Is Hb Good For The Environment?

[Gout]

I have a pump to reuse rain water (not drinking) - eg its cold from storage and i use it to chill the wort - warms up the tank but next time i use it say 2 weeks its cold so i use no water just the pump power.

currently the brewery is getting an upgrade so i need to buy beer - that means a box, 6pack carton, bottles, a drive to the bottle shop, the truck to collect the glass etc

I only drive to my home brew shop a few times a year and buy a large grain bill and reuse yeast and my malt is local so no ships to travel the world.

I would at a guess be far more efficent that driving to buy beer. The only worry is the gas and power usage.

The kegs mean far less glass also

plus its saves a swag of money, drinking beers you like rather than can afford

If only i can stop friends drinking all the beer i would be efficent

 

[Snow]

[quote name='Ol'Wobbly' post='485776' date='Jul 2 2009, 03:14 PM']Interesting topic.

There can be no doubt that, leaving water aside for a moment, HB's consume far less resources than commercial brewers - for all the reasons mentioned in the other posts. Taking water, I estimate that I use about 100-120 litres of water per 30 litre brew, mainly on rinsing. But seeing that about half of that rinse water finishes up on the lawn (even on a damp Adelaide winter's day), is it really wasted?

The more I think about it the more I'm convinced that HB's have much less of an impact on the environment than pub and bottle-o drinkers. :icon_cheers:

2c[/quote]

I don't know... even that seems like a lot of water to me. I use about 40L in the brew, then about 10L to clean the brew equipment (all rainwater)and sanitise the fermenter, then 10L to clean the primary and secondary fermenters, 2L to sanitise and clean the keg, 5L here and there for sanitising and cleaning general odds and sods... I make it around 67L. My chiller is recycled through the rainwater tank. Pretty close to worlds best practice.

However..... this is all off-set by the fact I have 5 fridges in the house, 4 of which are used for beer/brewing at various times <_< . To counter this, I am about to purchase 100% green power to ease my concience. I justify this by the money I save brewing at home.

Cheers - Snow.

 

[shawnheiderich]

Who would pay more to have the greenhouse gasses off set for delivery? It should be easy (maybe not) for the sponsers to put an added charge for delivery depending on your location then buy the off set though a retailer? Any thoughts?

Shawn

PS I would be happy to pay a bit extra although I dont order as much as some.

 

[Interloper]

Would you buy it?

Sapporo Test-Markets Beer with Carbon Footprint Calculated

http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/029005.html

 

[shawnheiderich]

No just the cost (carbon cost) of the delivery from a sponser to my home. I care about the enviroment but.... we all have a budget.


Cheers

Shawn

 

[Adamt]

Gah... humans have evolved to adapt to their environment for millenia... Surely we can do so for beer.

 

[Bribie G]

The commercials send millions of kilos of spent grain to be used in cattle feed. Transport miles and cow methane farts. My spent grain ends up as compost and keeps me in eggplants, tomatoes, spinach etc.

AHB member round the corner from here has also just invested in some chooks so they will be getting some grains as well because my little garden is just about at its limit.

I buy nearly all my stuff from a sponsor and the freight is flat-fee up to 20 kilos (or maybe 25 I forget) so I order in enough for four or five brews which cuts down on the malt miles.

 

[tcraig20]

Who would pay more to have the greenhouse gasses off set for delivery? It should be easy (maybe not) for the sponsers to put an added charge for delivery depending on your location then buy the off set though a retailer? Any thoughts?

Shawn

PS I would be happy to pay a bit extra although I dont order as much as some.

Many of those so-called 'offsets' are outright scams.

 

[Midnight Brew]

hey hey

All the water I use for cleaning is rainwater apart from 9 litres which I use from tap water to rinse after sanatising bottles. Half the water usage for my brewing is rainwater boiled and the other half tap water. All the water I used for cleaning ends up on the lawn too so I would say I only use about 20 litres of water per 23 litre batch which covers cleaning and half the total water volume and in the end it all ends back on the garden/lawn.

dicko

 

[Spartan 117]

you guys think that water with starsan would be ok to go on the garden? Have often wondered this.

Just gave the msds a quick read, its 50% phosphoric acid, if used regurally it will cause a pH change in soil so you might just wanna be carefull about that. It also has isoprpyl alcohol which is a poison to some plants in high concentrations, but otherwise it looks fine too put on your grass or plants once and a while.

Aaron

 

[Duff]

Many of those so-called 'offsets' are outright scams.

Some sense does remain on AHB. Hooray!!

:icon_chickcheers:

 

[Katherine]

We dont rubbish the streets with VB cans...

 

[sinkas]

Be mindful of water use, but even still home brewing would definitately be a plus for the environment. 1 bottle of homebrew would almost certainly have a miniscule carbon footprint compared to a bottle of my beloved Hoegaarden Grand Cru flown all the way from Belgium!

Hoegaarden isnt flown over from belg

 

[shawnheiderich]

If you can trust the sponsors to deliver the best HB equipment and the freshest ingredients can we trust them to ofset carbon emitted by getting our goods to us?

I would trust the company I deal with, I would even trust my LHBS.

Shawn

 

[codzilla]

We dont rubbish the streets with VB cans...

Someone does. Visit the St Kilda Festival some time.

 

[bconnery]

I'll be first smartarse to mention my HB induced methane emissions (I'm surprised no one else has yet).

Well to be fair, we haven't met you

 

[manticle]

Ever wondered what the extent of an ecological footprint we leave on the planet when making beer at home ? I have, that's why I'm opening up this discussion !

However, how much water per litre of beer does a brewery use in the process of manufacturing beer ? Personally I might use 75-100 litres, so that works out to be over four litres of water per one litre of beer output.

Does this wastage correspond with commercial breweries ? Taking the liberty of assumption again, I would say that HB'ers use heaps more water. And probably more cleaning agents on a per-litre basis too. All down the drain.



Thoughts, anyone ?

I'd disagree. Most water consumption in the nation is used by industry. By homebrewing we're supporting less of that. Also many of us (myself included) use what we can on our gardens. I'd almost guarantee that their are millions of megalitres used by CUB each year and much of it is used once and not recycled.

When I sanitise, I use a bit of bleach, vinegar and water and then some sodium metabisulphite. If I'm sanitising bottles I make up a 1. 5 L jug of each, fill as many bottles as I can (usually 8-10) and use that same solution in the next bottles an so on till all are done. This is the only water that's wasted (straight down the drain). Rinsing water goes into a bucket and on to the garden.

I think doing anything yourself rather than relying on a commercial product will prove to be better for the environment.

 

[lastdrinks]

HB'ers must get points for re-using bottles or kegging (not using bottles/cans at all). The making of cans and bottles must use a lot of water and energy. And even if they are recycled that process would use a lot of energy and water, obviuosly less than making it the bottle/cans from scratch but there is the garbage truck, sorting, cleaning, melting etc.

i work for a mining company that mines and makes aluminium and man does that use electricity!! Absolute bucket loads and sure once alumina has been turned into aluminium it is easy to recycle but before it is huge. That's why power stations are often built near refineries and seriously why we chew through a lot of electricity in Oz.
(yes a bit simplictic but i am enjoying my eco-friendly home brew) Also do i get points for pissing on my lemon tree?

 

[Snow]

Also do i get points for pissing on my lemon tree?

Yes - you get double points :icon_cheers: and so do I - started just this year and without a doubt best lemons we've ever had!

 

[QldKev]

man you want another lemon.....

naa, better not I've got to drive :icon_drunk:

QldKev