Brewery "Waste" Products

[Steve LaMont]

Hello:
I am a new member (as of tonight) in need of some help! I have read David's book through one time, sort of quickly, to get an overview. I have also watch the DVD. I am going to start going through both again, at a slower, more thorough pace.

However, I have already scheduled a meeting with the local brewery in town, to talk about the possibility of utilizing some of their byproducts of beer production to produce ethanol. I will be searching the book and DVD to get a bit more up to speed on what could possibly be used from a brewery, but I am wondering if anyone can steer me toward the right questions to ask the brewery owners? Sitting here tonight, I am not sure myself which of the byproducts could/should be used. Water? Used yeast? The fermented grain waste?

I'll start my research in the morning, but I will be meeting with them Tues or Wed, so any timely help before then would be appreciated!!

Thanks...I look forward to learning a lot here, and contributing if/when I can.


Steve

P.S. We are in a small town and they are, likewise, a fairly small operation.

[Kirk Dillon]

Hi Steve,

Welcome to the group.

I'm not an authority but a couple of things come to mind. Any of their product that can't be sold could be distilled for the ethanol. Beer that is somehow spoiled would be waist to the brewery or maybe there are tails/foam/spills that they cannot use you still could.

I'm not sure how much more alcohol you could get out of a brewery's waist grain but they might occasionally have surplus grain or grain not fit for beer for some reason that would still work for fuel alcohol.

Just my two cents.

Kirk

[Steve LaMont]

Thanks, Kirk!

The other thing I forgot to mention was that, during the winter months, we are pretty slow around here. One of the brewery owners already mentioned that I /we could use their existing equipment, if I can come up with a suitable plan for producing something we could sell!

Steve

[Erik Weaver]

Yep, Kirk's got the answers.

Remember, the brewery and you have similar goals: get alcohol out of their raw materials.

The difference is they have quality standards you do not -- they need people to hand over hard earned money for a product they are going to drink. You just want to burn the stuff as fuel! So concentrate on their wastes, and mistakes, and possible overages. Maybe even change of lines. You won't know what is available until you speak with them.

You need things that are high in one of the following: alcohol; sugar; starch.

Bare in mind not all sugar is fermentable. And starch requires inbetween steps to ferment it. The easiest items for you to work with is going to be alcohol that they cannot use for some reason. And even if they do not have this happen every week, maybe they do have one or two accidents a year. It'd be a shame to see them pour 1,000-gallons of alcohol-rich "spoilt" beer down the drain when you could easily convert that to fuel.

Good luck!

[Steve LaMont]

Thanks, Erik!

I am going to see them on Thursday, and I will post a "report," here after I determine if they have anything usable. My main concern is that they are so small that there may not be enough of anything to get excited about!?

"Plan B" utilizes their existing equipment somehow, so that my own expenses could be kept to a minimum. That option has already been approved by them, for the winter months, so that may be where I end up....


Steve

[Erik Weaver]

Please do keep us updated. It is always useful to see what works or fails for others.

It is a promising sign they are willing to share equipment! This is one of the nice things about small business -- you get to talk with people instead of meeting reams of paperwork created by bean counters and lawyers, neither of whom are well known for living in the "real world" with the rest of us!

(Bean counters and lawyers who are members, being obvious exceptions.)

[Steve LaMont]

Well, I wish I had something exciting to report, but I am basically where I was before. They don't have a lot of "waste," and we are going to talk more about using the brewery equipment in the winter, when out tourist economy slows to a near-halt.

They are still "on-board," but I was hoping to get going on something productive now. Looks like it will be this fall before any concrete plans or agreements are forthcoming......


Steve

[Rick Ralston]

Hi Steve, here is a link to a press release from E‐FUEL AND SIERRA NEVADA BREWING CO. that may be of interest to you. E-Fuel is a California company that is now selling a auto-mated, self contained $10,000+ home distillation units. They talk alot about "waste" from bars restaurants as well as the "bottom of the barrel" yeast waste from breweries.

Also you may want to check Coors Brewing website, they produce ethanol from thier "wastes". I don't have a link for you & they may consider it proprietary info but I had heard about this during the Democratic convention last year. It Seems that Coors provided cars for the convention fueled with Coors ethanol.

Hope this helps, keep us posted!

http://www.microfueler.com/Efuel/Doc/SierraNevadaPartnershipRelease...

[Steve LaMont]

Thanks, Rick!

Something I was noticing at the brewery the other night is that they toss a LOT of half-drunk glasses of soda pop. We were initially looking at, and talking about, using by-products of the actual beer brewing process. Forgot about the restaurant that is connected to the brewery proper!

I'm trying to figure how that waste stream could be captured now....

Steve

[Erik Weaver]

It will have to be easy for them to manage and remain extremely clean as they have health inspections to deal with ( being a restaurant )

I've heard of people investing in a small power-washer to clean up "their spot" when picking up behind a restaurant, and those that really wish to maintain good relations occasionally clean up additional areas surrounding theirs. This may or may not end up applying to your case.

The image that immediately came to mind was a "flush hose" of some kind that leads to a collection tank. But I suggest you spend some time in the restaurant to see what they do now. Most likely the table cleaners just dump the drink into a tub on a wheeled cart. So how can you make their job easier? That is the kind of thinking I'd suggest.

Hope you get that sugar! Sweet! heheh

[Steve LaMont]

Thanks, Erik!

Yes, I have been envisioning some sort of collection tank too. The restaurant part of the business is on the second floor of the building. Right now, I believe all the wasted drinks are just poured down the drain!

I think there is some "back room" areas downstairs that, perhaps, a drain line could be routed to, and emptied into a large drum or something.

The good part is that the owners are (at least at this early juncture) seemingly open to the possibilities. They seem to be on board with taking a waste product and creating something of value out of it - that's a good start - so now it is up to me to suggest and implement the process(es) to do that!

Steve