Craft Breweries

Historically, breweries did not consider the cost of treating nutrient pollution and bacteria in their effluent water discharged to municipal treatment plants (POTW).  POTW’s were able to effectively treat the brewery wastewater and brewery production increases as part of their overall community wastewater treatment plan.  A changing regulatory environment and aging POTW infrastructure has decreased these POTW’s ability to effectively treat increased brewery production.  Breweries making a business decision to expand their annual production today must consider the cost of wastewater treatment from those production increases. Often times, an on-site waste treatment solution is the most cost-effective solution for these breweries.

craft brewery

Craft Breweries Wastewater Contributors

Containments in brewery wastewater come from the 4 part process – malting, mashing, boiling and fermenting. Malting contributes to the TSS load during the cracking and drying of grains. During the mashing phase, hot water activates enzymes in grains to create sugar and wort which adds TSS and BOD load. Boiling of the wart adds more BOD/COD to the discharge. The fermentation phase will add yeast, which converts sugar to carbon dioxide and alcohol. This process adds more containments in the wastewater. The Clean-in-process (CIP) will also surge BOD/COD levels. Holding the wastewater in an equalization tank can create a low pH or septic condition because of the yeast and bacteria in the water creating acidic conditions.

Craft Beers

What are the benefits of working with MacDermid Envio to solve brewery wastewater challenges?

With 45 years of experience in mechanical and chemical wastewater treatment, we understand what breweries must do to handle their wastewater. Whether the goal is to eliminate or reduce surcharges, water minimization, separating waste streams for efficiency, or a combination of all, we’re able to find the most effective solution. We start with an audit of your current and future beer production levels, come up with strategies to isolate wastewater contributors and formulate a holistic approach to solving challenges using modular solutions and chemicals if needed.

We help breweries:

  • Achieve 100% compliance with POTW permits
  • Reduce costs per bbl produced
  • Recycle and reuse water
  • Decrease operational costs (including sludge removal costs)
  • Stay in compliance for years to come through our Performance Guarantee Program