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Sustainable breweries assistance

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Environmental assessments

 

We offer free environmental assessments to raise awareness on the environmental impacts of brewing beer. We also provide brewers with pollution prevention strategies.

We perform free, on-site assessments at breweries. We have discovered some pollution prevention techniques and identified some opportunities for breweries to become more environmentally-friendly.

We have developed a Sustainable Breweries Program Report summarizing the first year of sustainable brewery assistance, including findings, recommendations, and lessons learned:

 

Best Practices in most breweries:

  • Upgrading fluorescent lights to CFL or LEDs to save energy.
  • Installing low NOx emissions burners in boilers to reduce air pollution.
  • Using clean-in-place methods to save water.
  • Reducing waste by reusing spent grains as animal feed at local farms.

Unique ways to prevent pollution in breweries:

  • Offsetting grid-supplied electricity with photovoltaic solar arrays. 
  • Integrating a rain catchment system on roofs that route rainwater to a sand filter, removing solids before discharging into the Platt River. 
  • Routing the waste CO2 from fermentation to an aquarium that grows a special strain of algae. The algae are used by an external company to develop sustainable printer ink. 
  • Using repurposed materials to create all furniture in the tap room, including the bar. 

Practices that could be started at more breweries:

  • Starting a leak detection program for air and water.
  • Installing motion sensors on lights in low traffic areas such as warehouse or a fermentation room. 
  • Installing a zip door with an automatic closing timer in walk-in coolers.
  • Switching to a waterless canning line that uses an "Ionized air-rinse." 

Participating breweries include Avery, Asher, Breckenridge, Crazy Mountain, Great Divide, Horse and Dragon, Left Hand, Purpose and Upslope. 

 

 

Kaitlin Urso

Small Business Assistance Program

303-691-4951

kaitlin.urso@state.co.us 

Derek Boer 

Pollution Prevention Program

303-692-2977

derek.boer@state.co.us