Quality at lower cost
By optimizing raw material use, improving productivity, facilitating the creation of new beverages, and empowering breweries to become eco-efficient, Ondea Pro offers the brewing industry a range of flexible new opportunities. Brewers are able to reduce costs and their carbon footprint by substituting locally sourced and less expensive barley for malt. There is no compromise on taste, and brewers can blend the barley beer with traditional beer to obtain the taste they want.
To demonstrate the environmental benefits of using
Ondea Pro, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted at Harboes Brewery. An LCA is an evaluation tool that considers the environmental impact of all processes in the production of a product. The study compared the environmental cost of producing and delivering Ondea Pro with the impacts avoided by bypassing the malt production. All the significant processes in barley production and malting were included, as were all the processes involved in the production of the enzymes contained in Ondea Pro.
The numbers favor enzymesThe results showed that 30 g of
Ondea Pro used in the production of 1 hl of beer saved around 1 Nm3 of natural gas and 1 kg of barley. The natural gas was conserved because the malting (including dry malting) became redundant, and the barley was saved because barley loss during germination was avoided. Some water and electricity was also saved.
Although there was a slightly higher energy consumption for barley during the milling stage due to the relatively harder grain, the overall environmental savings far outweighed any costs. The production of 30 g of Ondea Pro caused emissions of around 0.8 kg CO2, but more than 3 kg of CO2 emissions were avoided because of the reduced natural gas combustion and the amounts of barley required.
The same can be said of the agricultural land required to grow the ingredients used in producing Ondea Pro, sugar being one of them. The amount of land used was very small, less than 0.1 m2 in one year, and much smaller than was saved by increasing the efficiency of production and lowering the amount of barley required – 2 m2 less land in one year to be exact.
Consumers want to drink more environmentally responsiblyAs demonstrated by the LCA,
Ondea Pro not only makes a great-tasting beer but also significantly reduces the amount of CO2 required to produce the same amount of brew. In Novozymes’ recent consumer study, 75% of respondents based in Denmark stated a preference for beer made with barley with a CO2 claim, while only 5% preferred a similar beer made from malt without a CO2 claim. With bioinnovations like Ondea Pro, Novozymes is enabling breweries to produce high-quality, appealing products that also offer consumers the ethically produced alternatives that they increasingly desire.