TIPS: Microbreweries

TIPS: Microbreweries

Brewing and Packaging

	Send spent grains to farmers for use as animal feed.
	Send trub from the brew kettle, which is high in protein but extraordinarily bitter, to farmers for land application as fertilizer.
	Send spent grains and hops to farmers for animal feed.
	Recover the heat from the hot water using the heat exchanger. Incoming, cold, city water is run through the heat exchanger to gain heat from, and so cool, the hot wort. Rather than waste this heat energy, the hot city water can be reused to save energy used to heat the hot water. This hot water is often discharged into microbreweries, but it should be sent to the hot liquor tank for use in brewing the next batch.
	Add dead yeast cells from the Fermentation Tank to the grain going out as animal feed or the trub going out to be used as fertilizer.
	Recover reusable yeast from the Fermentation Tank and use for fermentation in the next batch.
	Sterilize beer/yeast mixture from the Fermentation Tank (heating it to 140 degrees F for 15 minutes) and then mix it with the grain going out as animal feed or the trub going out to be used as fertilizer.
	Mix yeast and solids from the Filtration system should be mixed with the grain going out as animal feed or the trub going out to be used as fertilizer.
	Recover spilled beer from the brewpub to be used as fertilizer.
	Collect spilled beer from the kegging line and mix with grain going out as animal feed or the trub going out to be used as fertilizer.

Heating Water

Prevent heat loss from the water heater or hot liquor tank by fully insulating the water heater. Hot liquor tanks are normally very well insulated.

Keg Cleaning

	Beer left inside kegs which are returned to the microbrewery in kegs should be collected and mixed with the grain going out as animal feed or the trub going out to be used as fertilizer.
	Wash water from cleaning of kegs must be treated prior to discharge but can be minimized to a significant extent by implementing a well designed keg cleaning station.

Cleaning Process Vessels

	Use continuous brewing to reduce the need for cleaning process vessels
	Use "clean-in-place" systems to conserve water during the cleaning process. These systems are expensive for very small brewers but will substantially reduce water used for cleaning.
	Put small water meters (under $10.00 each) on hoses so that employees can see how much water they use to clean. This also provides a baseline from which to measure improvements.
	Consider developing a cleaning standard. A cleaning standard is any method that can be used to define how clean a surface needs to be. It helps determine when cleaning is needed. Further, it helps eliminate excessive cleaning by defining when a surface is clean enough and washing can stop.
	Encourage the microbrewery to visit the process vessel operations at other companies that make products in batches. Paint manufacturing is also a useful visit.

Cleaning Floors

	Develop a basis for determining when cleaning of floors and equipment is necessary.
	Put small water meters (under $10.00 each) on hoses so that employees can see how much water they use to clean. This also provides a baseline from which to measure improvements.
	Encourage the microbrewery to visit other food processing operations to see how they clean floors.