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The Supply Chain Subcommittee is concerned with the ingredients and materials that are used to brew and package craft beers. By monitoring hop and barley harvest, interacting with growers and examining packaging supplies, and monitoring glass and can markets, the Supply Chain Subcommittee works to ensure a stable marketplace and provide educational resources to the brewing community on best practices for sourcing and selecting ingredients and packaging materials to suit their beers.
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is used throughout the brewery as a processing aid in the cellar and at the packaging line. While most brewers do not think of this gaseous compound as a traditional ingredient like hops, malt or water, a sure supply of high-quality CO2 is essential to maintaining and ensuring beer flavor quality. Carbon Dioxide is also an important resource to the medical, oil, food, and chemical industries. Depending on your region, the reliability and quality of purchased CO2 supply may at times be inconsistent. For example, your supplier may source CO2 from petroleum refining, ethanol production, or other processes.
A reliable supply of carbon dioxide is dependent upon a number of global and political factors, and brewers would do well to economize their resources in the event of a supply shortage. As an added benefit, economizing brewery CO2 can help to achieve financial and sustainability goals.
CO2 system leaks can be both costly and hazardous; seek out and repair leaks. Receivers or cylinders that build condensation or frost on the outside even when no systems are actively drawing CO2 can indicate your system may have a leak. Install a flow meter near your receiver or cylinder bank and isolate different brewery work zones to help narrow down leaks.
Further reduction of carbon dioxide can be achieved through careful monitoring and by metering precise usage for different processing steps (i.e. tank purging and carbonation). Carbon dioxide is used in the cellar to pressurize fermentation vessels, purge tanks, and to move and carbonate beer. There may be opportunities to use CO2 more efficiently in cellar operations:
In packaging, carbon dioxide is typically used for bottle pre-evacuation and counter pressurization, can lid underletting, and keg purging and counter pressurization. Canning, bottling, and kegging are CO2 intensive processes; canning operations consume especially high amounts of CO2 compared to bottling and kegging. Packaging operations may be optimized to better conserve brewery CO2:
Some breweries may have processes or equipment whereby CO2 is separated from production related sources and stored for future use in carbonating and packaging beer. While carbon capture options for craft brewers are becoming more diverse, this investment may not make financial sense for everyone. Here are a few ways brewers of any size can move and reuse CO2 in production:
Install CO2 safety alarms in your brewery, fermentation area, cellar and packaging areas, and work in well-ventilated areas. Hazardous levels of CO2 can collect in enclosed work areas, cellars, and cooler rooms. Always wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) and refer to Safety Data Sheets when working with compressed gases.
The Supply Chain Subcommittee is concerned with the ingredients and materials that are used to brew and package craft beers. By monitoring hop and barley harvest, interacting with growers and examining packaging supplies, and monitoring glass and can markets, the Supply Chain Subcommittee works to ensure a stable marketplace and provide educational resources to the brewing community on best practices for sourcing and selecting ingredients and packaging materials to suit their beers.
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Post time: Apr-22-2020