A recent carbon footprint analysis of Fat Tire Amber Ale highlights a few other areas that deserve attention. Producing and assembling the ingredients—malt, hops, water, and fizzy CO2 bubbles—created 678 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent, or about 21 percent of the total footprint for a bottled six-pack. A significant chunk of that—244 grams—comes from the production of synthetic fertilizers for the barley and related soil emissions, so the authors suggest that switching to organic barley could make a considerable impact. (Keep in mind, though, that making a special car trip to purchase hard-to-find, earth-friendly brews might negate any upstream CO2 savings.) In Denmark, one company now brews with unmalted barley, which they claim reduces its beer's emissions by 8 percent.
Refrigeration, both in the store and at home, represented another third of Fat Tire's footprint. All things being equal, then, beers that don't need to be refrigerated—like strong beers and standard ales—should have a lower footprint than lighter beers that are best kept cold.
I'd be much happier to give up my car than my beer.
But with respect to being more mindful, there are a lot of breweries out there looking to be more efficient.
I just got back from the Anderson Valley brewery in Boontville CA. and did the brewery tour, They have quite an establishment there, 60% of there energy comes from solar, and they recycle 100% of there waste water. As well they are starting to move to Cans, which I feel is a far superior way to distribute beer, but is much more energy efficient.
I'm looking into making seltzer with my out-gassed CO2 from fermentation to shrink my footprint. I like that some breweries are gassing their excess into algae filled tubes for scrubbing as well. Algae can be an excellent scrubber! I don't ever want the environmentalists to start shouting at the breweries. We have a hard enough time as is with alcohol laws and such that extra negative attention wouldn't be a good thing. I bet we are on the list though.
__________________ "Beer... Nutritious and Delicious!"
A 37 page report describing the carbon footprint of fire tire?!?! How much carbon footprint does it take to create a 37 page carbon footprint analysis?
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Primary - English Bitter, Belgian Specialty Ale
Secondary - Pilsner
I really like the first two items on the list:
1. Biodiesel fired brew kettle using HUB fryer oil
2. Waste pizza oven heat captured to heat brewing water
I really like the first two items on the list:
1. Biodiesel fired brew kettle using HUB fryer oil
2. Waste pizza oven heat captured to heat brewing water
And the beer is pretty tasty too
werd.
Last time I was in Portland I visited a bunch of breweries. I went to Hopworks twice. And I bought one of their mugs.
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Kegged: Stout
Barrelled: Oregon Group Brew Stout
Long term Secondary: Fool's Gold Barleywine
Next: Bohemian Pilsener
If you're using carbon footprint to determine whether to drink beer or wine, you're probably better off drinking some water from the tap because what you drink isn't very important to you to begin with.
Drink Sierra Nevada. They actually end up selling back to the grid.
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Primary:
Kegged (aging):
Kegged (Drinking): Cider
Bottled:Devil May Cry 10-10-10
On Deck: Berlinerweiss, more cider
Planning: Mild Follow me on Twitter
Doesn't New Belgium have it's own waste treatment plant on site?
I'm not so convinced that organic barley is that much greener. It takes a lot more diesel to plow the fields than to spray them with nitrogen and there is a lot of carbon released when turning over the soil. I haven't seen any stats either way but I'm not willing to blindly believe that the organic barley is inherently greener.
Doesn't New Belgium have it's own waste treatment plant on site?
I'm not so convinced that organic barley is that much greener. It takes a lot more diesel to plow the fields than to spray them with nitrogen and there is a lot of carbon released when turning over the soil. I haven't seen any stats either way but I'm not willing to blindly believe that the organic barley is inherently greener.
Yeah, I've heard some of the same things about organic farming, plus you get less yield per acre so you are using up more land to grow organic barley, and moving your equipment through more fields for the same amount.
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"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." - V
Primary: Nothin Secondary: Shady Lord RIS, Water to Barleywine, Pumpkin wine, burnt mead Kegged: Crappy infected mild Bottles: Apfelwein, 999 Barleywine, Oatmeal Stout, Robust Porter, Robust smoked porter, Simcoe Smash
Slate Article on the "green"-ness of Wine & Beer
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