How to make fish food from beer
Photo: Trout Lore
Here’s a puzzle: What can you get from beer other than a good time and a hangover? The answer is, an ingredient for fish food. And, a sustainable solution for the growing human demand for fish. EarthSky spoke to environmental engineer Andy Logan, whose company is called Oberon FMR. for ‘fish meal replacement.’
Food for industrial fish farms is usually made from other fish… tiny fish like herring and anchovies. The problem is, demand for fish is rising due to growing populations, but wild catch – including that which makes up fish meal – is not growing. It’s overfished and unsustainable. Using waste products of other industries as a fish meal replacement seems pretty smart.
So how could beer turn into fish food?
After you brew a vat of beer, there’s residue left over in the bottom of the vat. Oberon – Logan’s company – grows bacteria that eats this stuff up in the brewer’s wastewater treatment facility. Then the bacteria gets dried out – ends up as a flaky, brown substance high in nutrients and protein.
It lets some of those little fish off the hook.
