More Beer, Less Water

  • Photo by Tomasz G. Sienicki. (Wikimedia Commons)

Beer is mostly water, but brewing beer takes even more water. The brewing industry is working to find ways to use less water. Chuck Quirmbach reports that for some companies it’s just a matter of becoming more environmentally friendly. For other companies, future water restrictions are forcing them to think about water efficiency.

Transcript

Beer is mostly water, but brewing beer takes even more water. The brewing industry is working to find ways to use less water. Chuck Quirmbach reports that for some companies it’s just a matter of becoming more environmentally friendly. For other companies, future water restrictions are forcing them to think about water efficiency.

(ambience)

Step into a sports bar and ask a table of guys drinking beer what they think about using less water to brew beer… and you’ll probably get a lot of confused looks.

“No, I don’t think about it at all. I guess you’re the first person to ever even bring it up. that’s why i don’t even think about it (laughter)

But the brewing industry says it’s not laughing about trying to conserve water.
The industry standard is that it takes about four barrells of water to make one barrel of beer, and that’s if you don’t factor in things like the water used to grow hops and other crops used in the brewing process.

Beermaking giant Miller-Coors says it’s trying to get its water-to-beer ratio down to three-point-five to one within six years.

(ambience)

So at miller brewing’s birthplace in milwaukee. ..the firm has a research lab working on water efficiency.

“And this is a pump turning on…”

Troy Rieswek manages the testing lab.

“And it’s circulating caustic as the background…the pump…circulating caustic.”

Rhyswek is showing how Miller-Coors is testing ways to clean stainless steel brew vats with less water. He says if they can find a solution, it will help the company’s bottom line.

“So if we can save the amount of water we use…and also the amount of chemical we use. Ultimately don’t lose down the drain… that goes a long way in saving water and also wastewater sending to the sewer.”

Miller-Coors is also trying to use less water as it rinses plastic bottles before they’re filled with beer.
smaller brewing companies and even brewpubs say they’re also trying to conserve water. Brewers recently held a conference on water conservation. The event also attracted the professionally curious, like Thomas Pape.

“I kind of invited myself. I heard about this conference…and uh… I had just gone through with my beer club trying to convince steps for them to save water in their homebrewing.”

Pape is with the alliance for water efficiency. That’s a non-profit group that promotes efficient and sustainable use of water. Pape says the brewers seem serious about conservation, because water costs are rising.

“It’s still a bargain. When you think you still get water from the tap perfectly clean and treated for less than a penny a gallon, but water costs are going up, and they’re going to go up.”

At the conference, a Wisconsin state regulator told the beermakers they need to plan for new requirements for water conservation. Todd Ambs says in the Great Lakes states, where a lot of beer is brewed, a recently passed water agreement puts in tough language.

“And if you’re asking for a new or increased quantity of water out of the Great Lakes basin, and you can’t demonstrate that you’re using your current water supply efficiently, and that you’re going to use that new water supply efficiently, you won’t get the water.”

(sports bar ambience)

If the government holds to that tough line, beer makers that want to grow may have no choice but to conserve water. and that would be fine with sports bar customer Jeff King who says he does care about conservation.

“I might not be as aware of it or look into it exactly, but anything you can do to help out is definitely good.”

King says he’d even pay more for beer if a brewing company is good at conserving water as long as it’s still a quality brew.

For the environment report, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.