Discussion on:

Brewers exploit the energy potential of beer

Microbrewery recycle, renew, reuse challenges are often harder due to the lack of economy of scale. At Quay Street Brewing Company (http://www.quaybrewing.com a microbrewery & restaurant in Michigan), used grain management includes: donating left-over grain to local farmers as a feed supplement, the formulation/production of a high fiber treat/snack for dogs "Brewer Bones." The grain has also been used in soil treatments and composting. All great ways to change "waste" to "use" and avoid senseless expansion of garbage/land-fills.

Not to take away from this article, but there are brewers like Lucky
Labrador Brewing Company in Oregon which uses Solar Thermal
Collectors on their roof top. The system circulates water and
Propylene glycol through a closed loop, which is heated by the
Solar collectors, then returns it to the storage tank, releasing the
heat and warming the brewing water. The Lucky Labrador uses a
lot of hot water to make beer therefore this technology is best
suited for their reduction of energy consumption.

thanks for the contributions!

And let's not forget about Weeping Radish brewery in North Carolina that grows their own barley and hops and uses the remains for fertilizer to grow *MORE* barley and hops! By doing this, they reduce their carbon footprint by not having these items shipped to their brewery!

As a home brewer these options are pretty much out of reach, the best I've been able to come up with is freezing measured portions of the spent grain and then using it to make 'spent grain' breads. OK, so it doesn't actually save energy - but it is a great way to use the spent grain...

jh

Spent grain bread is excellent but only uses a tiny portion when
brewing at a rate of 10 gal/month and baking at 2 loaves/week.
The rest I put in a worm composter using red worms. --DCM