General reading Archives

Brewery wastewater compliance when combined with domestic wastewater

The Issue: An existing brewery must start pretreating wastewater, typically for pH, solids, and temperature to achieve discharge compliance. The Problem: Process wastewater pipes combine with domestic wastewater from restrooms, kitchen, etc., under the slab. No one wants to dig…

JohnSeptember 12, 2023

Distillery General reading Water

Distillery Wastewater

I have helped many distilleries with their wastewater challenges over the years. One common feature they all have is they’re all different! The wastewater coming out of a distillery will also differ a lot of one place to another. Most…

JohnFebruary 7, 2022

Capacity General reading Mechanical Tanks

EQ Tank

An equalization tank can be a great solution for a medium sized brewery- or even large ones. This type of tank offers a lot of options at a low cost. This page describes EQ tank operation. See this page for information…

JohnNovember 8, 2019

Capacity General reading Lab stuff Treatment

Common brewery wastewater restrictions

Let's hope you have no wastewater restrictions, this is still quite common. However here are some common brewery wastewater restrictions and what you can do about them. This list is kind of in descending order, most common at the top.…

JohnApril 7, 2016

General reading Lab stuff Side streaming

Real world side streaming results

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…

JohnAugust 25, 2016

General reading Odor Piping Pumps Septic

What’s that smell?

As most of you know, brewery wastewater stinks. The short story is there are nutrients in wastewater, but usually insufficient oxygen to allow aerobic bacteria to grow. So a different type of bacteria thrives, called sulfate reducing bacteria. These bacteria…

JohnApril 2, 2018

General reading