Thumbs up for green brewers

September 12, 2007: The new edition of the Campaign for Real Ale's (CAMRA's) Good Beer Guide lavishes praise on a number of brewers who are making a contribution to combating global warming and reducing carbon emissions.

Good Beer Guide editor Roger Protz said: “At a time when beer is blamed — wrongly — for most of the problems of society, it's good to praise brewers who believe strongly in their local communities and combating global warming and carbon emissions.”

Pride of place goes to Adnams, the family-owned brewery based in Southwold, Suffolk, whose Bitter and Broadside beers are national brands. Its brewhouse has an energy recovery system that recycles 100% of the steam created during the brewing process and uses it to heat 90% of the following brew.

The carbon reduction team at the University of East Anglia regularly monitors Adnams' carbon dioxide output and recommends ways to reduce it. The brewery uses less glass in its bottles — down by 34% — and in total Adnams has reduced its CO2 emissions by 415 tonnes a year.

A new warehouse has been designed so that most of the buildings are below road level. The roofs have grass on top and rain water is collected for washing the buildings and is even used for employees' showers. Adnams sources most of its grain from local farmers to further reduce carbon output and it helps in the regular cleaning of Southwold's beaches.

Both the Freeminer Brewery, in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, and the Westerham Brewery, Kent, have launched Fair Trade beers. Both brewers import Fair Trade demerara sugar from a growers' co-operative in Malawi. Westerham's Freedom Ale has been so successful that sales in draught form have overtaken its mainstream British Bulldog.

Don Burgess, at Freeminer, has also been involved in a scheme to use grain grown by identifiable farms to boost local farmers against the power of agribusiness. He works with Warminster Maltings, run by Robin Appel Associates, with a scheme called From Field to Firkin. This enables brewers to have contracts with named farmers who specialise in growing Maris Otter barley.

Maris Otter was de-listed by big farmers and maltsters as it is less high yielding than more modern varieties, but it remains the preferred malting barley of craft brewers. Now brewers are given a warranty of origin so they know which farmer grow their barley and in which fields. Warminster has developed a directory of farms with details of soil type, domain and harvesting techniques.

Buntingford Brewery, in Royston, Hertfordshire, also uses Warminster grain as part of the From Field to Firkin scheme. The brewery is based on a conservation farm where all brewery waste liquid is treated in a reedbed.

The City of Cambridge Brewery, in Chittering, Cambridgeshire, disposes of liquid waste in surrounding reedbeds.

And at the Orkney Brewery all beer is brewed along strict ecological lines. It uses its own water supply, and all waste is treated through two lakes, which support fish and Mallard ducks.

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