Are Breweries That Bad For The Environment?
Throughout my life I have been surrounded by beer culture due to my father working for many beer giants like MillerCoors, Heineken Group, and Crest Beverage. In these companies, he excelled as the top salesman since he was passionate about the beer products and the culture that came with it. As a child I remember asking him what type of beer he was selling, the taste differences of each, and if he personally liked the taste. This interest has lead to me to begin brewing IPA’s in my kitchen. I brew ten gallon batches every 1–2 months and although I haven’t gotten the best results I have learned quite a bit about the “behind the scenes” side of beer. This process opened my eyes to how much brewing and the environment are so closely intertwined so I began doing some research.
When speaking of breweries and the environment, most people believe you can only have one or the other. In the past, breweries were known as an environmental nightmare thought to use too much water and energy, outdated farming techniques, and harmful transportation methods. Though this is still very true for major producers of beer (Anheuser-Busch, MillerCoors, etc.) America has recently changed it’s beer preferences shifting the industry into a craft market. With this change happening before our eyes, the smaller breweries have been given the opportunity to change these methods of production and transportation for the better.
Though the FSMA and FDA have set manufacturing standards, smaller craft breweries like Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, and Brooklyn Brewing have taken it a step further to preserve the environment. These breweries use techniques like refabrication of old metals, recycling, reusing spent grains, using local ingredients, lowering their carbon footprint during transportation, and even using the steam from one batch of beer to warm the next batch of beer. These breweries are creating new ways of preserving the environment with every new batch of beer they produce.
Though this may seem like just a drop in the bucket, these craft beer manufactures are beginning to take up a large portion of the beer industry’s market share. In fact, Sierra Nevada was recently ranked number ten on the list of largest breweries in terms of production volume. Right behind them at number eleven is New Belgium Brewing, who takes conservation to the next level. On their website they offer information on where they source their ingredients from, how much waste, energy, water, they use and how they have been trying to save the Colorado River. Although craft beer makes up to twenty-two percent of the country’s sales, one could see how the conservation war is a losing battle, especially when “big beer” is buying out smaller breweries that are gaining popularity. To put things into perspective, Anheuser-Busch makes up forty-six percent of last year’s beer sales and is acquiring craft breweries left-and-right. 10-Barrell Brewing, Goose Island, Elysian Brewing, Golden Road Brewing, and many others have already fallen to Anheuser-Busch which stunts environmental conservation efforts within the brewery due to them increasing production in hopes of more profit.
There is hope however, seeing that in one year the craft beer sales have doubled form ten percent in 2016 to 22 percent in 2017. With craft beer gaining significant market share, they will continue to brew beer with environmentally cautious processes as they grow. If these trends continue, there will be less worry for the environment within the brewing industry.
https://www.mbaa.com/brewresources/foodsafety/Pages/FSMA-and-Breweries.aspx
https://www.craftbrewingbusiness.com/business-marketing/8-ways-breweries-helping-environment/