Friday, April 30, 2010

Down the drain...

... not beer. Trade effluent.

I had to work out our discharge volumes the other day, so that the nice folks at United Utilities could figure out how much to charge us. It's not a complicated sum, but it's quite instructive. Your mileage may vary.

Of the water that comes in, about 15.5% goes in product (beer) or is lost in evaporation, around 2.3% goes out in by-products (spent grain, waste yeast) and 82% goes down the drain.

I know that doesn't add up to 100, but that's rounding error for you.

Or to put it another way - each pint of beer we produce means we need 6.5 pints of water, and gives rise to about 5.3 pints of effluent.

This is actually pretty good for a tiny brewery. And of course, we're not short of water 'round here.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I have a 1000l IBC as an effluent tank. I actually measure the amount I discharge and also gain some benefit from primary decomposition and chemical neutralising.

Also, you can provide a true sample of the discharge liquor as it's all mixed up.

StringersBeer said...

That's neat, I'd have liked to be able to do something like that. But we manage. UU are happy enough though, and that's what counts, right?