Three Most Environmentally Friendly Beers

April 3, 2008

As a recent college boy, and a retired fraternity man at that, I’m frequently expected to know quite a bit about nature’s most perfect food, which is to say: beer.

Image from Somewhat Frank on Flickr

Being a writer for Environmental Graffiti, I’m expected to know the environment; thereby, I present to you all, three breweries that make it a point to not pillage the earth.

Image courtesy of Brooklyn Brewery

1. This is– personal testimony– the best beer of the bunch, even if it’s the “least creative” approach: Brooklyn Brewery, which powers their Brooklyn headquarters and brewery 100% on wind power. No offsets, nothing like that– just real sustainable energy, and all the power you need to produce 1.6 million gallons of beer every year. It’s estimated that they save 335,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from going into the atmosphere every year.

Image from anole on Flickr

2. New Belgium Brewery, in Fort Collins, Colorado, also uses wind power, but only for about 70 percent of their output–the remaining thirty comes from a process where they reclaim their waste water, cultivate bacteria, and then combust the methane to provide power for the plant. The water is then cleaned, used in the plant again for cooling, and treated before being pumped back to the city for use.

3. Coors? Really? Really. The giant may not be the MOST environmentally-friendly operation, but because they have such a massive output, their move towards environmentalism is remarkable. First, in the 1950s, Coors was the original aluminum beer car, enticing consumers to recycle what once held their libations instead of simply throwing away the steel cans that came before. Then there’s the ethanol. You may not believe it, but ethanol is a byproduct of brewing, and Coors, seeing an opportunity to make money as well as a difference, has started selling theirs to Colorado refineries, turning what was considered waste into E85.

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Written by Ben · Filed Under Green living

Comments

4 Responses to “Three Most Environmentally Friendly Beers”

Heather
Posted: Apr 3rd, 2008 at 7:32 pm

No, no, no! Coors is not environmentally friendly, at least not to anglers in Montana. They’ve been trying to take away our public stream access rights for years:
http://www.montanariveraction.org/stream.access.html

(Read: Out of state home and landowners don’t want local fishermen in their river during the two weeks they’re actually here.)

Anglers (and hunters) pay the fees responsible for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks - these recreationalists shouldn’t be kept off the very rivers that the organization manages.

I used to love the Banquet Beer, but no more!

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Heather
Posted: Apr 3rd, 2008 at 7:40 pm

But New Belgium & Brooklyn Brewery should go on with their bad selves! New Belgiums also gives faithful empoloyees a lifesize version of a “Fat Tire” bike for greener commuting.

But if you’re interested in what greenish things the biggies (Foster, Anhesier-Busch) are attempting beer-wise: http://envirovore.com/content/view/75/1/

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Jeff F.
Posted: Apr 3rd, 2008 at 9:31 pm

You really should look into the St. Arnold MicroBrewery in Houston. They have awesome beer… but they are also very very eco-friendly.

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Eric
Posted: Apr 5th, 2008 at 9:46 pm

Sierra Nevada brewery in Chico California is the real deal. They are almost entirely self-powered electrically from solar and high efficency fule cells. They are not faking it by buying credits like NBB or Brooklyn. (100% wind powered, what a laugh).

But realistically, almost all of the emodied energy in a six pack is in the packaging. That is why New Belgium and Brooklyn are greenwashing - hyping their green cred to sell product. In Old Belgium, that little country in Europe, beer lovers return their empties for reuse. New Belgium does not offer consumers that option, even in their home town of Fort Collins, Colorado.

Sierra Nevada does not greenwash. The only way I learned of the company’s environmental commitment was by reading engineering journals where the accomplishments were profiled for others to learn from.

A good PR department is not the same as a commitment to the environment.

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