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| All images taken from http://www.custommade.com/blog/sustainable-homebrewing/ |
However, every now and then I receive questions from readers who are looking to alter their brewing to increase production, efficiency, or sustainability. While there are many ways to answer those questions, it's not always easy to provide a clear-cut answer that makes sense for everyone.
Or at least not until now. I was recently approached by the good folks at Ghergich & Co. recently teamed up with CustomMade to create an article on Sustainable Home Brewing. They requested permission to post their article on Beer Apostle and I am happy to help share the information.
10
Must-Do Steps for Sustainable Homebrewing
By Abby Quillen
In the craft beer world, solar panels and ambitious
recycling programs have become the norm. Microbreweries from Alaska
to Colorado to Massachusetts strive to be sustainable, local,
and organic. But there’s an even greener way to drink beer: Make handcrafted ales in
the comfort of your own home.
The 1.2
million U.S. homebrewers have some advantages when it comes to
sustainability. They brew smaller batches and thus use fewer resources. They
almost universally use kegs or reuse bottles, and they have no need for
distribution, which is one of the most resource-intensive parts of commercial
brewing.
However, many homebrewers still have room for improvement on
the sustainability front. Homebrewers tend to be less efficient
and more likely to use malt extract and imported ingredients than craft brewers,
according to the USDA. But that doesn’t have to be the case. An eco-minded
homebrewer can take a number of measures to green their brewing operations.
Never brewed? Check out one of these excellent manuals:
- · The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian
- · How to Brew: Everything You Need to Know to Brew Beer Right the First Time by John J. Palmer
- · Sustainable Homebrewing: An All-Organic Approach to Crafting Great Beer by Amelia Stayton Loftus
Beer consists of four primary ingredients: water, barley,
hops, and yeast. Most homebrewers begin with kits containing tubs of malted
barley extract (barley that’s been malted, mashed, and concentrated into a
syrup). Malt kits are a great place to start but, as with all food preparation,
using less-processed ingredients gives the brewer more control over the
finished product and more ability to purchase sustainably grown, minimally packaged
ingredients. Moreover, brewing with grains usually produces better tasting beer,
and the better the beer, the more dedicated the homebrewer. Transitioning to
grains is a great first step toward sustainability. When using a malt recipe,
look for an extract that doesn’t contain
additives (most
commonly corn syrup).
2. Choose Sustainable Equipment
Go for stainless steel and glass equipment over plastic
options, which degrade over time and have a limited lifespan. Even small
abrasions or scratches on plastic buckets can harbor bacteria and spoil a batch
of beer, so many brewers go through a lot of buckets. Be sure to recycle them
when they’re no longer usable. Before buying equipment,
check Craigslist and other used sites for gently used carboys, kettles,
coolers, and chillers.
3. Go Local and Organic
Today homebrewers have the option to brew with ingredients
grown all over the world. For sustainability purposes, domestic usually beats
imported, and less packaging is always best.
How local can a homebrew be? It depends on the location. Most
barley
is grown in Montana, Washington, North Dakota, and Idaho. The Pacific Northwest
is home to the majority of commercial hops production.
But with new local
economies
sprouting up to keep pace with the craft beer industry, a hops or barley farm could
be nearby. Ask at a local brew shop: Brew-shop employees tend to be friendly,
helpful, and responsive to customer concerns. Support them and be sure to express
your desire for sustainable ingredients.
Choosing organic
ingredients supports healthier ecosystems and helps ensure pesticide residues don’t
end up in beer. In one study,
beer grown with conventionally grown ingredients had detectable levels of five
pesticides, including significant levels of Imidacloprid, an insecticide used heavily
on conventional hops. Imidacloprid was recently banned
in Europe because it is a threat to honeybees and may be dangerous to the developing
nervous systems of children.
Until recently,
it was difficult to find organic hops because the USDA didn’t require craft
brewers to use them to attain organic certification. The USDA changed its rules
in 2013, and organic hops production has already increased exponentially. Sustainably
grown options will hopefully be even more readily available in the future.
4. Grow Your Own
It doesn’t get more local or sustainable than a brewer’s
backyard. For beer with a truly local flavor, consider growing some ingredients
on your own. Gardening enables homebrewers to experiment with unusual
ingredients. Growing your own is also a way to remind yourself that, at its
heart, beer is an agricultural product. Hops, peppers, and mint are three easy
crops to try.
- Hops
The cones of this woody vine give beer its slightly bitter, citrusy
flavor, plus it’s relatively easy to grow (depending on the climate). Ideally,
hops need six to eight hours of full sunshine a day. They grow in most soil
conditions, but require fertilization and good drainage. They are heavy
nitrogen feeders. A good support system is crucial, because vines grow more
than 30 feet high and can weigh up to 20 pounds. A fence, trellis, or the side
of a building works well to support the vines.
It takes a couple of years for hops to get established. They
won’t produce many cones the first couple of years as they focus energy on
their root system. After that, it’s important to keep them from taking over the
garden: They wrap their spiky tendrils around everything in sight.
- Peppers
Green chiles, jalapenos, poblanos, and habaneros can add
heat, flavor, or both to a pale ale, IPA, or stout. Many brewers add peppers to
the secondary fermentation (like a dry hop) or make a pepper extract and add it
just before bottling. Peppers are relatively easy to grow in a home garden, but
they are sensitive to cold, so should be planted after the danger of frost has
passed. They like plenty of direct sun and fertile, well-drained soil.
- Mint
Like hops, mint is easy to grow once it’s established. It
tolerates poor drainage and varying amounts of watering, and it does well in
partial sunshine. It’s best to contain mint, because it will happily take over
an entire yard if allowed (which makes for aromatic mowing, but may not be
desired). Once mint is harvested, it can be made into mint
extract and added to the secondary fermentation. As with peppers, experiment
with small batches: A little mint goes a long way.
Consider incorporating other garden crops into the home
brew. Hopped beer is a relatively modern invention. Before that, brewers made gruit using herbs in place
of hops, such as yarrow, marsh rosemary, juniper berries, ginger, caraway seed,
aniseed, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Pumpkin and berries can also make tasty ale additions.
The most dedicated DIY homebrewers may want to grow barley. It’s
relatively easy to grow, but harvesting and malting are labor-intensive.
5. Reuse spent grains
Once the beer is brewed, a homebrewer has pounds of spent grains.
Don’t throw it away! It has all sorts of uses. Add spent grains to garden soil or
a compost pile. Feed it to chickens. Or, even better, use it in a bread recipe
(like this whole
grain version) or to whip up a delicious spent-grain treat invented by the
geniuses at the Brooklyn Brew Shop. Try their Spent
Grain Peanut Butter Cookies, Spent
Grain Brownies, or Spent Grain
Waffles.
6. Reuse yeast
Rather than purchase new yeast each time, a brewer can reuse the same yeast
five to ten times.
After the first fermentation, save the yeast that
settles on the bottom of the bucket or carboy, wash
it, store it, and use it within a few weeks for the next batch. (This practice
encourages back-to-back homebrew batches. Since homebrewing is more sustainable,
it’s important to keep the inventory stocked.) If stored yeast sits longer than
a few months, make a yeast starter
to make sure it’s still viable.
7. Chill More Efficiently
Chilling the wort from 160 to 80 degrees is often the most
wasteful process in homebrewing. Some brewers put the boiling pot of wort in
the sink and run cold water to cool it down, which flushes gallons of clean
water down the drain. It’s better to do an ice bath. Or fill recycled soda
bottles with water, freeze, and use in place of ice. Afterward, return them to
the freezer and reuse.
Try this handy trick when brewing malt kits. Purchase a
reusable one-gallon food storage container.
Fill it with water and freeze it. Then during the cool down, add the frozen block
of ice to the wort in place of a gallon of water. It will help cool the wort
quickly. Be careful to lower the ice gently to avoid splashing hot wort.
Immersion wort chillers are popular, because they cool rapidly,
but they waste a lot of water. Blogger Chris
Jensen devised a way to use his without wasting water. He connects it to an
aquarium pump and circulates the water through an ice-filled cooler and back
into the chiller. Jensen says he’s cut his water waste by three quarters using this
method.
8. Reuse water
No matter the chilling method, there is some wasted water.
Water conservation is important, because it takes a lot of energy to treat and
deliver. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, “letting your faucet
run for five minutes uses about as much energy as letting a 60-watt lightbulb run
for 22 hours.” Moreover, the EPA says, “With the U.S. population doubling over
the past 50 years, our thirst for water tripling, and at least 36 states facing
water shortages by 2013, the need to conserve water is becoming more and more
critical.” Don’t flush clean water from the brewing process down the drain. Use
it on the garden or house plants, or in the washing machine.
9. Downsize Container Waste
Most homebrewers reuse bottles, which is more sustainable
than throwing store-bought containers in the recycle bin. To cut down on even
more waste, use swing-top bottles. A kegging
system eliminates packaging altogether. (However, kegging requires the
energy and expense of running a small fridge, so homebrewers should take that
into account when deciding which is more sustainable.)
10. Green the Clean
All
equipment used in brewing must be clean and free from soap residue, and all
equipment used after the boil must be sanitized. When possible, choose biodegradable,
environmentally-friendly cleansers and sanitizers. Seven Bridges Cooperative, an online supplier of
organic brewing ingredients, recommends using 5-Star PBW (Powdered Brewery Wash) or Straight-A to clean and Iodophor to sanitize. Use a refillable spray bottle to save water.
By adopting the above measures, homebrewers can be confident
they are good stewards of the environment while making the delicious beverages
they love. In the words of Charles Papazian, all that’s left to do is, “Relax,
don’t worry, have a homebrew.”
This article was originally posted on March 23, 2015 and can be found here: http://www.custommade.com/blog/sustainable-homebrewing/
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