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| Photo by Robert Osborne |
“It ain’t rained in four months
One cigarette spark’ll burn the whole town up
That ole well is plum dry
City put a limit on the water you can buy
We don’t mind cause round her
We save water, and drink beer
Ice cold, genuine, raise ’em up, drip ’em dry
Hollar and Swaller ya’ll support your local wildlife
Do your part around here
Just save water, and drink beer”
- “Save Water, Drink Beer” from Chris Young
If I can't write a country song maybe I could drown my sorrows down by the river and really see how much water it takes to make beer.
In the last five years, most modern breweries have made dramatic decreases in how much water it takes to make beer during the brewing process. In 2007 ABInBev (one of the biggest beverage companies with 25% of global market share) on average reported that it took 5.03 gallons of water to make 1 gallon of beer. In 2010, they reduced this water use metric to 4.04. Remarkably, the best brewery in their global fleet was located in Cartersville, Georgia. It achieved an annual water use metric of 3.04. This Bud is for you!
So how much water is used for an individual brewery? OK, let's pick a brewery with the most buzz. A month ago Sierra Nevada announced they would spend 107.5 million dollars to build their first brewery on the east coast. Where? They picked 90 acres 12 miles south of Asheville, NC along the French Broad River for a new state of the art brewery. Sierra Nevada plans an initial production goal to roll out 300,000 barrels — or 9.3 million gallons — of beer per year. Assuming they could meet a 3.5 water use metric, they would generate wastewater flow of about 89,000 gallons of water a day.
Most breweries have a goal of reaching a 3.5 water use metric (ABInBev in 2012, SABMiller and New Belgium in 2015). This point appears to be the point of diminishing returns in the squeezing of water from the production of beer. However, beer production is only one part of its water footprint and unfortunately the small part. Over 90% of a beer's water footprint actually relates to the cultivation of raw crops. Basically, the water used to grow the barley and hops represents the bulk of water in your beer.
So, the next frontier for brewing companies may be to work with their grain suppliers in reducing water use. This may represent the next untapped water nexus – Water Beer Grain Nexus. You read it hear first.
It takes a lot of water to make your favorite beer. Another reason to sip and not gulp.
