Treatment 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

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

Lab stuff Treatment

Brewery Wastewater BOD values

Here is a table with some typical brewery wastewater BOD values, as well as COD, TSS, and pH. Sorry for the weird format, there is a lot of data here. pH COD, mg/L *BOD, mg/L TSS, mg/L Generalizations Low High…

JohnMarch 24, 2015

Septic Treatment

Brewery on septic

I hesitate to even write this. A brewery on septic just is asking for trouble. However, it's my #1 most frequently asked question, so here goes.... First of all, don't do it! Don't put brewery wastewater in to a septic…

JohnSeptember 2, 2015

Capacity Mechanical Treatment Water

Brewery wastewater reuse

More and more around the world, you are hearing of various wastewater reuse schemes. It's happening more often than you think in more ways than you'd imagine- there have been beer festivals featuring only reused water. From a technical standpoint,…

JohnMay 11, 2016

Capacity Treatment

Equalization and flow buffering

Is your brewery in a small town, or are you looking at opening one there? Here are some considerations to think about. The local wastewater plant sees most flow during the day; flow peaks in the AM as people shower…

JohnAugust 4, 2015

Chemicals Treatment

Cooling tower blowdown

Do you have an 'air to water' cooling tower for your glycol cooling system? Most small breweries do not (they use 'air to air' coolers), but you'll know it if you do. It's a big rain storm in a box…

JohnJuly 28, 2015

Septic Treatment

Biological pretreatment- your last resort

So you have a brewery, your having wastewater issues of one sort or another, and you start thinking about wastewater treatment. To sum up my position here, 'No, don't do it!' If you haven't already, please read this page. If…

JohnMay 19, 2015

Mechanical Piping Tanks Treatment Uncategorized

Calamity tank

In my vision of a perfect world, all breweries would have a calamity tank. What the heck is a calamity tank? It's a wastewater tank, normally empty, that can be used for spills, bad beer, and storage. Imagine this scenario,…

JohnJanuary 23, 2015

Babble Treatment

Purpose of wastewater pretreatment at a brewery

The purpose of brewery wastewater pretreatment is to keep the brewery running. Period. Does that make sense? Brewery wastewater is not the same a domestic wastewater. Restrictions will often apply, so the purpose is to comply with those restrictions so…

JohnDecember 19, 2014

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