Brewery Energy Audit: Cut Costs and Reduce Carbon
An energy assessment at Camerons Brewery identified over £100,000 in annual electricity savings.
Left Handed Giant, Siren and Northern Monk are running ongoing metered energy programmes, in which monitors installed on their highest-consumption equipment track performance and drive savings month by month.
All of these energy audits, monitoring and actionable reductions target the silent killer of your P&L, energy costs.
A brewery energy audit with Brew Resourceful is built specifically for the craft brewing process. The assessments draw on direct experience of running, auditing and supporting small, medium and large-scale UK craft brewing operations, which means the inefficiencies identified are ones we know from inside the industry, not from applying a generic industrial checklist to a brewing context.
What is a brewery energy audit?
A brewery energy audit is a structured review of energy use across your operation. It establishes how much gas, electricity, steam, refrigeration energy and compressed air you are consuming, where that consumption is occurring within the process, and where it is being wasted.
The output is a prioritised improvement plan written by a professional brewer and engineer with each action quantified by annual saving, capital cost and payback period.
Brew Resourceful offers two forms of audit, suited to different operational situations. Both are specific to the craft brewing process and both are grounded in measured data rather than general guidance.
Two approaches: metered and unmetered
Unmetered energy audit
An unmetered audit is an expert assessment of your site based on inspection, process review and utility bill analysis. No sub-process metering needs to be in place beforehand. Brew Resourceful reviews each energy system on site, identifies the specific inefficiencies present, and produces a written report with a prioritised action list.
This approach is fast, requires no capital investment before the audit begins, and gives a brewery a clear and specific picture of where their energy is going and what to do about it. It is the right starting point for most UK craft breweries.
At Camerons Brewery, an unmetered assessment identified over £100,000 of annual utility savings across gas, electricity and water. These were specific findings from the process at their site, not generic recommendations adapted from another context.
Metered energy programme
A metered programme goes further. Energy monitors are installed on the ten to fifteen highest-consuming pieces of equipment at your site: typically the compressed air compressors, refrigeration plant, CIP hot water generation, boiler, and major motor loads. These monitors provide continuous consumption data, which is used to set reduction targets, track performance over time, verify that improvements are being sustained, and identify further opportunities as they emerge.
This approach suits breweries that want a reduction programme rather than a one-time report. Savings are measured and verified against a baseline, and the monitoring infrastructure compounds its value over time as more data accumulates. Brew Resourceful is currently running metered programmes at Left Handed Giant, Siren and Northern Monk.
Cameron Brewery Savings
Why craft brewery specific matters
Generic energy audits apply an industrial framework to whatever site they are given, they do not understand the nuances of a craft brewery and its product. They also often miss large areas of optimisation because they simply don't know they exisit.
The Brew Resourceful methodology has been built from direct experience of running large-scale craft brewing operations, which is why the recommendations are actionable and grounded in brewing reality rather than adapted from another industry.
What we measure
A brewery energy audit covers five categories. Each is assessed against benchmarks and your site-specific process requirements, based on metered data, utility bills, process records and physical inspection.
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Gas: boiler efficiency, condensate return rates, blow-down losses, wort heat recovery, steam distribution losses, CIP hot water generation and insulation condition. Gas is typically the largest single energy cost in a UK craft brewery.
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Electricity: compressed air generation and distribution, refrigeration system performance, major motors, centrifuge and other auxiliary loads.
Recomendations
Focus initial investment on short-term ROI technologies to generate cashflow for larger CAPEX items.
Integrate all renewable systems under a central performance-monitoring platform to maintain ROI visibility.
Continue validating utility intensity metrics annually to ensure future ROI modelling remains accurate and realistic.
Frequently asked questions
Which type of audit is right for my brewery?
An unmetered audit is the right starting point for most breweries. It provides a specific picture of where the savings are and what to do about it, quickly and without upfront capital investment. A metered programme makes sense for operations that want verified, ongoing data and a programme that builds over time rather than a point-in-time report. We will advise on which suits your situation during the discovery call.
How long does an unmetered audit take?
Data collection takes one to two weeks, the site visit is 1-3 days for most craft brewery sites, and the report is delivered within two weeks of the visit. Most clients have their completed report within four weeks of first engagement.
What does a brewery energy audit cost?
Fees depend on audit type, brewery size and scope. We confirm pricing after a free discovery call, once we have a clear picture of your site and where the savings are likely to be. There is no charge for the initial call, and the majority of the cost of the audit is set by the amount of savings found.
Which breweries qualify?
We work with UK craft breweries producing from approximately 5,000 hl per year upwards. For smaller sites, a focused assessment covering the one or two areas with the highest saving potential is often a more practical starting point. Contact us and we will advise based on your situation.
Is grant funding available for energy audits?
Grant funding can be available, we have a our own AI based tool that looks up grants in your area for your business. We can check on the discovery call.
How quickly will I see a return?
Payback periods vary but since starting 3 years ago, the average payback is less than 6 months. We focus primarily on process-based solutions to inefficiency, meaning they are free to implement which drives down the ROI of the audit.