Sustainable Brewpub Crawl: Part I

Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Brewery, Brooklyn, N.Y.

OK, so Oktoberfest is behind you. You’ve shelved your hand-painted Bavarian beer stein, re-cased your accordion, and hung up your lederhosen or dirndl. But you’re still thirsty …

Want to embark on an eco-pub crawl, green brewery tour … sustainable brewpub trek? Craft breweries and large commercial breweries (Read “Solar roof crowns famous brewery”) alike are making better beer, saving money, and helping save the planet by brewing the foamy, golden juice sustainably.

Bring your buddies as you tour cross-country (map) from one remarkable green brewery to another, sampling each unique, tasty beer while sipping on their savory sustainable practices. We’ll discover what makes them green–water recovery, renewable power, waste reduction, heat recovery, and so forth—while drinking deeply what makes them brewlicious.

Of course, we’ll use green transportation only—rail, bus, bike, ferry, trolley, walking, crawling … no drinking and driving, and we don’t want to muck up the works by creating excessive emissions going from brewhouse to brewhouse.

Sideways!

Day 1. We’ll embark on our tour at …

1. Smuttynose Brewing Co. 105 Towle Farm Rd., Hampton, NH 03842. (daylighting, LEED®, heat recovery, energy efficiency).

Photos courtesy of Smuttynose Brewery, Hampton, N.H.

Bask in the warm, sunny ambiance of the brewery’s newly built Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED®) Gold-certified building while you sip your cool brew. Fortunately, you’ll arrive in the daytime so you can sun yourself in the profuse natural daylighting that floods the facility brought in by the floor-to-ceiling windows and Solatube International tubular daylighting devices.

Embrace the savory, sharp, sweet smells of yeast, malts, and hops from 270 barrel fermenting tanks as you appreciate the energy efficiencies integrated into the building’s design. “We can design amazing efficiency into a new facility by taking advantage of simple synergies between the different parts of our process and the structure itself,” President Peter Egelston said in a blog post. “Waste” heat is no longer a waste product, but a way of preheating our brewing water. Interior spaces that need to be cooled can be done naturally in the wintertime.”

Other building energy efficiency elements include LED lighting and automated interior light settings.

The Trip Advisor 2015 winner recently signed the Ceres Climate Declaration.

If you start drinking at the brewhouse’s opening and leave by 12:30 pm, you’ll get to your next stop by happy hour (3 hours, 11 minutes.) Get a ride or take a taxi to catch the bus and train to …

2. Harpoon Brewery. 306 Northern Ave., Boston, MA 02210 (water recycling)

Photo courtesy of Harpoon Brewery, Boston.

True hard-core beer drinkers are willing to experiment. You can sample a new, limited edition brew made from reverse-osmosis-treated Charles River water, just released Oct. 9.

Water treatment equipment manufacturer Desalitech made a one-time, limited withdrawal of water from the Charles River and purified it using its next-generation ReFlex™ reverse osmosis equipment featuring its patented CCD™ technology. Desalitech was able to recover 93 percent of the river water while using less energy and less water than traditional reverse osmosis systems. The CCD process typically reduces waste by 75 percent and energy consumption by up to 35 percent, the company says.

The resulting potable, clean drinking water was delivered to Harpoon Brewery, which used it to craft the final Charles River Pale Ale on tap. Hurry; harpoon a mug of it before supplies run out like a Boston Marathoner.

If you guzzle down the last of your brew and slip off your barstool by 4:50 p.m., you can get to your next stop by 9:23 p.m.–just in time to down your next brew before the tasting room closes at 11 p.m.

Head to the Boston South Station, take the Acela Express train and bus, plus a little walking (4 hours, 32 minutes) to …

3. Brooklyn Brewery. 79 North 11th St., Brooklyn, NY 11249. (wind power, recycling, water reuse).

Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Brewery, Brooklyn, N.Y.

In support of neighborhood efforts  a decade ago to help keep a power plant from being built, Brooklyn Brewery committed to sourcing 100 percent of its electricity from wind energy–the first New York City company to do so. Brooklyn Brewery’s Director of Operations Matt Gordon explained that as an alternative to installing on-site wind turbines, which it doesn’t have space for, the company buys wind energy renewable energy certificates (RECs) through a third-party that buys the wind energy from a wind farm upstate. “It’s a great way for businesses and individuals to buy wind energy even if they don’t have the space for on-site generation or can’t afford it.”

Other initiatives flowed from there, he said, including recycling materials, donating spent grain for animal feed, reusing hot water from the brewhouse, and using a composter and compostable cups in its tasting room.

While you’re there appreciating the borough-named brewery’s sustainability initiatives, shake off the autumn chill with its Winter Ale. Inspired by the old ales of blustery Scotland and brewed in defiance of the cold wind off the East River, the Brooklyn Brewery’s Winter Ale is richly malty, aromatic, full-bodied, and delicious, the brewery site says. Not that cold? Gulp down its flagship Brooklyn Lager.

Take lodging for the night and get ready for the next day.

Day 2.

Head back to Penn Station by 9 a.m. so you can arrive at your next stop before noon (2 hours, 37 minutes).

4.     Yards Brewing Co.  901 N Delaware Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19123 (wind power, water reuse, sustainable packaging).

Be sure to belly up to the bar in the tasting room while you throw back the brewery’s signature ales–Brawler, Extra Special Ale, Philadelphia Pale Ale, and IPA—so you can fully admire the bar top made of reclaimed bowling lanes–waste repurposed at its best. Who could blame you if you end up dancing on the bar top? No one would notice the scuffmarks.

Like its neighbor to the north, Yards runs on 100 percent wind power. The brewery goes the extra yard with its other green initiatives: The brewery reuses about 2 million gallons of its process water, its packaging is sourcing from Sustainable Forestry Initiative-certified cardboard, its spent grain is given to farmers for animal feed, and food scraps are composted.

Say goodbye to your new friends by 3 p.m. to catch the Northeast Regional train and a series of buses to arrive at your next stop by 11 p.m. (7 hours).

5.     Dogfish Head Craft Brewery. 320 Rehoboth Ave., Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971  (water recovery, waste-to-energy)

Photo courtesy of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Rehoboth Beach, Del.

Located just three blocks from the Atlantic and its boardwalk, this brewery may be a little off the beaten path but worth the extra effort. Dogfish Head Craft Brewery recycles its wastewater and turns the waste into energy.

In 2014, the brewery partnered with GE Water and PurposeEnergy to build a water reclamation plant at its brewery. The system uses PurposeEnergy’s Tribrid-Bioreactor, which discharges an effluent low in suspended solids and devoid of soluble organics and GE’s anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) technology. Together, the technologies reduce the brewery’s wastewater volume by 80 percent, and total water consumption by 65 percent, and generates electricity (video), from the byproduct water.

Expectations are high that the process may become the de facto method of brewery wastewater processing. “Water quality is everything in breweries. It’s a high water-use process,” said Dogfish Head Brewmaster Tim Hawn.

By the time you’ve traveled the seven hours to get here and marveled at the water recovery system, you’re likely to be starving as well as thirsty. No problem. Pair your beer with some “beer-centric” tasty brats like the Greek Feta Brat made with chicken, feta cheese, mint, spinach, cumin, and lemon. Go well with the Hard-Tack Chowder. The brewhouse prides itself on being off-centered and doesn’t hesitate to douse its brats in … what else? Beer.

Then enjoy a night’s stay on the boardwalk and rest up for the Great Lakes leg of your eco-brewery trek.

In the morning, either travel by bus and Amtrak  (1 day, 5 hours–Add one extra day to your trip) or by bus and air (2 hours, 50 minutes) to Cleveland. Read “Sustainable brewpub crawl; Part II; Pushing through on eco-brewery tour, Great Lakes region,” and “Sustainable Brewpub Crawl: Western Mountains Region.”