Sustainability and Responsibility

 

Greetings all!

Well just received our syllabus for the Craft Brewery Start-up Workshop in Bend, Ore. on September 9^th.   It was refreshing to see that along with many of the typical topics one would assume would be discussed (e.g. finance, operations, logistics) was  sustainability.  Given that there are, at last count, 2,483 microbreweries in the United States, sustainability is a clearly a topic that all current and future microbrewery owners need to address.

Many of the larger microbrewers have already taken steps towards sustainability and beyond.  New Belgium, for example, approaches sustainability from the perspective of core company values, environmental metrics, sourcing and community.  Similarly, Sierra Nevada has had a long commitment to supporting the cause of sustainability and has a very extensive webpage detailing the steps that they are taking to continually improve their processes, energy efficiency/generation and minimize waste.

All along we’ve been considering how we can make our brewery, even in the start-up phase, more consistent with the tenets of sustainability; it will be interesting to hear how others are tackling this problem as start-up microbreweries.

 

Switching from sustainability to responsibility, the New York Times today featured the results of a small study out of Johns Hopkins which found that five beer brands were prevalent among emergency room patients who had consumed beer within the 6 hours prior to their presentation to the emergency room (Budweiser, Steel Reserve, Colt 45, Bud Ice, and Bud Light).  Moreover, nearly 46% of beer consumed by emergency room patients in this study was accounted for by four malt liquors (Steel Reserve – 8.1% ABV, Colt 45 – 6% ABV, Bud Ice – 5.5% ABV and King Cobra – 6% ABV), despite the fact that these four accounted for less than 2 percent of the beer consumed among Americans.

While things like study size, study location, demographics, etc make it difficult to interpret the implications of this study, the authors did suggest these results suggest that there should be better labeling on malt liquor beverages and less marketing. They also recommend a higher tax on beverages with higher alcohol content to discourage people from drinking more potent brands.

With many craft beers in the 6.5 – 7.5% ABV range, changes such as those suggested by the researchers conducting the above study, could have a significant impact on craft beer producers.  Consequently, like sustainability, responsibility and education are major considerations in the development of our business plan.

With the old adage, “all work and no play” in mind, it’s time to start brewing again.  Our recent first tap gathering has depleted our stores of tasty homebrew, with our robust porter being the latest victim.

The last of our experimental IPA batches (with single aromatic hops) is about to come out of the fermentor and will be transferred to a keg for dry hopping later this week.  While we wait for it to mature we are beginning work on a “sessionable” IPA recipe.  Our first attempt will draw from the taste profiles of our single aromatic hop IPA’s to date; can’t wait to get back to brewing.

More to come.