You may have noticed the arrival of some spiffy new tanks on the “mural side” of the brewery in late September. Over the course of the next several months, these new tanks will allow us to become “CO2 self-sufficient.” What exactly does that mean? In a nutshell, it means that all of the CO2 needed in our processes will be produced by our beer fermentation.
“We started last year by looking at every way we use CO2 and asked ourselves if we could maintain the same quality standards while using less CO2,” says brewmaster John Trogner. With this goal in mind, our brewing and packaging teams took to the task of surveying our daily usage. They found opportunities on how we could reduce our CO2 reliance and checked for any leaks during typical brewery operations. Coupled with the installation of a Nitrogen Generation system, phase one was a success, leading us to a 25-30% reduction in CO2 needs.
The arrival of the new tanks is the beginning of phase two. We’ll be able to store around 50 tons of CO2 once the new tanks are fully operational. “That equates to about a month of our CO2 use,” says John. This back-up volume will allow our production teams to function without interruption.
Currently, we’re setting ourselves up for phase three – the installation of a carbon capture system. Our fermentation creates about one million pounds of CO2 annually. Harnessing that byproduct, storing the CO2 and reusing it is our goal. “This should be enough to cover our yearly needs and make us self-sufficient,” says John.
We anticipate the project will be online by the end of Quarter 2 in 2023.
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