Abstract: Industries produce millions of cubic meters of effluent
every year and the wastewater produced may be released into the
surrounding water bodies, treated on-site or at municipal treatment
plants. The determination of organic matter in the wastewater
generated is very important to avoid any negative effect on the
aquatic ecosystem. The scope of the present work is to assess the
physicochemical composition of the wastewater produced from one
of the brewery industry in South Africa. This is to estimate the
environmental impact of its discharge into the receiving water bodies
or the municipal treatment plant. The parameters monitored for the
quantitative analysis of brewery wastewater include biological
oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total
suspended solids, volatile suspended solids, ammonia, total oxidized
nitrogen, nitrate, nitrite, phosphorus and alkalinity content. In
average, the COD concentration of the brewery effluent was 5340.97
mg/l with average pH values of 4.0 to 6.7. The BOD5 and the solids
content of the wastewater from the brewery industry were high. This
means that the effluent is very rich in organic content and its
discharge into the water bodies or the municipal treatment plant could
cause environmental pollution or damage the treatment plant. In
addition, there were variations in the wastewater composition
throughout the monitoring period. This might be as a result of
different activities that take place during the production process, as
well as the effects of peak period of beer production on the water
usage.