The environmental impact of internal operations and manufacturing processes have emerged as an important consideration for breweries today. However, the broader supply chain is often overlooked in environmental management efforts. The reality is that the production of beer at the brewery accounts for less than 20% of the overall environmental impact – making it the smallest part of the emissions calculation.

One of the greatest sources of emissions for brewers are transportation and logistics practices conducted downstream. In particular, the distribution of beer kegs, underutilisation of existing fleet, refrigeration, and beer spoilage.

Binary Beer recognised the enormous potential to implement downstream environmental logistics practices to tackle this challenge by developing our KegLink™ sensors. The sensors easily attach to the brewers existing fleet to provide data driven insights. Monitoring supply chain data enables brewers to achieve a better sustainable model that prioritises both environmental and economic success by:

1. Temperature and freshness monitoring and alerts that put brewers in control of the quality of their beer on tap to prevent both (i) stale beer being served and (ii) overall waste from beer spoilage. In a 90-day case study we found that 10% of venues stored beer at room temperature for longer than 21 days before going on tap and 25% of venues didn’t cool their kegs.
2. Collection reports from venues and live stocktake inside coolrooms prevent keg pooling by allowing brewers to know when their customers are ready to order. We found that 10% of kegs ‘stalled’ indefinitely over three months.
3. Automated live keg tracking and reporting based on time kegs spend at locations prevents stock loss and theft as well as reducing overall capital expenditure by utilising the existing fleet to avoid buying more kegs.