• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • About Craft Brewing Business

Craft Brewing Business

Professional Insight, Unfiltered

Craft Brewing Business Craft Brewing Business
  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment & Systems
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • COVID-19

Lolo Peak Brewery adds CO2 recycling system to brewhouse from COBrew

November 7, 2017Chris Crowell

The largest inefficiency within a brewery may be that of CO2 utilization. About 80 percent of the cost of CO2 is in shipping and transportation, which makes all of the wasted CO2 in the fermentation process kind of annoying (fermentation produces about three times the amount of CO2 needed for carbonization and packaging).

According to the Missoulian, Lolo Peak Brewery is about to add a carbon-dioxide-recycling process to carbonate and serve its beer, which is expected to provide cost savings of 30 percent and and emission reduction up to 90 percent. Lolo Peak, while it’s the first brewery in Montana to add such a system, is far from the first, but it is definitely one of the smallest breweries to add in such a system. The reason is Missoula-based COBrew, the company building the recycling system.

COBrew founder Taylor Woods said some larger breweries, including Alaskan and Sierra Nevada, utilize similar technology to capture their CO2, but COBrew’s system is tailored toward small- to medium-sized breweries.

The COBrew technology captures the gas coming out of the 600 gallon fermentation containers, filters it to food-grade CO2, and stores it in tanks to be used for carbonation and pressurizing kegs on tap.

More on COBrew

This Lolo Peak system is somewhat of a case study for both the brewery and the system provider, and after a few months of tinkering, COBrew will be making the technology available to other similarly sized breweries. The two companies hosted an event last night for other brewery owners to check out the system and try the beer that it helped produce. For those interested, here are some details on the system from the COBrew website:

COBrew technology has autonomous control systems that ensure full automation of the system, real-time balancing and monitoring and single action startup. Other attributes include:

  • Compact foot print
  • Easy integration into existing brewing infrastructure
  • Long maintenance intervals
  • Quick filter replacements
  • Single or multiple fermenter capacity
  • Less than 75dB in full operation
  • Weatherproof paneling available
  • Integration with VaporBulk Storage Platform and autonomous controls
  • Minimal power draw
  • Fully sealed
  • Food grade stainless steel and associated components
ProClean-Degreaser_FoodPlant
Madison Chemicals ProClean DEGREEASER formulated to clean beverage facilities
BrewDog tap list
BrewDog signs on for on-premise data and analytics via BeerBoard
Innovative draft cleaning system Draught Guard now comes standard with all Perlick beer Century systems
robot restaurant server
Guest-centric tech trends in bars and restaurants

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Daniel Szemenyei says

    November 10, 2017 at 1:42 pm

    Lee

    Log in to Reply
  2. Steven Williams says

    November 9, 2017 at 5:01 pm

    Jay

    Log in to Reply
  3. Scott Pyatt says

    November 9, 2017 at 7:51 am

    Josh Daves it’s really not that simple there’s a lot to it when it comes to the production facility next time we have a few minutes I can explain some of the more advanced steps

    Log in to Reply
    • Josh Daves says

      November 9, 2017 at 7:58 am

      Oh I know its not simple. But the initial costs seem to be worth the savings down the road. Pretty cool.

      Log in to Reply
  4. Josh Daves says

    November 8, 2017 at 7:38 pm

    Scott I have mentioned this several times now its catching on.

    Log in to Reply
  5. Samy Missaoui says

    November 7, 2017 at 4:28 pm

    Great idea!

    Back in the days, until the end of the first half of the 20th century, lot of breweries in France were producing lemonade in addition to their beers which was carbonated with the CO2 from the fermentation vats.

    Log in to Reply

Trackbacks

  1. LOLO PEAK BREWERY ADDS CO2 RECYCLING SYSTEM TO BREWHOUSE FROM COBREW – COBREW says:
    February 15, 2018 at 1:45 am

    […] READ FULL ARTICLE Uncategorized0cobrew share tweet share share […]

    Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Latest News

  • Vermont breweries team on Vermont Strong Pale Ale to aid in flood relief efforts
  • New Jersey’s Cape May Brewing ceases self-distribution
  • WildEdge Brewing explains 100 percent Colorado-sourced dark wheat and more beers to know this week
  • Craft beer marketing idea of the week: the DelaWeAre collaboration

Sign up for our newsletter

unsubscribe from list

Most Popular Today

Recent Features

  • GrainChainWildEdge Brewing explains 100 percent Colorado-sourced dark wheat and more beers to know this week
    September 28, 2023
  • root-shoot-maltingCelebrate Craft Malt Week with this 2023 craft malt and barley news recap
    September 27, 2023
  • Let’s take a look at California Wild Ales new Point Loma brewery and taproom
    September 25, 2023
  • Distribution update: Craftwell Cocktails arrive in Idaho + moves from Resident Culture, Good Dogg and more
    September 25, 2023
  • insurance-risk-exposureReflections in risk: How craft brewing risks evolved the past decade
    September 21, 2023
  • Watch how the bacteria in Bell’s Cube wastewater facility are raised on craft beer
    September 20, 2023

Footer

  • Email Newsletter Sign Up
  • About Craft Brewing Business
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise on Craft Brewing Business
  • Media Kit Download
  • Privacy and Terms

© 2023 · CBB Media LLC