Sustainable Brewing, Pt. 5 (Solutions)
Welcome back tree huggers,
This is it, folks, the final (and perhaps most important) installment in our series on sustainable brewing, in which we take all that we’ve learned (you read them all, right? ...right?), and use it to answer a simple question: what can we do?
Indeed, while it’s a fun experiment to consider how the brewing world might adapt if water were more scarce, electricity more expensive, or ABV limited to below 5%, what would be a heck of a lot better would be to invest in cleaner and more efficiency equipment and brewing practices now, in order to mitigate the likelihood of such extreme scenarios. And in pursuing more sustainable brewing, those of us in the industry have three roles to play: Producers, Consumers, and Voters.
Producers
As producers, we are unquestionably tied to the whims of our customers. At MacLeod in particular, our first brewer was such a persnickety idealist that we operated as a sort of thought experiment for the first year or two - could a brewery in pricey Los Angeles survive selling only 54˚ cask ale, without even an IPA in sight? (Hard no.) Despite this market failure, such beer may be the most efficient on the planet to brew and serve.
But on the other extreme, a brewery that caters only to the most volatile trends, which is to say a brewery that specializes in Hazy IPAs and Pastry Stouts is, unfortunately, causing undue damage to the planet through massive inefficiencies and the excessive use of hops and malt. Worse yet, they’re specializing in a skillset, the brewing of extreme beers, that is sure to be the first to go extinct as growing consumer awareness and environmental/market pressures all but cull a majority of these beers, by forcing the price up and hence winnowing out a large number of merely adequate Hazy brewers, as consumers demand higher quality for the price (this can be seen readily on a Supply and Demand chart - that link, by the way, is this exact scenario; my argument is that supply costs will skyrocket over time for these beers in particular, causing a shift in supply that raises price and thus lowers quantity demanded, implicitly shrinking the market to only high quality Hazy producers, and those big enough to be able to undercut smaller, and thus less efficient breweries on price, even when offering a virtually identical beer).
So where’s the happy medium? I see the following as viable brewing solutions, from a “beer offered” perspective:
Cask Ale is incredibly planet friendly, relatively speaking
As I think I’ve mentioned, it requires the highest fermentation temps, Kveik asides, at basically room temp; it’s fast; cask ale in particular doesn’t require filtering, which is great; and the CO2 used to carbonate the beer is derived from yeast metabolizing sugars, which at a minimum costs no energy (though I truly couldn’t tell you if that process takes less energy than force carbonation, considering the energy it takes to produce the sugar from corn, say); further, it’s served some 10-15˚F closer to room temp, another win
It isn’t the perfect medium for everything, though, so I’d recommend it for any british ales and perhaps an interesting Kellerbier-style lager (I can see a Schwarzbier working 1,000% on cask), but not for virtually any IPA, sour, or most lagers (though I’d love to be proven wrong!)
The lower the ABV the better
As mentioned, lower ABV beers are simply better for the planet, and the word is that they’re growing in popularity, so I suspect an attempt to flesh out one’s menu with a few sub-4.5% options would be possibly rewarded, and probably not penalized
There’s even a book on the topic!
Similarly, the less hops the better
IPAs may be popular, which means you’d be unwise not to have at least two or three hoppy beers on tap, but if you’re considering opening an IPA-focused bar, maybe...don’t. And if you do, try to limit the number of Hazy IPAs you produce, since these are, as I’ve postulated, perhaps the worst beers on the planet for the planet, possibly topped by 10%+ ABV beers
To that end, maybe session hazies could become a thing? I seriously doubt I’d mind or even notice if a great Hazy were made at or around 5%; somebody should try this and @ me
Switching up the yeast with Kveiks
Kveik yeasts are pretty incredible; they’re quite clean, or fascinatingly fruity (depending on the strain), but most importantly, they’re fast. And since fast means less energy, fast is good. The ability to brew pseudo-lagers at 70˚F would be a sustainability game-changer, and in any case, their slightly high attenuation (malt-eating efficiency) and their general flocculation properties (how densely the settle out of solution) make for a killer sustainable combo. These will continue to sweep through the brewing world like a Holy Fire, and thank god for that
Buy local!
Shipping grain from Germany is an insane practice (granted, this from a homebrewer who would be hard pressed to do otherwise), and it goes without saying that buying local would be far better
For us, Washington is also reasonably close, but if you’re on the east coast, New York may be the answer
And as craft maltsters spring up all over the place, one hopes their prices will drop enough that more breweries will be able to justify using their malt
These are all accomplishable and helpful goals, but the water and power posts make clear that there’s more to be done. On a truly tiny scale (sub-1,500 BBL per year, say), there’s not a ton to be done as regards, say, wastewater management, but a few notes come to mind, particularly for those of us who are either planning out new breweries, or making upgrades, namely:
Univessels are magic
It’s too late for us, given our forest of conicals, but if you haven’t already purchased a brew house, I would very seriously recommend considering purchasing one of these puppies and committing to the univessel lifestyle
The downside is that each fermenter you buy from now on has to come from them, but the upside is that you’ll save a ton of time (read: labor) on only ever cleaning your tanks, never sanitizing (since boiling does that), which is absolutely nuts
Additionally, they seem fairly easy to use with a simple crane installed, and take up very little space relative to a traditional brewhouse
I’ll put it simply: I would never really consider any other brewing setup for any of my hypothetical brewpubs
Insulation may help
It’s probably a small gain, but good insulation on your fermenters and HLT will reduce your electric bill in the long run
Not a huge deal, but also probably the easiest thing to do
Consider going electric, or buying electric gear when making upgrades
At present, I can’t say with confidence that it’s better for the planet to use an electric element, as opposed to a natural gas burner anywhere across the country, but as our electric grid gets cleaner, and as on-site batteries and solar setups get better and more affordable, this will become a more pressing upgrade to make
To that end, I’d start by looking into your state, and whether or not it offers grants or rebates for solar systems. California doesn’t seem to have much at the moment, but there’s always selling energy back to the grid via Net Metering
For brewing water, consider mixing tap water with your RO water for higher water efficiency
As California re-enters drought conditions, water efficiency becomes a big deal again. By blending in tap water for “saltier” styles like pale ales and all manner of dark beer, we can cut down our water usage. Very roughly speaking, one gallon of RO water costs perhaps two gallons of tap water, making this an easy step with a big impact
Finally, there’s a list of upgrades
Reasonable or not, a mash filter would certainly boost mash efficiency (which is huge, impact-wise), and moderately raise water use efficiency
Akin to the electrification point, a solar array and Elon-style battery would save money in the long run and take you off the as-yet-not-green grid
Finally, you could buy a centrifuge for beer filtration - I suspect without proof that the energy demands are offset by a traditional plate filter’s need for diatomaceous earth
Consumers
As consumers, we “vote with our dollars,” as they say, and I’d argue that we should buy what we want to make, which is to say low-ABV, low-hop ales, preferably on cask (sours being totally kosher). Now, I recognize the insanity of that request, especially since it’s the diversity of the brewing scene that makes it so appealing to brewers, and as such, I’d make the more practical request that we, the buyers of beer, should create more demand for what probably come off as more “normal” or “boring” beers, which is to say Brown Ales, Dark Milds, and Bitters. My suspicion is that we’re headed in that direction like it or not, so by creating room for these increasingly esoteric beers, and by taking the time now to educate the public as to what a Dark Mild is, we’ll be in for less of a world of hurt later, and we may just have enough latitude to still brew the occasional lager and IPA.
Having said that, there’s another tack we can take, if that sounds like an insane and self-hating undertaking: buying local. Los Angeles, for example, has such a preponderance of local breweries that it’s simply unnecessary to buy a hopped beer of any description from outside the state, at a maximum (thank god that Russian River is local). Further, the impressively terrible quality of imports (due to heat and oxygen) make even middling local attempts at lagers leagues better than the once-glorious German Lagers that you can technically buy. One more massive plus: local breweries produce far less packaging waste, when the beer’s consumed on-site (one glass that will be washed hundreds or thousands of times vs a largely single-use can or bottle). Finally, I personally make an exception for a few things, like Krieks and other such personable sours, but even then, Firestone’s Krieky Bones is of such excellence that it calls even such exceptions into question.
Homebrewing would perhaps seem like a good local option, but it’s so inefficient that I can’t in good conscience even pretend to think of it as sustainable. Will I stop? No, because one gallon of beer doesn’t take all that much grain, hops, or water in an absolute sense, but I’d never consider a 10+ gallon system.
Voters
This topic seems at first glance to be potentially quite spicy, but I strongly believe that the partisan nature of some of these issues will fade fast. So, without further ado, I believe that as voters, we should pursue:
Money for climate change adaptation
This shouldn't be, and I'd argue can't possibly, continue to be a partisan issue
Without this simple fact, the costly upgrades I’ve alluded to above, in particular concerning electricity, are bound to take longer, driven only, then, by market forces
Local-heavy programs, like the (arguably unconstitutional) farm brewery license program in NY, where applicable
A note: California might be able to do this, but probably not Nevada
The idea being either a cheaper license, tax break, or something between or beyond that to incentivize craft breweries buying local ingredients
Similarly, perhaps some tax differences for local consumption?
Again, this raises potential constitutional issues (see the Dormant Commerce Clause, e.g.), the argument being that favoring businesses in one particular state (here, implicitly, NY maltsters) illegally co-opts the Federal Government’s exclusive right to control interstate commerce, per the Commerce Clause
The short-sighted approach: limited regulation
While rolling back regulations and, say, fees on waste water are good for the wallet today, these rollbacks might indirectly crater the whole industry in a few decades by, say, accelerating global warming, causing a more serious water shortage that takes brewing from an unwise use of water to outright incompatible with society’s goal of base survival
Which is to say, please, please don't vote for these
Related: taxes
I like to joke that “I hope they double my taxes tomorrow,” because my faith in the importance of social programs, programs clearly beyond the scope of charity and the free market, that I’ll happily take a massive tax increase if, say, it means that I won’t go bankrupt for being guilty of the crime of getting a cancer diagnosis with assets worth less than $1 million
Upgrading our infrastructure and funding job retraining for a renewable future for this country is going to cost a fortune (trillions upon trillions), and taxes are simply an unavoidable cost (viewed one way), or, really, an investment with a massive if currently invisible return on investment (viewed the other way), and I”ll personally be voting for any candidate that plans on raising taxes, simply because it’s such an unpopular opinion that I’d like even just a handful of voices who’ll regularly push for it (when the economy’s in a good spot)
This should come as no surprise given my outspoken love of Hobbes
Conclusion
Our parents and their parents had two incredible luxuries as payment for their participation in wars: they could smoke cigarettes without fear, and they could run up the global warming tab without considering who might foot the bill. We have neither luxury, and if you’ve taken anything from these posts, it’s these twain points: craft brewing as it stands now isn’t particularly planet-friendly, but there’s a hell of a lot that can be done to change that. In the meantime, we can take baby steps by buying local craft beer, and in particular, fine cask ale.
Cheers,
Adrian “Captain Planet” Febre