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Sustainability is increasingly part of the craft beer ethos…Brewers are making their beers from leftovers…and many brewery leftovers are now being passed on for other businesses to build on.
We’ve written about TOAST, the small London brewery, so committed to recycling foods that in most cases would be wasted, that they offer nothing but ales brewed using old bread.
Toast Ale is currently contracting their flagship creations (a Lager, a Pale Ale and a Session IPA) to Hambleton Ales in Yorkshire, and they’ve also brewed a ‘toasted’ ale in the Bronx.
And TOAST is not alone in brewing beers from foods that might end up as garbage. The UK’s Northern Monk has reportedly brewed a Pear Farmhouse Ale using (you guessed it) unwanted pears and old bread products like croissants and brioche.
Washington, DC-based Atlas Brew Works recently crafted a delicious sour ale from ‘ugly fruit’, so bruised and unsightly that would it have been discarded.
And craft brewers are passing on their spent grains as well and giving birth in turn too new lines of commercial products.
Regrained makes a full line of energy bars crafted with spent brewery grains. Austin, Texas-based Hops & Grain sell their own brand of dog biscuits from recycled grain that would have been discarded.
And Cleveland’s Great Lakes Brewing has adopted a ‘Zero Waste’ initiative…Their delivery trucks run on vegetable oil recycled from the brewery’s kitchen, and their taproom now serves organic veggies and herbs that they’ve farmed themselves.
New Belgium has been awarded many times over, for their water conservation efforts and their efficiency in reducing, reusing and recycling waste. And Sierra Nevada’s new Mills River location has been honored with a LEED Platinum certification — the highest level awarded for their sustainability efforts!
And there’s always more…
Kalamazoo Michigan’s Arcadia Ales has implemented full-fledged biofuel production from their waste products, all their spent grains go to local farmers. and 25% of the brewery’s power is the result of the 536 solar panels they’ve in place.
Arcadia is also knee-deep in water conservation efforts and they are actively involved in the Sustainable Brewing Program, the nation’s first higher education program in sustainable brewing.
Whew!
So next time your drinking buddies are giving you a hard time and claiming that the beer you’re drinking is toast…tell them ‘that’s right” and maybe order another.
