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Breweries in the United States spend annually over $200 Million on energy. Energy consumption is equal to 3 – 8% of the production costs of beer, making energy efficiency improvement an important way to reduce costs, especially in times of high energy price volatility. After a summary of the beer making process and energy use, we examine energy efficiency opportunities available for breweries. We provide specific primary energy savings for each energy efficiency measure based on case studies that have implemented the measures, as well as references to technical literature. If available, we have also listed typical payback periods. Our findings suggest that there may still be opportunities to reduce energy consumption cost-effectively for breweries. Major brewing companies have and will continue to spend capital on cost effective measures that do not impact the quality of the beer. Further research on the economics of the measures, as well as their applicability to different brewing practices, is needed to assess implementation of selected technologies at individual breweries. INTRODUCTION As U.S. manufacturers face an increasingly competitive environment, they seek out opportunities to reduce costs. With today’s fluctuating energy prices, often this means investment into cost-effective energy saving technologies and practices that will reduce operating costs while maintaining or increasing product quality and yield. Energy-efficient technologies often include additional benefits, such as increasing productivity or achieving future or current environmental goals, thus reducing the regulatory “burden”. Voluntary government programs aim to assist industry to improve competitiveness through increased energy efficiency and reduced environmental impact. Energy Star, a voluntary program operated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in coordination with the U.S. Department of Energy, stresses the need for strong and strategic corporate energy management programs. Energy Star provides energy management tools and strategies for successful programs. The current paper reports on research conducted to support Energy Star and its work with the beer industry. This research provides information on potential energy efficiency opportunities for breweries. Besides technical information, Energy Star is developing additional energy management tools to facilitate stronger corporate energy management practices in U.S. industry, including plant energy and productivity benchmarks. These benchmarks will serve as an important tool for industry to determine additional energy performance opportunities. The U.S. brewery sector is composed of about 500 companies and over 2,000 brewing establishments, producing about $20 billion worth of shipments (1). The sector is increasingly moving to economies of scale with large establishments of more than 250 employees accounting for roughly half of the value added in the sector. Three companies, AnheuserBusch, Miller and Coors account for 83% of total U.S. production. U.S. Production averages roughly 200 million barrels per year. Beer in bottles and cans dominates the market; canned beer accounts for half the value of shipments for the industry ($9.6 billion), and bottled beer accounts for an additional third ($6.2 billion). Light beer currently has a third of market share and continues to grow. The craft-brewing segment is also growing, although the base of production is still relatively small, while growth in domestic beer production for the main brands has been relatively flat. BEER MAKING The brewing process uses malted barley and/or cereals, unmalted grains and/or sugar/corn syrups (adjuncts), hops, water, and yeast to produce beer. All brewers in the U.S. use malted barley as their principal raw material. Depending on the location of the brewery and incoming water quality, water is usually pre-treated. Reverse osmosis, zeolite softening, lime softening, carbon filtration or other types of filtering systems are used to treat brewery water streams. The first step in brewing is milling, which takes place when malt grains are transported from storage facilities and milled in either a wet or dry process in order to ensure that one can obtain a high yield of extracted substances. Sometimes, milling is preceded by steam or water conditioning of the grain. The mixture of milled malt, gelatinized adjunct, and water is called mash. The purpose of mashing is to obtain a high yield of extract (sweet wort) from the malt grist and to ensure product uniformity. Mashing consists of mixing and heating the mash in the mash tun, and takes place through infusion, decoction or a combination of the two. During this process the starchy content of the mash is hydrolyzed producing liquor called sweet wort. In the infusion mashing process, hot water between 160-180°F (71-82 °C) is used to increase the efficiency of wort extraction in the insulated mashing tuns. In decoction mashing, a portion of the mashing mixture is separated from the mash, heated to boiling, and re-entered into the mash tun. This process can be carried out several times, and the overall temperature of the wort increases with each steeping. Part of this mash is evaporated. Energy requirements are estimated at 12-13 kBtu/barrel for medium sized breweries (5). The type of mashing system used depends on a number of factors such as grist composition, equipment, and type of beer desired. Decoction mashing appears to be the preferred system in North America. Infusion mashing (characteristic of British ale brewers) is less energy intensive requiring roughly 8-10 kBtu/barrel