Abstract
Intensive water and energy use, copious volumes of wastewater and solid waste, and large carbon footprints make the process of brewing and distributing beer a not-so-(environmentally)-friendly industry. However, the rise of craft breweries and their perceived foci on environmental, economic and/or social sustainability trends have promulgated a “greening” in the beer industry at local to global scales. To assess the geographies of sustainability in the craft beer industry, we distributed a mixed method survey to all regional craft breweries in the United States. Overall, more sustainable practices have been adopted at various levels of the craft beer production, including the reduction of water and energy use and increased energy efficiency, the use of organic or local ingredients, and the incorporation of a culture that promotes sustainability. These and related findings showcase certain sustainability trends and practices being adopted by regional craft breweries in the United States.
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Notes
- 1.
The total economic impact of beer is far greater, at approximately 246 billion $ (Beer Institute 2012).
- 2.
One US barrel = 31 gallons = 119 L = about 330 twelve ounce beers
- 3.
There are variations of sparging, including English or batch sparging, which drains the wort completely, and German or fly sparging, which adds water as wort is drained. More recently, craft breweries such as Alaska Brewing Company are incorporating mash filter presses that require less water and produce greater wort extraction without compromising wort quality.
- 4.
As a notable exception, Alaskan Brewing Company uses a special boiler that burns spent grain to generate electricity, thus using waste product and creating renewable energy from it.
- 5.
One MJ is 947.8 BTU or 0.2778 kW h, which equates to the amount of energy to light a 100-watt incandescent light bulb for nearly 3 h.
- 6.
One hL is 100 L
- 7.
These companies include ABInBev, Carlsberg, Heineken, MillerCoors, MolsonCoors, New Belgium, and SAB Miller.
- 8.
- 9.
See Schnell & Reese’s chapter on how local identify and place associate with US microbreweries, as well as Ebert’s chapter on neolocalism in Canada.
- 10.
Batzli’s chapter showcases the historical and contemporary geographic distribution of all US breweries open since 1890, categorized into six distinct periods.
- 11.
We calculated 94 as a few breweries were double listed or owned by the same company but brew under two names.
- 12.
following IRB guidelines
- 13.
William Gossett, an employee of Guinness (as in the beer), developed the student’s t-test to assist in quality control. His research determined that an n of 30 was needed such that results from tests of differences would be statistically significant. See Student 1908.
- 14.
One brewer found our use of the term “sustainability” misleading and noted that “no brewery or manufacturer can exist today without the outside input of petroleum products—thus it is not really “sustainable” in the long term—a better term might be reduced impact or environmentally friendly.” We note here their concern but that our definition of sustainability equates to, rather than contrasts, their suggested alternative terminologies.
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Hoalst-Pullen, N., Patterson, M., Mattord, R., Vest, M. (2014). Sustainability Trends in the Regional Craft Beer Industry. In: Patterson, M., Hoalst-Pullen, N. (eds) The Geography of Beer. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7787-3_11
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