![]() ![]() It involves "an EcoVolt anaerobic digester to treat our high strength waste on-site and a combination of an aerobic digester, UF membrane filter, and RO filter to further polish all liquid waste to the point where we can reuse it on site for different cleaning and non-product processes." It's an ambitious project, no doubt, but with any luck, it'll safeguard them from possible restrictions on water use in the future. To prevent that from happening, Leon Sharyon, CFO of Lagunitas, said that they've begun a water treatment project that will curb their water use by 40 percent. But Lagunitas, which is located in the southern part of Sonoma County, has since been forced to blend portions of groundwater into their brews, and some breweries in Northern California anticipate that they may soon have to switch over to using groundwater entirely. "It would be like brewing with Alka-Seltzer," said Jeremy Marshall, head brewer at Lagunitas Brewing Company, in an interview with NPR back in February. It's an expensive process, and it's not without its own problems: Well water's mineral content makes it less preferable than water from the Russian River, from which Sonoma County breweries currently get their supply of H2O. Bear Republic, a craft brewery in Sonoma County, shelled out almost half a million dollars last year to drill wells to safeguard their local groundwater. Yanow shrugged, noting that RO might be the best option-especially given that there aren't very many alternatives.įor some breweries in drought-stricken Northern California, however, wells may be the best option to ensure that their source of water doesn't run dry altogether. "And from an environmental stance, it doesn't make sense either."īut it does make sense from a quality standpoint, which brewers recognize is the most important thing. "Water is expensive here-it's really a precious commodity-so from a business standpoint it doesn't make a ton of sense to do that," said Yanow. ![]() That loss is hard to swallow when, as in California right now, water is neither bountiful nor cheap. That's why lots of bigger craft breweries-like Stone Brewing Company in San Diego, for example-use RO to stabilize their water sources and guarantee clean, crisp water in their brews.īut there's a catch: You lose about 20 percent of the water in the process. "Then you can add back all the things you want-harden it, soften it, you can get it exactly right, and make subtle changes to the water so that it's going to be the same every time," Yanow explained. It's a complex process of heating, cooling, and evaporating the water, but it eventually simplifies water into what is essentially a "blank slate," rendering it perfect for brewing. Reverse osmosis-RO, in brew slang-is a purification method that strips water of all its minerals, salts, and other contaminants. So there's a big incentive for breweries to invest in technologies that will either improve the quality of water they're getting or secure access to another stable source of water. If you do the math, that's roughly 4 million gallons of water each year, and that figure doesn't account for the amount of beer that's spilled or the amount of water required for cleaning the massive fermentation tanks. For every gallon of beer, they'll use about four gallons of water-and that's a conservative ratios for a craft brewery. ![]() The brewery will churn out more than 31,000 barrels of beer this year (one barrel is about 31 gallons). The drought is three years old at this point, but even though lawns are being left to die and fountains are shutting off, breweries are still producing lagers, IPAs, and stouts. (Beer is, after all, the third-most-consumed beverage in the world, so there's plenty of demand.) But according to Tom McCormick, executive director of the California Craft Brewer's Association, the drought has begun to tangibly affect breweries in major ways: It's forced some to use lower-quality water in their brews or invest in expensive water-purification technologies, for instance, and it's caused beer production costs to creep up thanks to the rising cost of water.Īt Golden Road Brewery, the question of what to do about the water has become a daily debate.
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