Recycled Beer Makes Its Mark on Green Living

In the last couple of years the country has seen an influx of major corporations jumping aboard the green bandwagon. Retailer super giants like Target, Payless Shoe Source and Lowe’s have begun to introduce Green, eco-friendly products to consumers. Wal-Mart launched its own environmental program in 2007 and since then more and more companies are riding the green wave. And now beer has made the eco-leap in a big way.

Anheuser Busch – Waste not want not.

Not only is Anheuser Busch involved in organic brewing but they have also been involved in a project to convert their own waste into energy. The St. Louis company dubbed their program Bers which is an acronym meaning bio-energy recovery systems.

According to a Treehugger.com article covering Anheuser Busch’s progress, the Bers program is designed to treat the wastewater created by 9 of the Anheuser Busch breweries. That wastewater will then be sent back through the system nice and clean. 80 percent of the waste is reduced which gives the sewage treatment plant a helping hand.

As if that weren’t awe inspiring in of itself, the Bers program also extracts methane. The methane is turned into energy. Anheuser Busch sells some of that methane to other companies and the cycle goes on.

Coors gasses up the place.

The Coors company is taking a totally different approach to the energy crisis. They’ve decided to turn their waste into fuel.

Coors Brewery joined up with Merrick & Co. to turn their brewing waste into a form of energy that could be used as fuel. Brewing waste, which is basically just beer that has been spilled, produces ethonal which then becomes a gas substitute. It has been compared to the making of moonshine.

The Valero Energy Corp has made a deal with Coors to purchase the gas substitute and distribute it throughout parts of Colorado.

In May, 2008 The Molson Coors Brewing Co. became the official ethanol providers of the Democratic National Convention. Their gas substitute will fuel up the fleet of cars full of politicians.

Not only are they serving up eco-friendly fuel alternatives but they are also supplying the beer for several of the events taking place during the convention in Denver.

According to The Denver Business Journal the convention planners have set out to make the Democratic National Convention the greenest convention to ever take place.

Greene King Brewery Gives Cows Something to Buzz About. While the other environmentally conscious beer makers are trying to figure out to make the best eco-fuel or how to turn wastewater into energy these guys are getting the cows drunk on recycled beer.

The Greene King Brewery from Suffolk UK are giving back to the community in a whole new way. Citizens can return their old, flat beer to a Beer Recovery Factory. The factory gives it to the local farmers.

Supposedly the cows are receiving nutrients from the barley without receiving any bad side effects. Farmers haven’t complained of sick cows and everyone seems to be happy about the alternative use of beer.

I imagine there are chefs thinking those steaks would taste mighty fine.

All these green, eco-friendly implements done by beer companies have me wondering what’s next in our future as a greener humanity. Will toilet paper manufacturers be the next to give us a new more eco-friendly product? Only time will tell where global warming will lead us I guess but at least the journey will be fascinating to watch.

Resources:
The Denver Business Journal
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2008/05/19/daily30.html

Big News Day
http://www.bignewsday.com/story.asp?code=CZ2543226U

Reel Beer
http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/news-002736.php

TreeHugger
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/06/beer_waste_energy.php