Steve Koenemann

Hail the Green Brewer

Just so that you know up front, this article is *not* about that green “stuff” that is dispensed to the masses by your local beer purveyor on Saint Patrick’s Day.  At the risk of adding to a somewhat overwhelming daily barrage of sound bites and statistics concerning the deleterious effects of human-driven climate change on our planet, I will instead turn your attention to some of the things that brewers of all types – mega, micro and home – are doing and can do to lessen their impact on the environment.

The concept of “green brewing” is not new… there are a lot of brewers that have already made this a fundamental part of their business model. In fact the number of brewers that, from my observation, include their “green” practices in their advertising and on their Web sites has increased dramatically in the last couple of years. Not just because it is the “trendy” thing to do (it definitely is), but because many of them have also discovered the hidden treasure of green operations… if embraced fully and in an intelligent way, it can actually be an economical way to operate as well.

While each brewer, large and small, adds their own particular twist to the production of my favorite beverage, many of the processes and techniques used to produce this life-enhancing elixir are quite common among them. The recipe for beer, in its simplest form, consists of steeping grains (barley and others) in water to extract sugars and other vital elements, boiling this “wort” with hops and other ingredients to create the desired flavors, adding yeasts to produce alcohol and carbonation and, finally, putting it into a container so that it can be easily transported. This process, while actually quite simple, can be accomplished in a variety of different ways during each step along the way. The flexible nature of this process also allows the brewers to select, should they choose, an environmentally friendly means of accomplishing each of these steps as well.

Earlier in the week I posted a Hop Press article on the impending sale of Otter Creek Brewing to Long Trail Brewing. Otter Creek has long been near the forefront of the green brewing movement and their 2002 purchase by Wolaver’s, an organic beer brewer, cemented those practices in place as their standard operating procedure. Their company’s environmental business practices include:

• the use of free-air cooling and energy efficient lighting to reduce energy consumption
• the use of B20 biodiesel in their boiler systems
• the use of recycled and non-toxic (unbleached) materials in all packaging
• the feeding of local livestock with the brewery’s spent grain
• the use of in-house wastewater management/treatment systems
• the purchase of ingredients and supplies as locally as possible to minimize transport

The items on Otter Creek’s list are by no means unique to Otter Creek. There are many other brewers with substantial programs underway that use these and other means to reduce their environmental impact. For example:

• New Belgium Brewing meets as much as 15% of their energy needs by producing power using methane from a wastewater “digester”. They also reduce the amount of packaging in their 12-packs, saving the company (and the environment) the cost of 150 tons of cardboard each year.
• Sierra Nevada Brewing produces their own biofuel to power their delivery trucks.
• Brooklyn Brewery annually purchases 285,000 kilowatt-hours of wind farm generated power from Con Edison.

• Believe it not, in 1899 Anheuser-Busch may actually have pioneered one of the pillars of modern green brewing practices – feeding spent grain to livestock – a practice that continues to this day.

I think that the Wolaver’s mission statement says it best… “Our vision – local, organic, collective, green, and handcrafted. At every stage of the beer-making process, we work toward a deeper expression of these values in the modern landscape”. All of these brewers above are “walking the walk” of green brewing through the evolution of their business practices to include a philosophy of reducing one’s impact on the environment. There are, without question, financial benefits to this approach. I am reasonably sure, however, that if you asked them why they do these things, they would tell you that being environmentally friendly and reducing their use of precious natural resources is really more a matter of good stewardship… they believe that it is simply the right thing to do.

You, too, can be a good steward of the planet… by supporting your local green brewer!

Leave a Reply

Click here to cancel reply.

Username (required) :
Email (required) :
Web Site :
Comment :

CAPTCHA Code *