Startup Questions.

There's a few UK brewers on farmland who have set up a reed bed system like the one Gregg mentions at Purity.

When we were first looking at a farm site for our micro, we looked into it, emailed a few other brewers & got a mixed response, but one chap who was very happy with his is Steve at Buntingford Brewery, Hertfordshire -

"the liquid waste (which is anything that isn't beer or spent hops / grain), is drained into our reed bed where all the horrible bits get naturally broken down by bacteria. Much to the benefit of the local wildlife, as the reed bed has become home to thriving colonies of numerous plant & animal species otherwise rare in this area."

from http://www.buntingford-brewery.co.uk/brewing.htm

[grassrootsvt]

Indirect Discharge Permit.
Collect the wastewater into a holding tank.
Find the absorptive capacity of a particular location of one of your fields and obtain state permission to discharge the wastewater onto your land.
Pump the tank.
Land application.
It is allowed in Vermont, at least...

[WitsEnd]

Another contact would be Dave (BeerBoy) from Dave's BrewFarm in WI. Not sure what he does, but by the sound of it, I doubt he's hooked up to a municipal system.

http://davesbrewfarm.blogspot.com/

[South County]

David, I would very STRONGLY advise against operating a commercial brewery without a municipal septic hookup. I know of breweries that tried it without the hookup and it cost thousands, tens of thousands, in extra sewage systems, gray water systems, EPA fines, etc. Bottom line; not worth it.
my two cents

prost!
Dave

While I don't doubt that those situations are true, we are utilizing a very simple work around that will allow me to grow to about 4000 bbls. We live miles form the nearest sewer hookup, (rural farm land) and own industrial property. Our system is nothing more that a couple of large capacity holding tanks ganged together that get pumped as needed. The cost/gal is only a few cents more than what the municipal bill would be. I will agree that an full on-site treatment system may prove difficult and costly, putting in holding tanks is a cheap and quick solution, all state DEP approved in our case. I would much rather build on land I own and pay a few cents to have it pump edand not have a $3-7 per sqft/yr lease expense. I think all total we spent (all labor was performed by us) $5600 putting it in.

[BeerBoy]

Of course it can be done...

Since when is anything cheap or easy?!?
I'm on 35 rural acres. Miles from the Joy of Muni. But it can be done. I have all my brewery drains run to a 5000 gal. holding tank (7 bbl brew length, *maybe* 3-400 bbls annual). Current approved plan is to have effluent pumped and land spread. And the current tweak is I have some very interested students studying the possibility of creating a constructed wetland - coming down to a cost/bene big picture (in the end, same difference - different methodology). If you have the will (and $$ doesn't hurt), you'll find a way.