Case study: Going Green with Gadds

This month’s issue of ‘Brewer and Distiller International’ features a fascinating piece on 12 ways for brewers to reduce their carbon footprint, all according to green pioneer Eddie Gadd at Gadds’ Brewery in Kent. And right up there in the must-do list is ‘Switch to enzymatic cleaning’ alongside ‘Use vegan finings’.

We’ve been shouting it from the rooftops for ages as part of our green agenda – and working with Eddie, a pioneer in the movement within the brewery industry, on testing our ecologically sound enzymatic cleaner and fish-friendly vegan finings.

Here’s what Eddie said in the magazine:

On Brausol:

“We use a product called Brausol which is a silica solution. It doesn’t work quite as quickly as isinglass (a protein derived from fishes’ swim bladders), but if you’re good at producing clear cask beer with isinglass then producing it with Brausol is very, very achievable. I’d say it works maybe 25% slower, but it actually produces better clarity.”

On Ecobrau

“We’ve found we can clean five tanks with one dose of enzymes and we can do it at ambient temperature so that replaces 6kg of neat caustic per tank at 65 degrees, so it’s a substantial saving in terms of time and money. But also, by the time we’ve finished with the enzymes and they’re spent or denatured, their pH is down to neutral and that can go straight in the drain.”

In summary, Ecobrau cleans colder; it doesn’t get used up in the clean so can perform five cleans with one shot; it’s safer to use with soft metal; it’s not affected by CO2 carbonation; and is better for the environment, with waste perfectly safe even on reed beds.

With thanks to Eddie, along with the article’s author Sophie Atherton, BDI’s editors and publisher!

You can read the article in full at https://www.ibd.org.uk/resources/ibd-publications/brewer-distiller-international/bdi-2023/