Brewing a Better Future: How Pure Project is Redefining Craft Beer with Sustainability
San Diego is renowned for our flourishing craft brewing scene. With well over 150 craft and microbreweries in the city, it’s become difficult to for breweries to stand out and differentiate themselves — but one brewery has stood out to me not just for their beer (which is excellent) but for their mission as well.
Pure Project Brewing has a unique niche in the San Diego beer scene. The founders decided to start Pure while hiking in a national park — and wanted to create a brewery dedicated to sustainability, using local and organic ingredients, and using beer as a force for good. Since 2013, as a 1% for The Planet company, they’ve donated hundreds of thousands of dollars towards preserving open spaces across the United States.
I caught up with Spencer Higgs, Pure Brewing’s Community Brand Manager, to talk about Pure’s environmental efforts, the pros and cons of being in such a saturated market, company culture, and, perhaps most importantly, where to find their beer!
I’m chiefly interested in the concept of resilience — personal, communal, and societal. What does the concept of resilience mean to you and Pure Brewing?
Resilience and sustainability go hand-in-hand, and of course, we have a heavy focus on sustainability. For instance, when we decide to brew a new beer, we start with the ingredients, not the style. We source ingredients — whenever possible — by what’s local, in season, organic, and grown regeneratively. This invests in sustainable agriculture and distances us from reliance on foreign or unhealthy ingredients that are subject to everything from supply chain issues to health risks to geo-political unrest. We’re also committed to long-term sustainable business goals that build company resilience, like solar powering our breweries and minimizing water use in the ever-drier southwest.
Can you talk more about your sustainability efforts?
For starters, Pure Project was founded on the concept of making beer a force for good. We focus our sustainability efforts on reducing our impact as a business; sourcing ingredients, products, and services with sustainability in mind; and donating to environmental non-profits that conserve, regenerate, and legislate to protect our planet.
As previously mentioned, we brew our beers with an ingredients-first approach. We’ve also significantly reduced waste and emissions at multiple points in our brewing and hospitality operations. While we do our best, we recognize that we’re not perfect. So, whatever we can’t eliminate, we offset through verified programs.
But we want to effect change beyond our brewery doors too, so as a 1% For The Planet member we donate one percent of gross sales to environmental nonprofits, among other donations. I can give you a keg full of other examples, but those are the big ones.
San Diego has a world-renowned craft brewing scene with hundreds of craft breweries in the area. Does your commitment to sustainability differentiate you from other breweries in the scene? Do you think that other breweries are trending towards sustainability?
Yes and yes. I think it sets us apart in three ways: firstly, a lot of people in the community appreciate that we go to such lengths to do business in a better way. And, because our ingredients are of such high quality, we feel it leads to an overall better-tasting product than otherwise. Lastly, our attention to detail comes out in our taproom environments as well, where we’ve created spaces reflective of the clean, natural environment we’re trying to protect.
Industry-wide, other breweries are moving in a similar direction, be it for their business or the environment. I think brewers in certain areas recognize that sustainability can help increase customer loyalty, reduce expenses, and stay ahead of environmental policies.
Can you talk about any pros with being in such a large, mature craft brewing scene? Are there any cons?
There are both pros and cons. With north of 150 breweries, there’s a lot of competition in San Diego. You really have to be on top of your game here; you need to be good at brewing and at business. On the other hand, the beer scene is very collaborative and supportive. We’ve been able to make a lot of beers with other breweries we admire, swapping recipes and brewing methods, and helping each other reach new beer fans. San Diego is a bottomless well of brewing inspiration.
Resilience is more than just environmental. Can you talk about any obstacles that Pure Brewing has overcome? How has Pure Brewing worked to build resilience into the company culture?
Pure Project focuses on building and maintaining a strong company culture which has certainly made the company more successful and resilient. Management has a knack for finding people who fit with our team exceptionally well. I’ve been very impressed with the synergy here — everyone is very skilled, passionate, and collaborative. Successes are celebrated and there’s a genuine sense of ownership and pride, which has helped us expand from a single location in Miramar to five taprooms throughout San Diego County.
Can you share any examples of how Pure Brewing has responded to challenges or disruptions in the brewing industry?
The pandemic certainly brought about a huge disruption for everyone, not limited to the brewing industry. Luckily we were able to shift our offerings to meet both the lockdown orders and changes in consumer behavior by offering to-go options and statewide shipping direct to customers.
Can you talk about the biggest success that you’ve had with Pure Brewing? Any large milestones?
I think everyone considers the sheer amount of money we’ve been able to donate to environmental non-profits as a massive success. To date, we’ve donated about $400,000, which has helped conserve coastlines, rivers, and natural habitats throughout the country.
Craft brewing touches a lot of environmental areas — from water (and wastewater), to agriculture, to the use of bottles and cans, to name a few. Where do you see the biggest gains still to be made for the brewing scene? Where have gains already been made?
Advancements are needed across all of those areas, and every brewery is ahead or behind in certain ones. Ultimately, I think where we have the most ground to gain is simply not cutting corners. We have a maxim at Pure Project: do what’s right even if it costs more. That’s a hard thing for a lot of breweries (and people in general) to do, but it’s necessary and usually profitable when done efficiently.
What do you see as the future of craft brewing?
If you ask a brewer, a beer fan, and an economist, you’ll likely get three different answers! But we’re really excited to see what feels like a growing interest in new ingredients (including new hop strains), new styles, and streamlining operations. I think the latter will be where a lot of breweries turn to increase monetary savings.
What’s next for Pure Brewing?
We have a lot of awesome beers on our release calendar. You’re going to be stoked, I promise! We’re also increasing our distribution so that we can get Pure Project beers to more people in more places.
What are the best ways for people to learn more about, or get involved with, Pure Brewing?
Swing by a taproom for the full Pure experience. Our beertenders are incredibly knowledgeable and can guide you to the perfect pour or a flight of truly unique beers. And when you see how we’ve designed each location, you’ll understand exactly what I mean about how our taproom environments reflect the natural environment. And sign up for our newsletters to stay atop events and special releases!
Want to learn more? Go more in depth here:
How San Diego Breweries are Offsetting Craft Beer’s Water Footprint
