SanTan Brewing Company
Beer flows into SanTan’s 10,000-gallon tanks through hoses, then into kegs and cans. “When you start the fermentation process, you want no oxygen to ever be introduced to the beer again,” Canecchia says. “Everything is run in a closed system.”
Therefore, the oxygen must be purged. Before, SanTan was purchasing carbon dioxide to pump into its system to clear the oxygen out. “The fermentation lasts about seven days, and that tank is just spewing carbon dioxide onto the ground,” Canecchia says.
During the pandemic, the SanTan team was able to pause and look at how much carbon dioxide was involved in this process — both the amount being bought and the amount being put into the atmosphere.