Should you worry about your CO₂ supply? A UK brewer's guide for 2026

If you're a UK brewer or winemaker, you've already lived through one or two CO₂ supply scares. The 2018 shortage took breweries off-line for weeks. The 2021 shortage put crisp manufacturers, abattoirs and beer producers all queuing for the same gas. And in March 2026, Starmer’s UK government had to intervene to keep the Ensus bioethanol plant in Wilton, Teesside running — precisely because of the knock-on risk to food and drink producers downstream. CO₂ shortages in the UK aren't a black swan any more. They're a recurring feature of how this country supplies an industrial by-product to thousands of small businesses that depend on it.

The question for any production manager is: how exposed are we, really?

Why UK CO₂ supply keeps breaking

Almost all the CO₂ used in UK breweries, wineries and distilleries is captured as a by-product of ammonia or bioethanol production — the same industries that make fertiliser and biofuels. When the underlying plant runs, the CO₂ flows. When it doesn't, it doesn't. There are only a handful of UK plants capable of supplying food-grade CO₂ at scale, and they shut down or scale back whenever gas prices spike, fertiliser margins thin out, or — as in March 2026 — international conflict disrupts European supply chains.

The result is a national CO₂ supply that depends on the economic incentives of unrelated industries. It's not engineered for resilience — it's a side-effect.

The Ensus restart in March 2026 made this explicit. The plant had ceased production in autumn 2025 and was set to close permanently, only kept on standby because the government had negotiated terms in September. When European fertiliser disruption combined with rising gas prices to put UK CO₂ supply at risk, ministers stepped in. The Business Secretary's statement was unusually direct: "By restarting this plant we've acted swiftly to boost the resilience of our supply chains and protect critical UK sectors like food production, water and healthcare."

For producers, the lesson is clear. The fact that the UK has only one or two domestic plants of this kind, and that keeping them running now requires active government intervention, tells you everything about how fragile the supply chain is.

The three questions worth asking before the next disruption

1. What share of your variable cost is purchased CO₂? If you don't already know, work it out. Most small brewers we speak to are surprised by how much they spend annually once they include cylinder rental, delivery, and seasonal price increases.
2. How much CO₂ do you actually need per hl produced? This isn't always obvious — usage varies a lot between carbonation, sparging, blanketing, and packaging. If you're not metering, you're guessing.
3. What's your contingency plan if your supplier short-ships in August? "We'd ring the supplier" is not a plan. It's a hope.

If you can't answer all three quickly, you're more exposed than you think.

What CO₂ independence actually looks like

The producers we work with at Cork & Capture aren't trying to avoid CO₂ — they're trying to stop paying for it whilst they're also venting tonnes of it into the atmosphere from their own fermentation tanks. A typical 10,000 hl brewery produces around 50 tonnes of biogenic CO₂ every year, more than enough to cover its own carbonation, blanketing and packaging needs. A 100,000 hl mid-sized brewery produces closer to 400 tonnes.

Capturing that gas on-site means:

• No more reliance on external CO₂ deliveries
• Predictable per-month cost via subscription, rather than volatile per-tonne pricing
• Surplus available for permanent sequestration via carbon credits as the UK and EU storage infrastructure comes online
• A clean ESG story that customers and retail buyers are starting to ask about

You're already producing the gas. The only question is whether you keep buying it as well.

The Gen Z sustainability lens

Added to all this: fermentation carbon capture is fast becoming the ultimate sustainability flex for breweries looking to win over Gen Z — a cohort that expects brands to prove their climate credentials, not just gesture at them. By capturing the pure CO₂ naturally released during fermentation and reusing it on-site, breweries cut emissions, reduce reliance on industrial CO₂ supply chains, and close the loop on one of beer's most overlooked waste streams. For Gen Z, this isn't just operational efficiency; it's a visible, science-backed commitment to circularity, transparency, and climate action. It turns every pint into a story about innovation and responsibility — a way for breweries to show they're not just making beer, they're making change.

Working out where you sit

If you want a 60-second view of how much CO₂ your brewery is generating right now, our CO₂ production calculator gives you a worked answer based on your annual production and average ABV. It's a useful first step before any deeper conversation.

If you'd like to talk through what on-site recovery would look like at your site specifically, get in touch. The next supply disruption isn't a question of if. It's a question of when.