At 155 years, MillerCoors LLC’s Milwaukee brewery is the oldest in the company’s combined network of facilities.
From its 82-acre State Street campus with 76 buildings, the Milwaukee operation has brewed at or near record volumes during the past 18 months, making 6.8 million barrels of beer in 2008 and 8.2 million barrels in 2009. The brewery expects to generate more than 9 million barrels in 2010.
“Between May and August, we’re making about 900,000 barrels per month,” said Andrew Moschea, vice president of the Milwaukee brewery. “We’re quite busy now, as busy as we have been in the last 30 years.”
MillerCoors has more than 1,500 employees in Milwaukee, and more than 830 of those workers are directly involved in production at its Miller Valley brewery.
While the Milwaukee facility is producing at capacity levels for much of the year, the company’s executives also have found ways to dramatically reduce the facility’s use of electricity and water. The brewery reduced electricity usage by 12 percent in 2009 and forecasts another 11-percent reduction this year. Water usage per barrel of beer made dropped 8 percent in 2009 and should drop another 4 percent this year.
“February was the lowest water usage (per barrel) month for this brewery,” Moschea said. “And there is a lot of brewing going on here now. That bodes well for our future water use.”
Despite its age, the Milwaukee facility has created a model of efficiency and sustainability for the company’s other breweries, which are more modern.
Read more in the latest edition of BizTimes Milwaukee.
