How craft brewers can cut malt-related emissions while growing profits

One of the most significant ways craft brewers can help reverse the climate crisis while growing profits is to focus on how they use and buy malt.

That’s because malt is typically one of a craft brewery’s largest expenses outside of labor, and it arrives at the brewery with a long trail of greenhouse gasses behind it. Those emissions are from:

1. The fertilizer, machinery, and other resources required to grow and harvest barley

2. The trains and trucks that transport harvested barley to malt houses

3. The energy required to produce malt

4. The ships, trains, and trucks that transport malt from malt houses to distributors to breweries

These emissions are significant. Combined, malt and barley represented 21% of New Belgium’s total 2020 emissions.

Three ways craft brewers can cut emissions from malt are to:

1. Use less malt per bbl produced

2. Adjust malt procurement practices

3. Source from maltsters that partner with farmers using regenerative practices

Let’s take a closer look at each of these.

Using less malt per bbl produced

If craft brewers can increase their mash efficiency, they’ll use less malt to make the same amount of beer. That will lead to savings and upstream emissions reduction.

Getting mash efficiency as high as 90% through optimizing grist crush, temperature management, and sparge and lauter processes is a great place to start.

Adjusting procurement practices

If craft brewers can order fewer shipments of malt, they’ll save money on shipping while reducing emissions from the vehicles that bring malt to their facility.

Evaluating savings from using super sacks in place of standard malt bags is an example of an action in this area.

Sourcing malt from maltsters that partner with farmers using regenerative practices

Some maltsters source barley from farmers that use regenerative agriculture practices, like no-till farming, variable rate fertilizer application, and cover cropping. These practices create a variety of benefits, from biodiversity improvements to increased soil water infiltration.

A chief benefit of regenerative agriculture practices is that they lead to increases in soil organic carbon. This is what makes regenerative agriculture a critical solution to the climate crisis. Sourcing from maltsters that support farmers increasing soil organic carbon levels on their land is a powerful way craft brewers can help reverse the climate crisis.

We can help

If you’re ready to cut some carbon while saving money, we’d love to chat!

We help craft brewers measure the upstream emissions from malt; identify and quantify the ROI of projects that can save money while cutting malt-related emissions; and get those projects implemented.

More on malt’s carbon footprint

In the UK, 95% of malt’s carbon footprint comes from growing barley (60%) and consuming fuel and electricity to create malt (35%), according to the Maltsters Association of Great Britain.

Looking deeper into the carbon footprint of UK-based barley, most of the emissions come from the production of fertilizer (40%) and use of fertilizer (40%). The remaining 20% of emissions are from fuel use on the farm.