Using Brewing Enzymes to Improve Your Craft Beer Business

- Mark Stevens, Senior Research Associate at Novozymes and Founder of Tar Banks Brewing
A central benefit to the use of brewing enzymes is the increase in brewing efficiency. Depending on a brewery’s current efficiency levels, craft brewers utilizing brewing enzymes have gained between 5-25% efficiency. This increase in efficiency offers inherent financial returns by allowing brewers to generate more product with current ingredient supply.
Beyond the ability to brew more beer, brewers can also brew faster. As enzymes can be used to speed up or replace entire steps in the brewing process, breweries can achieve the same high-quality products in a shorter time frame. As businesses have been faced with shutdowns as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, this speed to market gain can be invaluable to recoup lost sales.
Outside of improving the actual brewing process, many enzymes also help brewers create entirely new styles of beer. As many craft beer makers continue to experiment and explore with new types of beer and raw ingredients, enzymes can ensure that a shift to a new ingredient doesn’t create a shift in production efficiency. Instead, enzymes help break down non-traditional ingredients to allow brewers to do what they do best – create new flavors and high-quality beers that delight customers.
Enzymes also allow brewers to improve their environmental impact for a more responsible and sustainable brewing business. A 2015 study The use of enzymes for beer brewing: Thermodynamic comparison on resource use reports that “beer produced using enzymes reduced the use of water, raw materials and natural gas by 7%, 14% and 78% respectively.” In today’s environment, where the consumer is hyperaware of the impact of their purchases on the environment, brewers that can show support and demonstrative commitment to the same ideals as their customers can engender stronger brand loyalty and customer advocacy.
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