How much water do you use?

[Crowash]

Aussie brewers save precious water - SMH 14th Nov 2007


Australia's decade-long drought has forced brewers to slash the amount of water they use in making beer, in some cases by almost half, as pressure grows on industry to cut wastage.

Queensland this week introduced the strictest water restrictions yet in some drought-stricken areas, requiring businesses to use 25 per cent less water over the next 12 months.

Australia's two largest brewers, Foster's Group Ltd and Lion Nathan Ltd, already have cut water use in the worst drought in a century.

Lion Nathan is building a water recycling plant at its Castlemaine Perkins brewery in Queensland that will reduce by almost half, to less than 2.2 litres, the amount of drinking water needed to make a litre of beer.

That compares with international standards of four to five litres of water, though some breweries still use up to 10 litres. Brewing performance is measured by the amount of water needed to brew a litre of beer.

"It won't affect the taste and quality of the beer," Lion Nathan's environment director David Carter said.

"We won't be using recycled water for making beer, although technically I suppose you could."

The brewery, which makes XXXX brand beer, will save 1.1 million litres a day by using recycled water to clean packaging lines, lubricate conveyers and clean floors.

"The drought has made us more aware than ever of the need to keep improving our water management practices," Mr Carter said.

At Lion Nathan's Swan brewery in Western Australia, treated waste water is used to irrigate an adjacent golf course and another brewery, SAB, draws water from an artesian well.

At Foster's Yatala brewery in Queensland, which produces about 430 million litres of beer and other drinks a year, water-saving measures have cut consumption to 2.3 litres of water per litre of beer.

"We believe we are the most water efficient major brewery in the world, by a considerable margin," said Yatala's general manager Noel Jago.

While drinking water is used for beer and wherever water touches the beer, recycled water is now used for external keg washing, vacuum pumps, cooling towers and boilers, and other processes, he said.

At its other main plant in Abbotsford, in inner Melbourne, which also produces 430 million litres a year, Foster's uses about 3.5 litres of water for each litre of beer, and has introduced similar recycling measures.

Other drinks makers have joined the water-saving drive. Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd has put rainwater tanks in two new plants and says it uses less water to make Coke in Australia than any other maker of Coke in the world - about 1.5 litres compared with an average 2.6 litres.

[MOFO]

I have thought about this often.... and was thinking we should get some sort of benefit/subsidy for brewing our own beer...

I would say I use just under 3L for every 1L of beer. (Washing out fermenter, washing bottles) I bet they use a lot more when looking at how much water gets used in making the bottles.....

But on top of this - we also save on carbon emissions as we compile the product at home and not have it trucked/flown/shipped from other destinations.

There is also the environmental impact of the paper labels, and less power used in bottle production reduction - these guys get new bottles - so while we might use 3L of water...and then there is the fact that we dont produce 1,000,000,000 beer coasters and litter them around like the megaswills do.

[earle]

Perhaps they could even hook up the new recycled water pipeline in Brisbane to the breweries. Might be better than the untreated effluent they sometimes try to pass off as beer.

[regan]

around 1.3:1 here.
a quick rinse of the keg, 2lt tops which also cleans the beer lines and racking hoses.
i haven't washed the fermenter (or added yeast) in the last 3 brews, so i can estimate 1lt
i might use half a litre before and after on my kettle 1lt
anyone care to estimate evaporation for 8lt boiling for an hour and 100-500gm of specialty grains water absorption? my guess is <2lt
= 25lt to make 19lt

[501]

Lol the xxxx already tastes like recycled sewerage


seriously though some of the beers we brew last for ?
1-2 years a bit more water is not a sin even in brisvegas.


cheers
sunshine coast waterBringer

[Old Gil]

MOFO has it right, we should get some sort of subsidy for brewin our own

[blandy]

We don't need a subsidy. It's dirt cheap anyway

anyway, I'll have a guess at how much water I use for a 20L batch (partial mash, 45min boil including cooling)

22L for beer
0.5L for sterilising while brewing (Iodophor solution, sprayed)
0.5L for sterilising while racking
2L for sterilising while bottling
10L for hosing down the fermenters afterwards (although this goes on the garden to make lots of yummy herbs)
10L for washing bottles (probably less since this water also does the dishes, so would have been used whether I brewed or not)

TOTAL 45L
(maybe add another 5L for an all-grain, and subtract 2L for K&K)

so a bit over 2L of fresh H2O to make 1L of beer, some of which would have been used anyway. Even if I left some things out, I still think i'm doing better than a lot of commercial breweries

10-15L grey water for cooling (comes out of the washing machine, goes into the laundry sink, then onto the garden when it's done its job) I'm not counting this because it would definately be used in the washing machine if I didn't brew.

[Kevnlis]

We have not had any restrictions up here, but still I use tank water for the actual brewing contents (mostly for reasons other than to conserve water).

33+L tank water into the mash
5 or so litres of city water from the garden hose to scrub down the stockpots and esky (all of this water goes onto the garden)
40L of city water to fill fermentor with napisan and soak for at least 48 hours and to rinse and steralise after (all of this water goes onto the garden, and alot of times the napisan solution gets transfered a few times)
1L for the liquid starter (though I am trying to find a way to not waste this)
30ml per bottle to rinse with boiling water, plus the 3 rinses from the tap after every use
or
25L to top up and soak keg in napisan solution (alot of the time this is taken from the fermentor, and always goes on the garden when finished)

I feel pretty good about the fact that even though we are under no restictions, I do well to waste very little water. In fact if you take into account the fact that most of the water I use goes onto the garden, I was only the bit of water it takes to rinse and sanatise my bottles!