It was May 3. I combed my hair and headed out of my Philadelphia hotel, hoping to find something to eat other than the typical green eggs and... I mean... continental breakfast that comes with a one-night stay. I was in luck. A local coffee shop on the corner hooked me up, and I was on my way to the real reason for being in Philly that week.
The 2016 Craft Brewers Conference and BrewExpo America. ENERVEX has been attending this show for the past four years, and WOW things have changed! At the first show, I remember it as more of a local meetup. Beer tasters came to swap ingredients and mooch marketing swag. The conference didn’t even fill up a small hall. This year, they packed in an entire side of the Pennsylvania Convention Center with a record 13,600 attendees and 835 exhibitors. We even chatted with people from Samuel Adams, Sweetwater and Brooklyn Brewery! This was serious business.
Today the Craft Brewers Conference is a full-fledged business exchange for brew masters, founders, project engineers and big-time decision makers – we even saw five boiler manufacturers at this year’s event.
Digging into the economics
Why were we there? I like beer, sure. I love beer, actually. But more importantly, we were there because these people want to learn about energy efficiency in brewing . Some were trying to figure out how to compete with the big guys. Some were the big guys. In either case, they wanted to know how to improve design efficiency in the brewing process. They were masters of the equipment going into a brewery as well as the magical products they create. They wanted to be as cost efficient as they can, but in a sustainable way.
We talked a great deal about efficient design strategies for brewing, particularly kettle heat recovery.
Why kettle heat recovery all of a sudden? This would’ve never made the agenda four years ago. Brewers and engineers are realizing that traditional systems significantly limit the potential heat recovery coming off the kettles because so much moisture is exhausted in the air stream. There’s also a lot of affluent in the steam from the large kettles, which makes the heat exchangers tough to clean.
Samuel Adams was a perfect example. They had already exhausted all of the traditional heat recovery they could. We showed them the ENERVEX VHX heat recovery system with a TDF fan. They were excited.
Compact design pays off
This stack heat recovery system has a compact design, which maximizes heat recovery coming off the kettles while alleviating the cleaning problem associated with traditional heat exchangers.
What’s the payoff? As an example, we recently did an install with a 30-barrel brewing operation. The VHX saves the customer up to 621,674 BTU per hour. At 6,240 operating hours per year, this translates to an annual savings of $9,052.
In addition to the heat savings, the VHX heat recovery system’s variable speed fan allows brewers to set the outlet pressure/steam over the brew kettle to exactly what they want, giving them even better control of the brewing process and, thus, better beer! Wins all around.
Clearly, craft brewing is no longer just a hobby. It’s a science. As the industry gets more competitive, design efficiency and cost savings will be a core differentiator for brewers. How can kettle heat recovery brew big savings for your operations? Send a note to us at info@enervex.com and share your story. We can help.