yeast disposal - dump down the drain?

[Brew Chef]

I was wondering if small micros just dump their yeast into a sewer or have to dispose of it differently. I wonder if a wastewater treatment plant ever gave a brewery a hard time or if there are laws about dumping yeast into a municipal sewer system

[Larry Horwitz]

can of worms

so the local water authority can mess with your world about yeast down the drain. It has a REALLY high B.O.D. We try to put what we can in the dumpster with DE or in the grain. That being said, our restaurant puts way more junk down the drain than us. Just try and be aware...and watch for the guy doing sampling of your waste water!

[dick murton]

I was wondering if small micros just dump their yeast into a sewer or have to dispose of it differently. I wonder if a wastewater treatment plant ever gave a brewery a hard time or if there are laws about dumping yeast into a municipal sewer system

They certainly give big breweries a hard time. At one brewery we used to cheat - a quick phone call around the site when they came to sample (they had to check in at reception, and oddly enough, always got held up) and everyone turned the fresh water hoses on. So they always sampled virtually neat towns water.

But seriously, if you have to dump it, then try trickling it down the drain mixed with a bit of caustic residue if you have a CIP set, to spread the load as much as possible. Depending on weights of yeast to be disposed of, you may have to get it tanked off site to landfill - another potential nightmare of regulations

[Rob Creighton]

Depending on your size, the dumpster is the answer or simple garbage pick-up (we use grain bags and they always pick it up). We once had green ambitions and wanted to send it with our farmer to help spur his manure pit but, of course, in Ontario you would need a licence to transport 'hazardous waste' or if we wanted to compost it with our trub, we needed to do a $20 000 study for the local environmental nazis. Welcome to progress and evolution.

[meadman]

If you dispose of your spent grains to a local cattle farmer, we just dump yeast into the bottom of the grain barrels, then shovel hot spent grains on top of the yeast. Our cattle farmers have never had a problem with it.
We also supply yeast/spent grains to our local hog farmers, again never any problems.

[Moonlight]

Here in California, liquids are not allowed in dumpsters or landfills. However, soak it up with saw dust or such and it becomes an acceptable solid!
Lots of problems can result from feeding live yeast to ruminants like cows and sheep-beware.

[gitchegumee]

We've covered this before.

Check other threads here for yeast re-use and disposal.

[beerking1]

Here in California, liquids are not allowed in dumpsters or landfills. However, soak it up with saw dust or such and it becomes an acceptable solid!
Lots of problems can result from feeding live yeast to ruminants like cows and sheep-beware.

The mental image that brings up (exploding cows?) is just too funny!

[Vendetta]

Here in California, liquids are not allowed in dumpsters or landfills. However, soak it up with saw dust or such and it becomes an acceptable solid!

If you have more space than sawdust, perhaps a day in the California sunshine would turn yeast into an "acceptable solid"? Who knows, you might even be able to sell it in blocks to a health food store.

[beerking1]

I am pretty sure A-B sells Budweiser yeast in wet cakes (by the pound) to bakeries.

[Gregg]

A brewer I know...

gives his excess yeast to a local small-scale farmer, who happily dilutes it and spreads it on his arable land as fertiliser - and is very pleased with the result. Of course, this may not work for greater volumes or more active bureaucracies.

If you wish to feed yeast to livestock, you should kill it off first, with heat or something like "Murycide" (ask Murphy & Son how that works).

Remember folks : it is "co" product, NOT "waste" product.

[LuskusDelph]

At least some of it can go right into the boil, as yeast food. I've been doing that for years myself (on the advice of a Fuller's brewer 20 some odd years ago). I'm not sure if and how it helps (though I suspect that it does help), but it most assuredly doesn't hurt.