Solar Power + Craft Beer = Sustainable Beer

15 Feb Solar Power + Craft Beer = Sustainable Beer

Sure, the sun grows the hops and the grain – but did you know that the sun powers the brewing at Lucky Lab?

We need a lot of 180 degree hot water to brew our craft beer. In order to keep prepped for each brew, we keep 900 gallons of water heated in a tank ready to go.

The brewers need a large amount of hot water for each batch, so in the morning a timer will go off and fill a hot liquor back around four in the morning. If the water isn’t hot enough, a boiler will kick in to bring it the rest of the way up.

From the Sun to the Water to the Beer

We brought in a solar-power hot water contractor to build a new solar hot water system using Heliodyne solar collector panels. The neat thing about Heliodyne solar systems is how few steps there are between a ray of sun and a pint of beer. Glycol runs through each solar panel, soaking up the energy of the sun and circulates it down below to a heat exchanger, handing over that energy to our water supply. So we can transfer heat from the sun to our water in just two steps—no electricity needed.

Our solar conversion helps us keep our costs down, and that means handing over fewer pennies for your favorite Lucky Lab brew. Why not save some energy and a nickel at the same time?

Just this morning while the sun was out our 900 gallon solar water reservoir went from about 43 degrees to 120 degrees…and it is February 15th!…and it is only 51 degrees outside!  During the summer our water gets up to 180 degrees almost every day.