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For Beer's Sake

Kettlehouse Brewing Company uses conscious efforts in brewing and waste water practices

Most breweries have an in-the-can mentality when it comes to their business, meaning that the creative cycle ends with their beer in the can and on the shelf (or in your hand). But not for Kettlehouse Brewing Company. Their brewing practice comes full circle from brew to can to farm.

There’s no question that water is essential to our Montana lifestyle and no Missoula company understands that better than Kettlehouse Brewing Company, whose mission is to pair world class beers with Montana’s world class outdoors.

This is more than a company mission. It’s a promise to Montanans, and it’s evident by their actions. Kettlehouse was the first Missoula brewery to package their beer in cans. Every employee lives by the mantra “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” which means using post-consumer materials in their packaging and even giving their spent grain to local farmers for livestock. They are constantly finding creative ways to improve the beer-making industry for the betterment of our outdoors.

One of Kettlehouse’s most challenging improvements has been their Bonner location’s waste water treatment facility. A typical day of beer making produces between 10,000 and 13,000 gallons of effluent (non-sewage waste water). While other Missoula breweries have access to municipal city water, this location does not. That means they can’t just send their waste water down the drain for the city to treat. Furthermore, being directly on the Blackfoot River means stricter standards. So how do they accomplish the task of waste water elimination? They built their own treatment facility.

Enter Chad Loney, Facilities Lead at Kettlehouse, or as he explains his job title, “Mr. Fix It.” At the forefront of Chad’s many responsibilities is what goes down the drain, and where it goes from there.

“The biggest difference with our waste water facility is its unique set up to treat beer waste and nothing else. We are treating only what goes down the drain in our production areas. That being water, beer and cleaning chemicals. There is no sewage being treated in our Opportunity Water Treatment Plant,” said Chad. The absence of sewage from Kettlehouse’s treatment facility means better drinking water for their neighbors.

Clean water is essential for our recreational lifestyle and our ecosystems and Kettlehouse works closely with the Department of Environmental Quality to ensure that they are doing their part to protect this precious resource. Constant testing of ammonia and nitrates within the drain field ensures safer ground and river water.

Not everything that comes out of the treatment plant is water though. Some of it is solids, lovingly referred to as “sludge”.  In keeping with the company mantra, Chad has successfully experimented in finding innovative purposes for this waste. 

“The sludge is removed from our facility by pumping it down into a holding tank, then to a septic services truck, hauled away, and then drained onto fields of local farms to feed the soil,” said Chad. Waste not, want not. Chad and his team at Kettlehouse are equally conscientious about their waste output as they are about their beer output.

While time and water are key ingredients to beer, grain, hops, and yeast are the other crucial components. Where they come from and where they go are the responsibilities of Head Brewer Zach Nelson, who never loses focus on the mission to pair beer with the essence of Montana.  

The very first step in beer-making is milling the grain (malt) and most of Kettlehouse’s grain comes from Great Falls. This is important because it means less shipping and transportation costs while also supporting local agri-business. The milled grain is then transferred to a lauter tun where it steeps in hot water until it becomes a sugar water called “wort”. Wort is basically beer’s pre-fermented genesis.

The wort is then transferred to a kettle.

“It is boiled for sanitation purposes and to make it aseptic. We also add hops and other adjuncts at this point for flavor, bitterness, and sweetness,” said Zach. 

Next the wort is onto the “whirlpool” where cold water from Kettlehouse’s well in the aquifer and the hot wort pass by each other in a heat exchanger. This cools the wort down to a fermentable temperature range (52-70 degrees depending on the style of beer and yeast used). The fact that Kettlehouse uses Montana’s own well water to make their beer is not only symbolic of their communion with the outdoors but it also abides to the common knowledge that good water is crucial to good beer.

The wort will then spend the next ten to twelve days in a fermenter where yeast is added.

“I always say we make wort, yeast actually makes the beer and this is why you need to give TLC to your yeast at all times,” said Zach. The yeast eats up the sugars which then creates alcohol. The remaining product is now a newly fermented liquid. The fermenter tank is then set to 33 degrees. This allows for any remaining solids and yeast to drop out. At this point, the beer is hazy and uncarbonated. Some of their beers, such as the New England IPA, are complete at the conclusion of this step.

The rest of the liquid is transferred to a centrifuge where it spins at 6700 rpm’s, clearing the product. Finally, the almost-beer is transferred to a bright tank where CO2 is added for carbonation and quality checks are conducted. Kettlehouse has their own lab on site where they test for ibu’s and bacteria.

Kettlehouse knows the value of time and water, and they brew it into something we can taste after a day on the river. We share the sweetness and the bitterness with our friends at the end of a trail. We clink our cans to the flavor of a good harvest. 

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