PubCrawler.com - Beer Blog

Lucky Lab Brews with Solar Heated Water

2008-02-21T00:00:00-05:00

Cloudy, dreary, Portland, Oregon, February.

Up on the roof the sun heats the water to over 100 degrees. Downstairs the brewer goes to work filling the mash tun with hot water to saturate malted barley.

It's no different at the Lucky Labrador in Portland, Oregon (Hawthorne), except for the solar heated water part.

Brewing beer is hot water intensive. Hot water requires lots of money.

They are using 16 4x10 foot panels to gather heat from the sun. It's low 40's outside and their solar water is up to 145 degrees already.

Lucky Lab is already in the process of working on adding solar power water heating to their other locations. Way to go guys!

Olde Peninsula Brewpub Implements New Green

2008-02-15T00:00:00-05:00

Olde Peninsula Brewpub reopened after about two weeks of being closed.
The closure was for efficiency upgrades.

A new ice machine, fryes, griddles, refrigerators, hand dryers and compact fluorescent bulbs.

Estimated savings: 18,000 kilowatts of electric per year.

They are also making a once a month run to a local recycling facility for the wine and liquor bottles.

New Belgium Brewing Joins 'One Percent for the Planet'

2008-01-28T09:00:00-05:00

New Belgium Brewing joined One Percent for the Planet. One percent of New Belgium's sales will go towards the fund launched in 2001 by Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, and Craig Matthews, owner of Blue Ribbon Flies of Bozeman.

Since 2001, 1% members have donated more than $30 million USD towards environmental projects.

New Belgium will also continue giving one dollar per every barrel of beer sold to non-profit organizations.

Quite the environmental leader, New Belgium was the first brewery to buy wind power for it's operations.

Mogollon Brewing Producing Ethanol

2008-01-26T08:00:00-05:00

After producing vodka the lads at Mogollon Brewing decided that brewing ethanol made good sense.

The new venture called Earth Friendly Fuels includes plans to build a production facility outside Flagstaff, Arizona capable of 50 million gallons of ethanol annually.

The brewery is currently the only bar in Arizona permitted to produce ethanol.

Ontario Rounds Up 50,000 Beer Fridges

2008-01-25T09:00:00-05:00

Ontario's great beer fridge roundup claimed some success in it's first year. After having rounded up 50,000 old inefficient fridges last year, they have set a goal of eliminating 100,000 outdated fridges during 2008.

Old fridges on average cost $150 per year to operate. Most end up in the basement storing the occasional beer or the summer beverages.

Eliminating 100k fridges this year will save enough energy to power 15,000 homes.

Barley and Hops and Steel Add to Beer Prices

2008-01-25T01:00:00-05:00

That flowery citrus taste in your favorite beer might start costing you more. Worldwide hop harvest in fall 2007 was mediocre. Add to that the falling dollar and strong Euro and lots of the hops are finding their way to the other side of the Atlantic.

It takes about three years to get a hop field to production state. In the US there are an estimated 45 hop growers down from over 2,000 back in 1978.

Time for breweries to start experimenting with other bittering agents.

Barley, another staple of beer production saw prices increase over 17% during 2007. Part of the increase is attributable to farmers dedicating more acreage to more lucrative crops like corn (which is currently being gobbled up for making Ethanol).

The prices of aluminum and stainless steel are on the increase also as Asia feeds it need for raw materials.

Sierra Nevada Brewery goes 34% Solar

2008-01-24T07:30:00-05:00

Sierra Nevada Brewery moves closer to it's goal of being powered 100% by renewables.

Installation of 6,800 Mitsubishi 185 Watt panels began back in December 2007. The solar panels will provide 34% of Sierra's energy needs and are in addition to the recent installation of four 250-kilowatt co-generation fuel cells.