KAILUA-KONA — When Kona Brewing Co. opens its new facility in 2018, the brewery won’t only dramatically increase its capacity to brew more beer, it’ll also include new features designed to reduce waste and improve efficiency.
The company in March broke ground on a new $20 million building on Pawai Place and is currently in the pre-engineering construction phase, awaiting word from the construction agency to determine the cost of building the brewery structure, said Sandi Shriver, brewery operations manager. Shriver said they’re looking at finishing the new brewery in late 2018.
Once built, the company will be able to produce an estimated 100,000 barrels a year, Shriver said, more than a nine-fold increase from their current capability.
All of that beer will stay local, Shriver said, and they’re using what she calls “awesome sustainability measures” when it comes to limiting their draw on water and power.
Those measures include the Kona Resources Recovery Center, which will rely on micro-organisms in an oxygen-free environment to help the brewery get more than one run out of the water used at the facility.
The biodigester treats wastewater, such as the water used for rinsing grain and cleaning equipment, and then recycles the water back into the facility that can be used again for cleaning or irrigation, Shriver said.
She explained that the production process for one barrel of beer — about 31 gallons — typically takes about eight barrels of water.
By recycling their water though, Shriver said they can bring that down to less than three barrels of water.
But the biodigester doesn’t just save water, she noted, it’ll also help power the brewery itself.
In the process of treating the water, the microbes involved will produce methane, which the brewery can capture and use to help provide power.
That biogas, Shriver said, will provide up to 30 percent of the facility’s electricity needs. They’ll also be taking advantage of solar power to provide an additional 20 to 30 percent of their power needs.
“Pair that with our High Efficiency Brewing System,” she said, “and we are looking at reducing our water usage to a 3-1 water to beer ratio, reducing hop and grain use by up to 20 percent, and providing the brewery with over 50 percent of renewable energy, making this new facility one of the most sustainable breweries in the world.”
“I’m pretty excited if you can’t tell,” she added.
As for the brewery’s current location, Shriver said they’d like to see a small pilot brewery open up there.
That pilot brewery, she explained, would be a smaller scale, producing beer at the five- to 10-barrel level and would provide opportunities to try out new things, incorporating different local ingredients, malts and yeast into their products.