How Top Breweries in Bangalore is Combating the Water Crisis

It was well predicted in advance that the world is going to witness water crisis in years to come affecting people, businesses due to the shortages. It all started when South Africa’s oldest city Cape Town in South faced a severe water crisis in 2018. From last 2-3 months India’s third most populous city, Bangalore, known for its nightlife and eating out culture is going through the worst water crisis impacting the people of the city, schools, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, amongst others. 

According to reports, it has been estimated that the city needed 2,600 million litres of water per day (MLD) of which 1,450 MLD comes from the Cauvery River and 650 MLD from groundwater, hinting towards a shortage of 500 MLD of water. Bengaluru, that’s also hub for hosting and owning a large number of microbreweries and bars in the city, has seen a severe impact on the business of these restaurants, places. Restaurant India spoke to some of the top bar, brewery owners in the city to understand on how they are combating the growing challenge of water crisis in the city, state. 

“As an entrepreneur and Managing Partner of Ironhill India, I acknowledge the gravity of the water crisis confronting Bengaluru and its implications for our industry. In response, we have proactively instituted water conservation measures and sustainable practices,” shared Teja Chekuri of Ironhill India that has optimized their manufacturing processes to minimize water consumption, implemented stringent monitoring and control measures, and instilled a culture of awareness and responsibility among their staff to ensure that they are committed to using water sustainably, responsibly, and efficiently.

“While, the water crisis presents a formidable challenge for breweries in Bengaluru, it also an opportunity for our industry – which is heavily reliant on water, to lead by example and drive positive changes. Through our unwavering commitment to sustainability, we are confident in our ability to navigate these challenges responsibly while delivering exceptional products and experiences to our customers,” he added. 

Emphasizing on the fact that water is a valuable resource in any industry, and implementing water conservation measures can have a positive environmental impact. Using two reverse osmosis (RO) plants—one for the kitchen and another one for your brewery if you are a microbrewery—can allow you to have a backup so that if any one of the systems fails, the other can be used for both purposes, Vinay Chandrashekar, Founder, Long Boat Breweing Co, commented, “The thought process behind this is that customers should not any point run out of RO water. We at Long Boat also optimize water usage during the brewing process by installing water-efficient equipment such as water controllers in every washroom and we have a 30 feet waterfall in the middle of our property and implement recycling and reclamation systems not just for waterfalls but also for greenery we have at long boat to minimize water waste.The rejected RO water from the kitchen can also be recycled and used in toilets and for gardening purposes wherever possible.”

On the other hand, Byg Brewski that is known for its craft beers and drinks is using Double RO membrane to increase output and decrease reject water. Every Reverse osmosis membrane works at 70% reject water and 30% recovery so to decrease the reject water quantity it is again fed back into another membrane this way we achieve 50% reject and 50% recovery on every liter of water. “We try to⁠ reduce consumption as much as possible by altering cleaning SOP’s. For Eg- Using more hot water (60-65 C) for CIP since it has higher solubility as compared to room temperature water. Will help remove alkaline detergent much quicker,” shared Megha Shamrao Dalimbe, Senior Head Brewer, Byg Ventures by adding that they are also blending some of the filtered raw water back in RO water to increase TDS and again increase output of clean water generated. Post sedimentation and carbon filter the water is clean enough to be blended with Clean RO water to increase TDS (for drinking water - 150 ppm is ideal).