Brewers Rethink Carbon Dioxide During COVID-19

, Brewers Rethink Carbon Dioxide During COVID-19

(Hops & Grain Founder Josh Hare with Earthly Labs’ Amy George)

Brewers use a lot of carbon dioxide in the beer making process. They also generate a lot of CO2 when they brew beer. But COVID-19 has led to breweries rethinking things…

Here’s the deal…

“Beer makers buy a lot of carbon dioxide,” according to Marketplace. “They use it not only to add some fizz to your IPA, but also to purge tanks for cleaning and to transfer beer from tank to bottle.

But thanks to COVID-19, commercial carbon dioxide, which is primarily produced as a byproduct of oil and gas production, is experiencing bigtime shortages. People have been locked in for months and not driving as much, so oil, gas and ethanol plants are generating less of it, leading to higher prices for those who need it.

, Brewers Rethink Carbon Dioxide During COVID-19At the same time breweries are still generating their fair share of carbon dioxide. But it’s expensive to capture so most breweries just release it into the air…

Enter Earthly Labs, a public benefit corporation that wants to change this and is now offering craft breweries a plug-and-play carbon capture technology that is both affordable and sized to their needs.

Founded by veteran entrepreneur and mom, Amy George, Earthly Labs knew there were decades of carbon capture innovation that could be unlocked and used by small businesses and individuals.

Earthly Labs CiCi Carbon Capture solution allows brewers to recover waste CO2 from their fermentation and brite tanks, purify it to meet industry beverage grade standards and reuse it to make better beer.

One thing that’s driving breweries to capture their own carbon dioxide is that right now some commercial CO2 suppliers don’t want to bother with low-volume customers. Big beer producers like Anheuser-Busch InBev have deep pockets and are willing to pay the escalating prices so why bother with the little guy?

According to Sky News “the Renewable Fuels Association’s chief executive, Geoff Cooper, estimates that 34 of the 45 US’ ethanol plants that sell carbon dioxide to FMGC companies have either cut production or stopped altogether during the lockdown.”

, Brewers Rethink Carbon Dioxide During COVID-19Which is why companies like Earthly Labs, which has already set up carbon capture solutions for the Denver Beer Company, Hops & Grains and Austin Beerworks are fielding more inquiries from craft breweries than ever before…

“It was kind of always the holy grail of craft brewing was to be able to figure out how to reclaim the CO2 that we’re producing and be able to put it back into our beer,” Adam DeBower, co-founders of Austin Beerworks explained to Marketplace.

And while systems like Earthly Labs CiCi Carbon Capture can only provide some of most breweries CO2 needs it’s still an earth-friendly and elegant place to start.

Need more on CO2 (and who doesn’t?)

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