|
 Brewing beer has never been an energy-efficient process, yet there are some amazing green initiatives and innovations taking place at breweries across the nation. Here are just a few:
ANHEUSER-BUSCH
St. Louis, Mo., founded 1852 (anheuser-busch.com)
With 48.5% of the market share of beer sales in the United States, it’s nice to know that megabrewer Anheuser-Busch takes green seriously at its dozen U.S. breweries. The comapny’s recycling efforts date back to 1899 when the St. Louis brewery began providing spent brewing grains to local farmers for livestock feed.
A-B’s commitment to energy efficiency runs the gamut from installing energy efficient lighting in its 12 breweries to recycling 97% of its solid waste to the installation of six acres of solar panels at its Fairfield, Calif., brewery.
“We are in the process of installing an even larger solar installation at our Newark, N.J., brewery, which is our second oldest brewery. So we have some of the most modern technology at some of our older facilities. I don’t think age of the facility has deterred us,” said Greg Kellerman, A-B’s director of utilities and wastewater operations.
In 2007 A-B joined the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Leaders program, in which companies pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“We had a 5% reduction goal that we committed to by 2010. We actually achieved that goal early so we went back to them and arranged a new goal of 15% by 2013,” Kellerman said.
The company’s Houston brewery – third largest in the system – captures methane from a landfill and from a wastewater treatment anaerobic digester, which provides 70% of the plant’s energy needs.
“Over the last five years we have deployed some very significant heat recovery proejcts both in our brewing processes and utility process,” Kellerman said. “So we have done quite a bit of work in heat recovery solutions in our breweries and it is still an imporant strategy.”
A-B is fast approaching self-sucfficiency in C02 by capturing CO2 from the fermenting process, and reusing it in the brewing process.
“We have reduced our water use since 2000 by over 35%,” Kellerman said. “All of our water we either heat or cool or pressurize or do something that requires energy, so as you reduce your water usage, you also reduce your energy impact. We’ve reduced fuel usage by over 20%.”
 BROOKLYN BREWERY
Brooklyn, N.Y., founded 1987 (brooklynbrewery.com)
You won’t see a single windmill at Brooklyn Brewery – in fact it would be illegal to erect a windmill in New York City – but wind power has been supplying the brewery’s energy needs since 2003. Brooklyn Brewery was the first company in NYC to switch to wind-generated electricity.
“Back in 2003 our founder and president Steve Hindy was presented with the idea of purchasing wind power. He came to the conclusion that it is the right thing to do,” said Ben Hudson, the brewery’s marketing manager. “In New York City there’s a law that you can’t have anything a certain a height unless it can fall and hit the ground without hitting an edifice, so there’s no windmills when you come to the brewery.”
Community Energy, which manages the 20 wind turbines that supply power to the brewery, estimates Brooklyn Brewery’s green power prevents 335,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, 1,500 pounds of sulfur dioxide and 500 pounds of nitrogen oxide from being emitted annually.
“It’s a little bit more expensive, but we think it makes sense in terms of limiting our environmental imprint,” Hudson said, “but we also get an outsized amount of publicity for doing it. Drinkers love it. It’s just been a boon in returned goodwill. We’re pretty proud to be the first New York company to do that.”
Brooklyn Brewery plans to build a new brewhouse that will reclaim heat from the brewing process.
Like many brreweries, BB recycles its spent brewing grains.
“The grain is removed from the tanks once the wort is made,” Hudson said. “Then we put it in dumpsters in front of the brewery, and farmers from New Jersey, and even a farm within city limits, in Queens, pick it up and feed it to their animals. ”
 GRAND TETON BREWING CO.
Victor, Idaho, founded 1988 (grandtetonbrewingco.com)
Last October Grand Teton Brewing was awarded a United States Department of Agriculture grant to harness yeast energy created during fermentation to heat water for brewing and cleaning.
The Rural Energy Assistance Program grant allowed Grand Teton to purchase and install new equipment to capture the fermentation heat – 129,000 BTUs per hour – and save an estimated 2,550 gallons of diesel fuel annually. The brewery is considering adding a solar system to further heat brewing water.
While GTBC also uses bio-diesel fuels and recycles spent grains as cattle feed for local farmers, the brewery’s greatest green innovation came in 1989 when brothers/owners Charlie and Ernie Otto introduced a forgotten European bottle now well known to craft beer drinkers – the 64-ounce reusable growler.
GREAT LAKES BREWING CO.
Cleveland, Ohio, founded 1988 (greatlakesbrewing.com)
Hop on board The Fatty Wagon – Great Lakes Brewing Company’s shuttle bus to Cleveland Indian games – and you’re riding in a vehicle powered by used vegetable oil (a sign in the back window reads: “Fueled by our restaurant grease.”), but you are also riding in a symbol of the brewery’s “Triple Bottom Line” philosophy of brothers/co-owners Pat and Daniel Conroy: to engage in economic, social and environmental practices that achieve a sustainable, yet profitable, business.
The brewery also has a Freightliner delivery truck that runs on vegetable oil. Introducing a Zero Waste Initiative, reducing, reusing and recycling has become a company practice. Some of the spent grains from the brewing process are turned into bread and pretzels on the brewpub’s menu, while the rest of the used grains go to farmers who raise crops and livestock with them to provide produce and meat for the restaurant.
A system was installed in the brewery to cool the beer naturally with cold air during the winter months, and skylights help reduce the need for electric lights. Instead of throwing away low-fill beers – bottles not filled properly – the beer goes to the kitchen for dressings, sauces and soup.
 LAKEFRONT BREWERY
Milwaukee, founded 1987 (lakefrontbfrewery.com)
Information courtesy of Lakefront’s Matt Krajnak
Lakefront was the first Brewery in the state to earn Travel Green certification. Travel Green Wisconsin has many criteria for their certification:
n Communication and Education (customers, employees, public): Each Lakefront employee is educated on the environmental initiatives that Lakefront has in place. Additionally, Lakefront’s President, Russ Klisch, gives a special environmental tour each Friday at 3:30 p.m., where he highlights the various steps Lakefront takes to be more environmentally friendly.
n Waste Reduction, Reuse and Recycling: One big step we take for waste reduction is that all our spent grain is donated (not sold!) to a local organic farmer. His company, Growing Power (growingpower.org), composts the spent grain for use as an organic fertilizer.
nEnergy Efficiency, Conservation and Management: Currently, 5% of Lakefront’s power, which is purchased from WE Energies, is derived from wind power. 95% of Lakefront’s existing incandescent lighting has been replaced with compact fluorescent light bulbs.
n Water Conservation and Wastewater Management: Lakefront uses reclaimed heat energy to brew beer. As hot wort leaves the mash-tun, it is rapidly cooled by cold water in a heat exchanger. The heat energy from the wort is transferred to the cold water and the heated water is used to brew the next batch of beer.
n Wildlife and Landscape Conservation and Management: Lakefront is built on a brownfield; brownfields are property where the expansion, redevelopment or reuse of it could be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a pollutant or contaminant Every acre of brownfield that is reclaimed saves 4.5 acres of greenfield (EPA figure).
I think it’s particularly important to note that because we donate our spent grain to be used for organic fertilizer, then in turn use organic ingredients, we work to be part of the sustainability cycle.
The 100% Wisconsin-grown beer is called Local Acre. Here’s what we have to say about it (from our sales sheet): A distinctly wonderful home-grown flavor comes from the hops and barley being grown in the state’s beautiful summer climate and sandy loam soil that makes this brew a one-of-a-kind Wisconsin original. The organic 6-row lacey barley from a hard-working farm in Columbus gives Local Acre its malty-sweet backbone, hazy golden straw color and generous body. Diligent farmers in Hortonville and Mazomanie supply Nugget and Cascade hops for a delicate bitterness with a mild hop flavor and a slightly citrus aroma.
Our Organic E.S.B. was one of the first commercially produced organic beers using 100% organic ingredients, even the hops, but we like to think the taste is its biggest selling point.
 NEW BELGIUM BREWING CO.
Fort Collins, Colo., founded 1991 (newbelgium.com)
A vote by employee owners in 1999 led to New Belgium Brewing become the first brewery in the country to convert to wind energy to lower the brewery’s carbon footprint. Another 15% of its energy needs are met by capturing methane from its water treatment plant for a methane-fired co-generator.
Last November the largest private array of photovoltaic solar panels in Colorado – 870 panels that generate 200 kilowatts – went online atop the bottling facility. Light tubes illuminate the building. Heat generated by brewing is captured and reused.
New Belgium is also a member of 1% For the Planet, and donates one percent of sales to environmental causes. After one year of employment, New Belgium employees are given a cruiser bicycle (and after five years of employment, they are awarded an expenses-paid trip to Belgium).
 SIERRA NEVADA BREWING CO.
Chico, Calif., founded 1980 (sierranevada.com)
Sierra Nevada is not only a pioneer in the American craft brewing industry, it’s also a recognized pioneer in renewable energy and sustainable practices in a state that prides itself on being green. Gov. Terminator himself recognized the brewery’s green efforts in 2005 with the Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Awards.
The brewery’s goal is 100% sustainable energy production.
In 2008 it went online with a solar-powered system so large – 6,700 185-watt panels – that the brewery not only supplies the majority of its own electricity need but it also supplies extra energy to the overtaxed California power grid.
The brewery estimates it diverts more than 30,000 tons of material from landfills every year, saving the company about $3 million annually in hauling and tipping fees. Co-generation boilers harvest waste heat for other heating needs. Waste methane generated at the brewery’s wastewater treatment plant is used as a fuel source. CO2 produced by natural fermentation is captured and used to carbonate the beer during bottling. Leftover brewing yeast is converted into ethanol.
 STEVENS POINT BREWERY
Stevens Point, Wis., founded 1857 (pointbeer.com)
Ken Carlson, director of brewing and quality control at Stevens Point Brewery, said everyone there knows the three Rs: Reduce, reuse, recycle.
“We try to keep those in mind,” he said. “We’ve got our challenges, being an older brewery. It wasn’t really designed to be energy efficient, and sometimes converting it to be energy efficient is a little more complicated than starting that way. But we know it’s the way to go.”
Stevens Point Brewery is the last brewery in Wisconsin to offer beer in returnable bottles, and possibly the last in the country.
“I think that’s true. I don’t know it for a fact, but we’re the last one I
know of,” Carlson said. “You’re reusing the bottles, reusing the packaging. In all reality
it does take some chemicals to clean the bottles but if you use environmentally friendly chemicals you get around that. It’s less than buying new, and where are you buying that from? It’s closing the loop really.”
Carlson said the brewery has taken a number of steps to being greener, from installing energy-efficient lighting and recycling as much water as it can to ensuring suppliers are eco-friendly and capturing C02 from fermentation to reuse in the bottling process.
“We scrub it with activated carbon so we don’t pick up any odor and inject it into bottled beer. We’ve been doing that for quite awhile,” he said. “It just makes sense to go green.”
|
