Lets start with Great Lakes Brewing. With their home being a mere two miles from Lake Erie and their product relying heavily on water, they have made a great commitment to water conservation including hosting a music festival for over ten years which raises money for the cause. Beyond the water, they sustainably farm all their produce and specialty hops locally in their home town which ensures freshness and saves on freight costs. They haven't left out their buildings which have great eco-features like radiant heat flooring in their beer garden as well as the city's first commercial straw bale wall and solar panels help to power their facility. Waste doesn't exist at Great Lakes as they make a point to use their spent grain in the soil at their farm or to feed the livestock which provide the meat used in their brewpub. Even the used vegetable oil from their pub gets new life being filtered and reused in their "Fatty Wagon" which provides a shuttle service between their pub and a nearby sporting venue. All in all an outstanding work in sustainability, especially if you consider that they made their home in the urban sprawl of Cleveland, Ohio.
Another awesome eco-friend is Left Hand Brewing. In May of 2009 they formed a group within their employees called Left Hand Green who work together to help improve the breweries energy use and waste streams. They are continuing to make changes and improvements through this group but lets take a look at what they've done so far. Almost all of the lighting in their facility has been converted to compact fluorescent bulbs and those that haven't been are set to be replaced as they burn out. But that is just a drop in the pan of energy savings compared to their flash steam recovery system which according to their website recaptures 356,805 BTU of would-be lost energy which is in turn used to heat water for brewing and cleaning. Their tasting room, offices, and one of the air compressors are powered by their solar panel system, and the things not running on solar are monitored so that their efficiency can be maximized. Spent grains from their brewery bypass the landfill to become feed for livestock and as many things as are possible, including everything from cardboard to malt and other ingredient bags, are being recycled. Definitely a bright star in Colorado's broad group of brewers.
Not to be left out of this list of great earth friendlies is Brooklyn Brewery. They have the distinction of being the first company in New York City to use 100% wind generated energy. No, they don't have a giant windmill on top of their building. They purchase their wind power from a wind farm in upstate NY. Along with their wind use, they recycle all their paper, plastics, and bottles as well as the hot water from the brewhouse. Their grain, like the others I've mentioned, becomes feed for livestock in two different locations. They have upgraded a lot of their equipment to insure its maximum efficiency and added lots of high tech insulation on their pipes. They also claim to have a vapor collection system for their kettles but they don't go into a lot of specific details on it or really any of these upgrades on their website. I guess if you want to know more you can always take a tour of their Brooklyn facility which is available on weekends and free!
Many other breweries have made great strides in giving back to the planet which gives us the things needed to make the beer we love. I couldn't possibly cover them all but just a few more shouldn't be completely left out. Sierra Nevada has one of the largest private solar installations in the country and was the first brewery to install hydrogen fuel cells. New Belgium has Team Wonderbike which is a collective of their fans pledging to use their bikes and other alternate transportation to reduce their carbon footprint among other sustainable choice made in their facility. So many people working to make a change while they work to make great beer. I don't know about you but this hippie is thirsty. Cheers!
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