Our new Carbon Capture System is a big step towards carbon neutral beer.

The YH Brew Crew having a beer with CiCi - our new Carbon Capture System.

In the latest of our ongoing efforts to make more sustainable beer, we’ve just installed a Carbon Capture System in our Newtown Brewery.

Designed by the USA-based crew at Earthly Labs, the system plays a key role in reducing our total CO2 footprint in an Australian-first process. What does that actually mean? We pulled Head Brewer Jesse ‘Searlzy’ Searls away from his shiny new toy for a couple of minutes to give us the goss. Read on.

YH: Oi Searlzy, what’s this Carbon Capture System all about?

JS: The system, or CiCi as we call it, is designed and manufactured by Earthy Labs based out of Austin, Texas. They designed this unit to apply to small/medium-sized craft breweries like ourselves. The way it works is pretty complicated, but basically, it captures our CO2 exhaust from our fermentations, and processes the dirty gas into lean and usable liquid CO2.

YH: What are the major implications of having this system in place?

JS: The most significant implication is that we can now turn what is essentially a waste product into a usable resource for our brewery operations and Algae Project. It is helping us close our carbon loop and lower our carbon footprint. In terms of operation, it is undoubtedly another consideration and process that everyone has had to learn and contribute towards. A significant amount of planning/effort goes into trying to maximise its use. But it has been a great learning curve for all of us.

YH: How did we end up with it?

JS: About three years ago, YH Founder Richard Adamson was looking at carbon capture systems to couple with our algae bioreactors and found the manufacturing modernisation fund that is used by the Federal Government to issue grants. We were lucky enough to receive a matched grant to improve efficiencies within the manufacturing industry and thought that installing the CiCi would be a great use of those funds.

We’re capturing thousands of pounds of CO2 each month in our Newtown Brewery.

YH: What was the installation process like?

JS: The unit arrived in huge wooden boxes (King Kong style) in early March. We began commissioning in April with the help of an Earthly Labs tech who was sent over from the States. We are pretty maxed out for space in our brewery, so fitting everything in was a tricky process. There was also a large amount of preparation work that was needed for services before we set everything up. Commissioning was two weeks long and quite a bit of fun as we all learned how to use the unit. 

YH: How does it fit with our existing efforts to improve our environmental footprint?

JS: It enables us to make a raw material out of a waste stream without a considerable amount of effort and links in beautifully with all the efforts and improvements we’ve made over the years in terms of things like water and thermal energy recovery. It is one of the final steps in the process of making our Newtown Brewery carbon-neutral. There’s still a lot of work to do to make that a reality, but this machine has helped us make a massive step towards that. 

YH: What impact has it had to date? 

JS: Well, it’s had a pretty big impact so far, and we’re only really just getting started with it. We are now almost exclusively purging our bright beer tanks (which is the most CO2-heavy process in terms of usage) with recovered CO2. That has significantly impacted buying CO2, so there has already been a positive monetary saving. As we step up our production for summer, we will be able to find out the unit’s capabilities as our efficiencies increase.

CiCi has an important role in our Algae Project.

YH: What’s the next move for YH re. improving our brewery footprint?

JS: We have a number of pretty big irons in the fire. The next thing on the agenda is to link CiCi with our Algae bioreactors and automate the dosing of CO2 into them (feeding the Algae CO2 in short). We are about 90% of the way to setting this up, making looking after the bioreactors considerably easier.

YH: Which breweries are you most inspired by when it comes to environmental sustainability?

JS: There are heaps of breweries doing fantastic work in this space all over the world. But I would probably have to say, Sierra Nevada, who are undoubtedly the OGs of this stuff. I was lucky enough to attend an industry dinner back in June where Sierra Nevada Founder Steve Grossman gave the keynote speech. His presentation had the entire conference hall totally captivated. You could literally hear a pin drop in that room. His telling of Sierra Nevada’s inception, journey, and especially their efforts in sustainability were genuinely touching. The steps they have put in place to use renewable energy and divert waste from landfill is inspiring. We hope one day to see breweries like Sierra Nevada implement our algae system once our research is complete. That would be a dream come true!

Cheers, Searlzy.

To learn more about our Algae Project and wider sustainability efforts at YH HQ, head to our sustainability page.