear and open communication with their local wastewater treatment facilities. Refer to the Wastewater Management Guidance Manual for tips on how to proactively work with your local treatment facility.

Looking for a variety of water efficiency projects to decrease your brewery’s water use? Check out the Water & Wastewater Sustainability Manual.