There may be trouble brewing for craft beer makers as Metro Vancouver starts drafting new rules to dispose of brewery waste.
The frothing market for craft beers has resulted in an explosion of breweries of all sizes -- and that's resulted in a dramatic increase of hard-to-process beer byproducts in the region's sewer treatment system.
"There are suspended solids that get in with the discharge. It has to be dealt with by the waste treatment plants, and that's quite expensive," said North Vancouver Mayor Darrell Mussatto, who is chair of the Metro Vancouver Utilities Committee.
Metro Vancouver staff are concerned about suspended solids and the acidity from disposed yeast, which can create odours, corrode the pipes, and cost taxpayers money.
Staff didn't have exact cost figures but advise representatives that new standards have to be drafted so the breweries will be filtering that waste on site.
Craft breweries have gained market share from about 5 per cent a decade ago to 20 per cent now.
Steamworks founder Eli Gershkovitz said his new Burnaby facility has a state of the art filtration system that removes nearly all particulates.
He says it cost about $50,000 -- something that smaller breweries might not be able to afford.
"Many of the smaller breweries are operating on small, thin margins. So I think as always a balancing act has to be undertaken to balance the cost of regulations that might deter a new brewery from opening," he said.
