Waste Beer Recovery

The technology relates to an improved method for reclaiming waste beer from a brewing process. The process ensures the sterilization and re-use of beer that would otherwise be lost in the brewing process due to contamination. The method focuses on recovering beer lost in the fermentation stage treating it with ultraviolet (UV) light and recycling it back to the fermentation process. When a large amount of beer is lost during the excess yeast removal, the UV sterilization step will ensure that this beer is sterilized to acceptable standards and introduced back into the process. While many different techniques have been introduced to recover the valuable amount of beer that is lost during the yeast removal, each technique purveys different results in terms of the beer taste (quality), implementation, and ease of use as well as financial returns. The significant role played by these techniques is the reduction of the amount of beer and water lost. However, the concentration and taste (quality) of beer remains a greater concern. 

A significant amount of beer is lost during the removal of the unwanted yeast in the brewing process. For example, for each 1000ml of yeast removed, up to 400ml of this volume consists of beer which is wasted. On the other hand, beer production requires a significant amount of water which may amount to 3.5 litres to produce 1L of beer. This means that beer that is lost during the removal process equates to the loss of water used during that beer process (3.5 litres) times the volume of beer lost) as well as water required in growing and processing raw materials for the brewing process. This signals that the amount of water that is being wasted during the brewing process is significant.