Background

Totally Brewed are a Nottingham based craft brewery specialising in fine real ales and craft beers. The company was established in 2014 after owner Rob Witt won a national home brewing competition and decided the time was right for a career change. Once established, Totally Brewed went on to win Gold at the Slap in the Face Rail Ale Festival later in 2014 and were voted Castle Rock New Brewer of the year by customers and staff. They have continued to go from strength to strength developing new and unique beers such as Captain Hop Beard and Papa Jangles Voodoo Stout.

Find out more about Totally Brewed

Opportunity

Totally Brewed had an existing relationship with the University of the Nottingham, as the industrial partner for a project with the Food, Water, Waste Research Group who are exploring the feasibility of intelligent cloud connected sensors for economic small-scale process optimisation. When approached by the Energy Innovation and Collaboration team they realised that the support available through Energy for Business would enable them to review and base-line current energy usage, an essential first step on the road to making energy savings and reducing greenhouse gas emissions

Solution

Studies have shown that smaller brewers have more room for energy efficiency improvements and carbon dioxide emission reduction than their larger competitors. As a first step a thorough review was undertaken of brewing processes and energy consumption. Anonymised data from Energy for Business projects undertaken with other regional small breweries meant that Totally Brewed could see clearly how efficient they are compared to competitors and understand the benefits of change.

The results of the review enabled detailed energy consumption and process improvement recommendations to be made, with suggestions including heat recovery from wort cooling, timers and temperature controllers for the process vessels and upgrades to cooling equipment. Totally Brewed were also advised that regular and long term detailed monitoring of both energy and water would enable them to gauge the success of changes and enable continual improvement.

Benefits

By taking on recommendations for process improvements and implementing smart metering for energy and water consumption, Totally Brewed has an opportunity to make significant cost savings and energy reductions. This will not only save them money but will enable them to position themselves as an ethical energy efficient brewer following best practice in the industry.

Colette McHugh Putman, Project Manager of the Energy Innovation and Collaboration team said, 

We’ve supported a number of breweries in the region and it’s great to see this drive for energy efficiency in our local businesses. Totally Brewed now have all the information they need to make significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions during the brewing process."

Support

Totally Brewed received support from the University as part of Energy for Business. Delivered by the Energy Innovation and Collaboration team and funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Contact the Energy Innovation and Collaboration team for an informal chat about the support on offer.

Email: energy@nottingham.ac.uk
Website: www.nottingham.ac.uk/energyforbusiness
Phone: +44 (0) 115 7484969