Hunt for the greenest pint

Brewers want to cut costs and improve their eco credentials
Matthew Goodman
A team of scientists in South Africa has devoted the past few years to finding a way to cut the energy used in making beer. And they may have found it.

The project, conceived in the laboratories of SAB Miller, the group behind brands such as Peroni and Pilsner Urquell, remains shrouded in secrecy, although the new process is being used in some of the company’s key facilities in its home market of South Africa.

The company refuses to divulge details, citing commercial sensitivity, but claims that its new proprietary technology, which will be fitted in plants across the world, saves large amounts of energy when heating water for the start of the brewing process.

Welcome to the beer industry’s version of the arms race. Brewers large and small are desperate to find technologies that will let them produce beer in a more environmentally friendly and energy-efficient way.

In the past, a green pint was a novelty to drum up trade on St Patrick’s Day. Today, it is a serious business as brewers attempt to produce beer that is environmentally sound.

Water remains the core battleground. The reason is simple. “Water is a finite resource,” said Herman van de Bergh at Heineken, the world’s third-biggest brewer by revenue. “Energy you can create anywhere. You can’t create water just like that.”

The Dutch beer giant is more aware of this than most. With a strong presence in Africa, it is wary of being seen to waste water in a part of the world where many communities struggle to find enough of it for basic needs, never mind to produce lager.

At its Lubumashi plant in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Heineken has been experimenting since last October with a plant that ferments beer constantly rather than in the traditional stop-start way in the hope that this will cut the amount of water used.

Brewers in Britain have improved dramatically. According to figures from the British Beer & Pub Association, the number of pints of water used to produce one pint of beer has fallen from about nine in the mid-1970s to four and a half today. That is an average — some companies boast of being well below this level.

The industry is fond of showing off its green credentials. It is quick to point out that whereas 99% of the wine drunk in Britain is shipped in from overseas, 90% of beer consumed in this country is produced here.

The sector also tries to make sure its waste products are recycled. For example, the spent grain, which is left over after fermentation, is frequently used to make cattle feed or sold to Unilever, the food producer, for use in its yeast-based Marmite spread.

Some in the industry are working on plans to use this by-product as fuel for power generation.

SAB remains coy about its new energy-saving technology, but it is far from alone in trying to cut the energy it uses to heat water, a process that is crucial to beermaking.

Shepherd Neame, the Kent brewer behind Spitfire ale, has adopted a piece of technology developed by Pursuit Dynamics, an engineering company, that allows it to divert the steam produced by the heating process back into its giant brewing kettles.

The steam is forced down a pipe and into the unfermented beer, forcing it to heat up faster than it otherwise would. “It has reduced our energy consumption by 50%,” said Jonathan Neame, the brewer’s chief executive.

Cutting down on water use and becoming more energy efficient have become the norm for the brewing industry, but there is plenty more work to do. Stephen Oliver, managing director of the beermaking division of Marston’s, the Midlands brewer and pub company, said that the holy grail for producers would be to harness solar power or wind energy. “Such a move would make us self-sufficient,” he said.

However, there are significant obstacles to such ambitions. Eighteen months ago, Marston’s had the idea of putting a wind turbine on the roof of one of its five breweries but the project came to nothing when the local council raised objections when planning permission was sought.

The company also found that it would have had to reinforce the building to make it sturdy enough to support the turbine. Worse still, the return on the investment would have been too low to justify it going ahead.

Converting wind energy into electricity is expensive. “There will come a time when it comes down in price. In 10 years I would see us using wind as a source of energy,” said Oliver.

To date, brewers have been unable to make solar energy work for them but this could be about to change. Heineken is working with specialist companies to see how the technology can be adapted for use in its operations. It hopes to have the first results from its trial schemes next year.

Progress has been impressive, but there is still much to do. Hopefully it won’t be too long before our leading beer brands can genuinely claim to sell green beer on the 364 days of the year other than St Patrick’s Day.