BACKGROUND
Widmer Brothers Brewery, a craft brewer located in Portland, Oregon, is part of the Craft Brew Alliance, the seventh largest craft brewery in the U.S. In a brewery, waste beer, wort (i.e., unfermented beer), yeast, and grains enter the wastewater system and contribute to two parameters that indicate the concentration of pollution in water: 1) Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), or the amount of oxygen it takes to degrade organic matter, and 2) Total Suspended Solids (TSS). Discharging wastewater with high BOD and TSS concentrations incurs costly government fees. Craft Brew Alliance is committed to continual process improvement, water conservation, and sustainability.