Okay, yeah I split it into 3. I had a moment, got excited, now we’re here.

We’ve done barley. We’ve done malting. Now we’re gonna do distilling.

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So when you distil, you heat something up and keep it at a constant temperature. Thermostatic heating. One of the most energy-intensive and least efficient processes there is. A prime target for the environmentally inclined. Okay, I’ll be honest it’s just solar-powered, this isn’t where the innovation is but I kinda had to mention it. The innovation is when we start looking at what’s coming out of the distillery.

We’ll start by doing the meth. Methanol. During distillation, the lightest alcohol boils off first in the ‘heads’ portion of the spirit run. The methanol is used as a coolant within the heat pumps of the distillery. They also use it as an anti-freeze and lighter fluid. Which again one distillery, pretty small fry. But we’re not talking about one distillery, we’re talking about thousands. And they’re all making methanol. Positioning it as anti-freeze as well is a stroke of genius. “Why’re you doing all this?” To stop global warming, so you know thought we’d up the anti-freeze production. You’re gonna have to deal with a lot more ice.” It’s almost a cocky brag. I feel like that was a bad joke but you try and come up with a methanol related joke that appeals to non-chemists. Anyway the water.

Because heating up water up is energy-intense, any excuse not to heat it up is most appreciated. This comes in the form of reusing the heat from the still. As hot vapour comes out the water used to cool the condenser is heated. This heated water is then used to fill the boiler for the mashing. When the boilers full it’s used to heat the underfloor heating, showers and dishwashers, then to buffer water connected to the heat pumps. Finally, once sufficiently cooled the water is released into local ponds. I know I talked earlier about concrete. But as a defender of the brutalist movement would say “Well, it ain’t all concrete.”

The organic material, brewer’s grains and barley straw are composted. The heat from which also generates heat from the heat pumps. Mr Dyson (of the hoovers) employs a similar tactic with manure to heat his strawberries. He has a slight advantage when farming at scale. And the billions of pounds. Anyway we’ve talked about what’s coming out of the still, but not what isn’t coming out…

I mentioned when you’re mashing you’re basically creating an 8 % beer. Well when you distil it, you’re basically left with an alcohol-free beer. It’s not made with hops, so don’t get your hopes up immediately, it needs some work and some blending. But we’re just shooting the shit on some ideas here. I mean 25 % of young people don’t drink. The beer industry is plunging resources into marketing alcohol-free products. But they still have to go through the faff and resources of making the stuff. Could whisky’s waste product significantly cut down the resources the beer industry needs? Making environmental savings left, right and centre.

I thought I’d give Bus a nod here - they don’t patent sustainability inventions. They invite other distilleries to use the inventions – copyable and scalable.

That about wraps up Bus’s story but I do want you to think. People talk about renewable energy – solar, wind - being the be all and end all of climate change technologies, but seeing something like Bus. It makes me think with a lot of industry, we’re just getting started.

So when you think about the future, be hopeful. Because I’m hopeful. And people are out there, getting it done.