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Sun-powered system adds ‘flare’ to brew pub’s ale
Incentives and federal tax credits helped convince Lucky Labrador Brewing Co. to install an efficient solar hot-water system at its Hawthorne pub.
from Daily Journal of Commerce
by Libby Tucker
The sun came out this week just in time for the release of the Lucky Labrador Brewing Company’s new Solar Flare Ale. Even as the light faded Wednesday evening over the solar panels on the Hawthorne Boulevard pub, the temperature on the roof read a solid 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
“It’s our first-ever solar beer,” Gary Geist, co-owner of the Lucky Lab, said.
The brewery in December installed a solar hot-water system, which Geist says will save the pub money on the energy-intensive brewing process and give it some cache in the sustainability-focused city. It brewed its first sun-powered beer earlier this month.
“It’s an interesting time, first with the technology of the sustainable systems, second the economic factor and third, it’s big in Portland,” Geist said. “Those three things are hitting at the same time.”
DJC: What did you install?
Gary Geist: This is a fairly low-tech system. This is not a PV (photovoltaic) system, which is what people think of when they think solar. This is a solar hot-water system. It heats city water that comes in at 30 degrees to a tank. We have 16 4-by-10-foot panels on our roof, over 500 square feet of panels.
DJC: How does it work?
Geist: On Monday, when it was super sunny, the temperature off the roof was close to 150 degrees and that gets transferred to the water. We had 900 gallons heated up to 150 degrees, and your basic domestic hot water varies between 110 and 120 degrees. So this is really hot. In fact, during the summer, the thing will probably shed off at 180 degrees, and we’ll have more (energy) than we need.
DJC: How did you hear about it?
Geist: Heliodyne supplied the equipment and Ra Energy did the installation of the system, and they were integral in tipping us off on how the system works and the benefits and whatnot. We have the flow meter hooked up and we’ll be able to hook up a cat-5 cable to put it on the network. We’ll have a page on our Web site to see how much energy we’ve actually saved and how much Btu’s (British thermal units) we’ve generated from the sun for the day, week and year. So it should be pretty cool.
DJC: Why did you decide to install the system?
Geist: Being in Portland with the sustainable culture, there’s that aspect of it. It’s always good to do green things. It was also a business decision. With the financial incentives, it’s stupid not to do it. The payback is really quick, given the incentives with the state and federal tax credits and the Energy Trust of Oregon. The worst is a temporary constraint on cash flow. It’s an expensive system, but it will pay dividends into the future.
DJC: How did the installation go?
Geist: It went pretty smoothly. We just put up the panels first, and from there, it’s just a bunch of copper plumbing – and you’ve got to insulate things pretty well. The actual staging took longer than the installation. You have to do a lot of paperwork with the city and the Department of Energy. Now that it’s up and running, we’ll start the process to get a solar system in our other brewery in Northwest Portland, too.
DJC: Will the beer taste different?
Geist: No. It should taste just like normal. We’re having a special beer called Solar Flare Ale; it’s a light summertime ale. But all of our beer has the potential to be made with solar power. It also ties into our pub, so it provides hot water for the dishwasher and hand washing.
DJC: Will the beer be seasonal?
Geist: I don’t know. We can brew it pretty much all year long as long as the sun is out.
Keep in mind, it’s analogous to a hybrid system. We need about 500 gallons of water at the beginning and 165-degree water. We mix that with the barley, and then the hot water going through the grain takes all the sugars out.
From there, it goes to the kettle and you have to boil the beer, and we can’t generate enough energy from the sun to boil it yet. But at the same time we save energy because that 500 gallons is starting at 150 degrees and we’re taking it to 165 degrees. Over the winter, we’ll only able to generate an average of 65 to 70 degrees. But all summer we should be able to generate all of our hot water.