Let the data speak for itself. The graph above is actual BOD data from a craft brewery client of mine in Canada, before and after side streaming.
As most of you know who read this website, you know that I advocate side streaming your high strength wastes and not putting them down the drain. Read more about that here.
Here is another sample of data from a craft brewery in the western US:
Disclaimer: In both of these cases, these are good sized production breweries in small towns. They were overwhelming the small treatment plant and they had to do something different. I call this ‘aggressive side streaming’, meaning if the wastewater has a small amount of beer or wort in it, it is side streamed.
Side streaming does work. It’s certainly not without it’s challenges, but it’s cheap and effective. Will these two clients side stream forever? Probably not. As the brewery grows it will become more and more of a burden on the local wastewater plant. Regulations will get more strict and expensive. Onsite pretreatment will be an option to consider, but so will trucking 100% of the process wastewater off site, as well as expansion at the city’s treatment plant, and alternative discharge arrangements.
Want or need to see results like this at your brewery? Please contact me for more information, use the contact form at the bottom of this page. Thank you.