Let's Get To Brewing

MillerCoors - Fort Worth Brewery was our first and my second favorite site visit on January 5th, 2013 and had the pleasure of having Lairy Johnson, Environmental/Sustainability Engineer, and Rashad Alston, Trade Quality Specialist, as our tour guides. The company is not only passionate about beer but they are a hard-working and dedicated team with a deep sense of responsibility to the environment, the community and the beer lovers. MillerCoors grew from the innovations of two German entrepreneurs who came to the United States in the mid-19th century and successfully established their own brewing company. Frederick J. Miller and Adolph Coors had the good fortune of having committed family members who carried their vision and in time these two traditions came together to form one promising company.

 The brewery tour was more than amazing and educational. I am not a beer drinker but if only beer is available I will always go with my good old Miller Lite with lots of lime. The process and time that goes into making all the different types of beer is sensational and beyond what I expected. I didn't know beer needed to age up to a month before it is packaged and sent out to distributors. The process is quite complex in my opinion, and I will not attempt to describe the brewing process but will say that the five ingredients to any beer are barley, water, hops, yeast and liquid adjunct. I got that down! One of the most striking facts that Mr. Alston mentioned was that according to what beer will be in process, a mild, middle of the road or strong yeast  is used and it can be used up to 9 times to make that specific beer.Incredible!

MillerCoors excels in the efforts of sustainability towards energy efficiency, reduced water usage and waste and sustainable packaging. It is part of the Safe Quality Food Program and in fact the Fort Worth Brewery was the first in the world to obtain SQF Certification. According to Mr. Johnson, the certification specifies best practice processes such as lowest cost per barrel, lowest water usage, lowest energy usage among others.

In the area of energy and emissions, MillerCoors has reduced energy consumption across eight breweries by 4.3% since 2008 and is on target to reduce energy consumption by 15% across the eight breweries by 2015. How are they reducing energy consumption? MillerCoors uses waste water as a source of renewable energy by generating bio-gas. The Fort Worth brewery and two others use the bio-gas in place of fossil fuels to power the boilers and generate electricity. In 2011, seven security vehicles were converted from conventional gas to hybrid vehicles in six of the breweries including Fort Worth. The seven hybrid vehicles reduce their fuel consumption by more than 1,300 gallons each year. Motion light sensors were also installed to conserve electricity when there is no movement in an area and the lights turn on when movement is detected.

Water is probably the most significant resource since it makes up 96% of the beer and it's a significant part of every stage from the barley field to the brewery to the bottle. Mr. Johnson informed us that in 2011, the Fort Worth Brewery performed best with a 3.53:1 water-to-beer ratio and five of the eight MillerCoors breweries achieved water-to-beer ratios under 4.00:1, which is below the industry average of 5.00:1. In addition, the Fort Worth brewery's packaging lines were converted to use new waterless dry lubricants instead of the conventional water-based lubricants resulting in a projected annual savings of 10 million gallons of water. On a side note, during the filtering process when separating the barley grains from the water, the grains are recycled and taken to dairy farms and used as food for the cows. MillerCoors is also looking into converting the grains to fuel pellets to be used for burning light in lamps and other uses.

On waste reduction, Mr. Johnson also informed us that the company had a goal of reducing waste to landfill by 50% by 2015. In 2011, they exceeded their goal and reduced waste by 55% and are now working towards establishing a new target. The company reuses and recycles more than 99% of the brewery waste and also turn waste into energy, compost and soil conditioner for their own use. In the maturation vessels, where the beer rests to build its natural carbonation and develop its flavor, the carbon dioxide that is generated is also recycled and can be reused in the carbonation process before the bottle is sealed.

Overall, this a very unexpectedly fun and educating experience. I never thought so many ways of recycling and other sustainability processes/efforts would come out of the beer brewing cycle. As Mr. Johnson put it, Fort Worth is one of the biggest and oldest breweries with equipment that is 45 years old, yet the other breweries that have automated and up to date equipment that is only 12 years old do not compare with the levels of recycling, energy reduction and water reduction that Fort Worth is able to practice. This tour was an experience I will never forget. We topped it off with the class receiving a beer tasting which I politely opted out of at 11 o'clock in the morning.