By: Becky Garrison
From cooling and cleaning equipment to diluting spirits, access to water remains a critical component for any distillery. For those distilleries looking to reduce their environmental impact while delivering the highest quality spirits, the following are some suggestions for how to improve the use of water in the distillery.
Securing Water Source
When possible, start with the most pristine water available. Hood River Distillers (Hood River, OR) has been using the same water source for the last 90 years, all coming from the Elliot and Coe Glaciers on the Northern Side of Mt. Hood. To ensure that they can continue to access this water source, they partnered with Freshwater Trust. Caitlin Bartlemay, Master Distiller for Clear Creek Distillery and Hood River Distillers, Inc., /describes the benefits of this partnership. “With our growing donation through the Timberline Vodka brand, we can help them perform science and data-driven research on what our freshwater ways in the Pacific Northwest need to be repaired and restored.
When looking for a pure water source for a distillery, Bartlemay notes a few considerations that need to be taken into account. First, send in a water sample for testing, Keep an eye out for numbers for factors such as the mineral content, pH, and chlorine. If the distillery uses municipal water, ask where they are sourcing the water and if they have multiple sources that they switch between. This will give an idea of how often they switch and what the chemical and organoleptic qualities of each source are.
As Bartlemay observes, “At the end of the day, nothing is better than good old-fashioned taste testing. Taste your water against quality bottled water brands and see what you taste.” Next water down a spirit sample with distilled water and then water down another spirit sample with the water you want to use. Then compare how they both taste. Hold these samples at the new dilution for a few days and taste them again. Have lots of people taste these samples and collect quantitative answers on the flavor and aroma of the various spirits sampled. “What your water test says and what you learn from your taste tests will help determine what treatments you may need to explore if you need to explore any at all,” Bartlemay opines.
Conserve Water by Sourcing Grains
For Jason Parker, Co-founder of Copperworks Distilling Co. (Seattle, WA), sustainability begins at the farms where he sources the grains used in his spirits. He supports those farmers who engage in good farming practices such as dry farming along with soil conservation efforts like growing cover crops and limited or no-till farming. As these environmental initiatives tend to produce a lower yield per acre than conversational farming, Parker ensures these farmers will receive the same price for their grains by paying them per acre planted rather than per bushel.
Saving Water Through Temperature Regulation
Mike Gifford of Blackfish Distillery (Auburn, WA) reported they were able to reduce their water usage by 95% last year by carefully refining their water usage against their distillation process. He described the cooling management for the condenser components of their column as a balance between incoming water temperature, outgoing water temperature, water flow rate in Gallons per minute, and proof output at each stage of distilling. According to Gifford, “Distillers can operate a still just fine with crude valves and produce acceptable alcohol output, but they’ll have no real management of the above variables until they add gauges, valves, and temperature monitoring of the output water.”
In his estimation, adding precise valves with flow meters built in is inexpensive and is the starting point for reducing water usage. Also, monitoring the temperature of the output water enables them to use the maximum heat capacity of the water without over-cooling their distillation column. Through this process, they were able to go from 3 to 5 gallons per minute down to .5 gallons per minute very quickly. Plans include recycling their coolant water by combining off-the-shelf water sanitizers and taking advantage of the natural cooling that occurs at night.
According to Ayisha Mares, Assistant Distiller, VARA Winery & Distillery (Albuquerque, New Mexico), the most important thing they do to help reduce their water use is the chilled water loop system. “This recirculates water through heat exchangers and a holding tank, saving approximately 3,000 gallons of water per distillation cycle,” she observes. The loop consists of heat exchangers, a big holding tank (water reservoir), and a pump to move the system.
Stephen Hopkins of Aimsir Distilling Company (Portland, OR) points to the challenges of obtaining a permit for a closed-loop cooling tower from the city of Portland. “I often wonder if both the city and we would have been better if we had gotten some help in the permit process to get a cooling tower. The city would also get a good ROI on helping to fund projects like that,” he notes.
Purifying Water Using More Sustainable Practices
Rick Stillwagon of Stillwagon Spirits (Charleston, OR) stresses how municipal water systems are under attack and are becoming compromised. “All water should be treated as suspect and go through some purification process before drinking or cooking. It isn’t difficult or too expensive to make sure the water you have access to is safe to use. It does require a bit of effort,” he opines.
To prevent their spent wash from contaminating the local water supply, they adjust the pH of their spent wash before disposal. In the future, they hope to partner with local farmers who can use this spent wash to irrigate their fields.
Stillwagon finds that ozone can be more effective than chlorination in disinfecting water against bacteria and viruses. When ozone decomposes in water, it creates free radicals that oxidize organic material in the membranes of bacteria, viruses, and parasites, which weaken, rupture and kill their cells. Also, Stillwagon observes how ozone can remove trace amounts of dissolved metals like iron, manganese, and copper by oxidizing them into solid particles that can be filtered out, as well as reducing or eliminating tastes and odors caused by chlorine.
After the ozone treatment, Stillwagon passes the water through sediment filters and then through a series of regularly maintained activated carbon filters. This makes sure the water is as pure and good-tasting as possible.
Reclaim and Recycle Water
As collecting rain in Oregon is legal, Stillwagon seeks to capture some of Oregon’s liquid bounty. As he noted, “Collection, storage, filtration and purification isn’t difficult or expensive.”
Also, Stillwagon finds recycling gray water isn’t difficult as mechanical filters can remove solids and sediment. Carbon filtration can remove several problem compounds, and biological slow sand filters can remove most pathogens. In Stillwagon’s estimation, these systems require a bit of effort and hardware to set up, but they are robust and hardy can can last for decades with proper maintenance. He finds that processing black water is a bit more complex but can be processed through mechanical and biological systems like “The Living Machine.”
Other Methods to Reduce Water Use in the Distillery
Other practices implemented byVARA Winery & Distillery to reduce their water use include installing high-efficiency cleaning systems called CIP (Clean-In-Place) that use less water by utilizing more efficient cleaning agents, as well as regularly maintaining and repairing any leaks that they have incurred to prevent unnecessary water loss.
In a similar vein, Kim Karrick, Owner and Distiller of Scratch Distillery (Edmonds, WA), plumbed a pipe to help reclaim some water from the distillation process to use for their mash water. This action diminished the amount of water required, as well as reduced the amount of heat required.
In 2023, the EPA recognized eight distilleries for being the first to earn EPA’s ENERGY STAR certification for superior energy performance. Their energy-saving recommendations include conserving water with a focus on the steam and cooling systems. For more information about ENERGY STAR certification for distilleries, log on to their website at https://www.energystar.gov/industrial_plants/improve/distilledspiritsfocus.
