Beer is Green

Beer is greener than you might have known. E-Fuel, the maker of the EFuel100 MicroFueler ethanol maker has teamed up with Sierra Nevada to use the left over yeast from the brewing process, called trub, pronounced “trube”, to test the invention. I love it, yet another reason to pour another pint.

E-Fuel last year unveiled its $9,995 home ethanol machine which ferments a mix of water and sugar into ethanol. Ethanol is mixed into gasoline at 10 percent. Flex-fuel cars can run on E85, an 85 percent blend of ethanol and gasoline.

Sierra Nevada every year generates 1.6 million gallons of “bottom of the barrel” beer yeast waste, which it now sells to farmers as feed. The MicroFueler will be able to raise the alcohol content in that mix to 15 percent and remove water.

(via CNet News)

Beer News Sampler

Baltika eyes Heineken’s No.1 spot in European beer
Baltika, Russia’s largest brewer, wants to dislodge Heineken from the top of the European beer market, despite a recent slowdown in the Russian domestic market.

Biofuel boom sparks beer price fight
As German barley farmers abandon their usual crops in favor of subsidized biofuel crops, like corn (maize), brewers scramble to keep costs in line to prevent alienating their consumers.

Brewery workers walk off job
More than 100 workers of the Canadian Autoworkers Union walked off the job early at Edmonton’s Molson Coors brewery the morning of May 30. While the company says it has plenty of supply, union leaders think beer drinkers in Western Canada may have a bit of a time of it this summer.

Quick Tip: Leftover Beer
Not that this would ever happen to any of us, but leftover beer can be used to give some extra nutrients to your plants.

Teamsters brewing boycott of Yuengling beer
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Anheuser-Busch Brewing Drinking Water
A-B is canning potable water to have available in the event of a major hurricane or other large disaster.