BarrelHouse Brewing working with Greenbelt Resources to make trub into bioethanol and animal feed

Mitigating and re-purposing beer waste should be a hot topic at your brewery. There are lots of innovative ways to use less or reuse more. Let’s give you an example. Currently, Greenbelt Resources Corp. has agreed to perform feedstock testing with BarrelHouse Brewing Co. to test its trub for potential to produce bioethanol for Greenbelt’s Paso Robles ECOsystem project known as PRECO. The trub, a byproduct of the brewing process, will be tested for viable conversion to both bioethanol and animal feed. Greenbelt has already worked with Firestone Walker Brewery to do this.

When complete, PRECO, a commercial scale waste-to-energy interconnected system, will produce up to 500,000 gallons of bioethanol and other byproducts. PRECO places Greenbelt’s ECOsystem technology in the center of the local business community by converting wastes from local breweries, wineries and other ag businesses into bioproducts including animal feed, fertilizer and potentially a high value human protein source. The products can then be purchased by other local businesses. The goal of PRECO is to reduce costs or generate revenue for all parties within the ecosystem by converting local wastes into local resources.

In California, companies incur an expense when removing waste, and breweries must pay to have the spent trub picked up and properly disposed. Should trub prove an ideal feedstock, Greenbelt may save BarrelHouse a portion of the costs associated with current removal methods and provide them with a greener solution.

Founded in 2013 by Jason Carvalho and Kevin Nickell, BarrelHouse Brewing has quickly become the largest all-American owned brewery in San Luis Obispo County. With three taproom locations to date and more in planning, Carvalho says BarrelHouse is consistently looking for ways to reduce waste and increase efficiency.

“We are currently looking for new ways to reduce costs associated with disposal. Should trub become a viable feedstock, it will help save us some money while also helping us to attain our sustainability goals,” said Carvalho.