Drinking Water Treatment

Innovative UV technology improves water treatment at CA brewery

Aug. 18, 2014

The Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, Calif., has implemented the use of UV technology from Aquionics to better break down unwanted byproducts from its water purification process, ensuring optimal beer taste at all times.

ERLANGER, KY, Aug. 18, 2014 -- The Sierra Nevada Brewing Company (SNBC) in the city of Chico, Calif., has implemented the use of ultraviolet (UV) technology from Aquionics, a specialist in UV technology for water and wastewater disinfection, dechlorination and deozonation, to better break down unwanted byproducts from its water purification process, ensuring optimal beer taste at all times.

SNBC adopted the technology -- UV-C in particular, which is part of the UV spectrum -- because it is suitable for successfully treating the water necessary in the brewing process. "The taste of our beer is a key selling point," said Aaron Porter, Sierra's plant services supervisor. "Water is the main ingredient of beer and, even though we have a great water source, by law it needs to be chlorinated prior to use. "That's where the Aquionics UV technology plays its part -- UV has proved to be highly effective at destroying any residual chlorine remaining in the process post-treatment," he said. "In this way, it ensures the consistent taste of our beer. We now have three Aquionics units preforming this role.

The Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in the city of Chico, Calif.

As well as dechlorination, we also have an Aquionics' unit installed on our deaeration (DA) skid," said Porter. "This is to help disinfect the water returning to the storage tank. It will also be used to destruct ozone that we use for sanitizing the DA system."

In addition to these two applications, the brewery is planning to use UV as part of its water reclamation project, whereby water used for cleaning bottles and kegs will be disinfected and reused for landscape irrigation.

UV also has many other uses in the brewing, beverage and process industries, including the disinfection of municipal or private water supplies, deaerated liquor (part of the high-gravity brewing process), clean-in-place (CIP) water, sugar syrups, sweeteners, and yeast preparation areas.

UV systems are easy to install, with minimum disruption to the plant. They need very little maintenance, with the only requirement being replacement of the UV lamps every 12 to 18 months, depending on use. This is a simple operation that takes only a few minutes and can be carried out by general maintenance staff.

Feedback so far from Sierra Nevada has been very positive, with the company reporting excellent performance from the Aquionics UV systems. The reliability and versatility of the technology has prompted the brewery to commission two more Aquionics dechlorination units for its brand new facility in North Carolina.

"CA city water supply, wastewater system ideal for brewery business"

About Aquionics

Aquionics has been successfully selling and servicing ultraviolet disinfection equipment within North America in both the municipal and industrial water and wastewater markets for 30 years. Aquionics boasts over 60 years of combined UV experience in their sales department and has hundreds of municipal installations within North America including several that continue to operate after two decades of service. For more information, visit www.aquionics.com.

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