At Green Field Solutions, we work with third-party service providers to bring in truckloads of spent brewers yeast from our brewery clients every year. That equals approximately 42 million pounds of by-products that may have otherwise gone to the landfill, been landspread or sold as a low-value livestock feed! Since opening our Cleburne, Texas facility in 1994, the brewery by-products expertise of Green Field Solutions and its sister company, IIC, has transformed leftovers into a source of economic and environmental benefits.
Beer By-Product Process & Infographic
The thousands of truckloads of spent brewers yeast we receive goes through a stringent process. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandates that alcohol cannot be evaporated into the air, so the entire contents of the trucks goes through a distiller, removing the alcohol and some water, and killing the yeast. Next, the slurry of yeast and water is dried in huge drum dryers. The dried product is then ground into a uniform powder and packaged in bags and totes.
GFS manufactures millions of pounds of finished product, which is mostly sold for pet food products. Many of these products can be found at the local pet store.
Small Scale, High Quality Ethanol
In addition to the pet food ingredients, the distillation process creates approximately 325,000 gallons of high-quality ethanol. At 200 proof, our ethanol is a really high quality. So much so, it is sold to the ethanol industry to enhance the quality of product for other ethanol producers.
In our brewery recycling infographic, we outline the lifecycle of spent brewers yeast that many people don’t know is possible. What doesn’t make it to the tap gets distilled, then dried into a powder for pet food or extracted and sold as high quality ethanol. Instead of a by-product problem, Green Field Solutions helps make spent brewers yeast profitable for its clients, tasty for our furry friends and environmentally friendly.
