(Beer) Waste Not, Want Not: 5 Ways

Breweries Recycle Their Waste

By Andrew Amelinckx on August 10, 2015

Man, I love beer. But it takes a lot of resources to produce the nectar of the gods, which can
make me think twice before knocking back a couple of cold ones.

In fact, beer-making takes up to 20 liters of water (or more) per one liter of brewed beer. Plus,
theres a lot of other stuff thats leftover from the process, like spent grainsabout 85 percent of
the byproduct from beer production, and the equivalent of a pound or more per six packand
the dregs, which is mostly yeast.

More from Modern Farmer

This Maine Beer Has A Very Special Ingredient

We Like Beers. So Do (Some) Donkeys

Why Does Beer Smell So Delicious?

Beer brewers, especially those of the craft persuasion, have always been innovators, mixing
creativity, ingenuity, and science to create delicious new beers, so it makes sense they would be
at the vanguard of innovative ways to reuse the waste from making their products. To wit,
brewers have provided spent grains to farmers to use as animal feed for some time (actually since
the Neolithic Period). And for more than 100 years, the dregs have been used to make the British
spread marmite and its Australian cousin vegemite. But there are some much newer uses for the
remnants from the beer-making process. Here are five weve come across that are worth a
mention.

1) Turning it into Baked Goods

Several companies use brewers spent grains for bread, granola bars, and even dog treats. But
Hewn, a Chicago-based bakery, is going one step further and using both spent grain and beer
itself in its bread, which is described as full, hoppy, smooth and is a delicious base to build a
pastrami sandwich on. If youre a home brewer or if youre lucky enough to be friends with one,
you can make your own bread, too. Heres a recipe from Zero Waste Girl. And, speaking of beer
and bread, a Belgian brewer is going in the opposite direction and making beer out of leftover
bread that would normally be tossed out.
 From our partners at VICE

2) Treating Wastewater
The city of Boulder, Colorado, has been testing out using weak wort, a sugary liquid left over
from the brewing process, to help reduce nitrogen runoff from one of its water-treatment
facilities. The city hooked up with Avery Brewing Company to test out whether the wort was a
suitable energy source for the bacteria used in treating the water. A large-scale test last year was
successful, according to the Water Environment Federation, and there are plans in the works for
continued collaborations. Oh, and yes, theres someone making beer out of wastewater, which
doesnt sound all that appetizing, but were told its a tasty little wheat beer produced with the
purified effluent of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

3) Turning it into Green Energy

An Oregon-based startup, Waste2Watergy, formed at the University of Oregon has created a
microbial fuel cell (MFC) that can generate energy as it treats wastewater. Microbes that munch
on the organic material in the wastewater produce electrochemical energy in the process thats
converted into power. The company teamed up with Widmer Brothers Brewing, in Portland,
Oregon, to test out the system.

Another brewery, Bear Republic Brewing Company, from Sonoma County, California, in
collaboration with Cambrian Innovation, a Boston-based company, has been using a new system
to treat its wastewater and use the biogas produced by the process as a power source. New
Belgium Brewing Company has also been using a system that treats wastewater and creates
biogas used by the brewery along with wind and solar power.

4) Turning it into Compost

There are several applications in this category, including recycling spent grains as compost, to
feed worm bins, or as a medium for growing mushrooms. These grains have a ton of nitrogen
and organic matter, which are just the stuff plants need to grow. Great Lakes Brewing Company,
in Cleveland, Ohio, uses their spent grains as a soil amendment and for growing mushrooms that
end up on the menu in their brewpub. As of this writing, no brewers have turned compost into
beer that Im aware of, in case you were wondering. (But, I wonder if Twisted Tea might be into
making a compost tea for gardeners?)

5) Turning it into Fish Food (and Perhaps People Food)

A Denver-based company called Nutrinsic has partnered with MillerCoors at the beer companys
Trenton, Ohio, facility in order to use its wastewater (water, waste beer, and spent grains and
yeast) to create single-cell proteins that are used for animal feed, including fish food. Nutrinsic is
also seeking approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration to use the product in
human food. By altering the waters conditions, microorganisms that produce proteins begin to
grow and are then harvested, concentrated, sterilized, and dried, according to the Dayton Daily
News. Again, no one has yet invented a fish-based beer, but there are some with oysters and
lobster, so at least were in the seafood realm. Im not sure if isinglass counts, which is made out
of fish bladders and used by Guinness and others in their beer-making process, but I guess
theres a modicum of reciprocity there.

What's Trending

o Never Buy a Teacup PigAnimals

o Tyson and Other Meat Companies Linked to Biggest-Ever

Dead Zone in the GulfLifestyle

o You Could Get Paid to Save Struggling MonarchsPlants

and Animals
o Pork 101: Know Your CutsLifestyle

o EPA-Approved Dicamba Is an Airborne Menace and

Some States Are Banning ItPlants
 Subscribe Today

Modern Farmer is a quarterly magazine devoted to the people, policy, issues, animals,
plants, and technology of farming and food.

o Subscribe
o Gifts
o Digital Edition
o Update Account

(Beer) Waste Not, Want Not: 5 Ways Breweries Recycle

Their Waste

Related

Engineer Brews A Lovely Wheat Beer With Milwaukee Wastewater

Japan's Craft Beer Movement Takes Off

Farmhouse Beer: Turning Scraps Into Brews

From Farm to Bottle: This Brewery Combines Beer and Agriculture

Popular

Never Buy a Teacup Pig

Tyson and Other Meat Companies Linked to Biggest-Ever Dead Zone in the Gulf

How to Incubate Chicken Eggs

5 of the Most Valuable Crops You Can Grow in the USAnd How to Grow Them

Powered by

Modern Farmer Media, 2017

About Us
Contact Us
Subscribe
Newsletter
Submissions
Media Kit
Privacy
Where to Buy
Digital Edition
Customer Service
Press