Orlando Brewing
September 16, 2009
I don’t know about you, but the business of brewing beer is not what jumps to the top of my mind when I think about the Sustainability movement and industry. Yet there he sat, with that familiar Midwest middle-aged charm, freshly poured beer in hand, educating us how the Orlando Brewery has accomplished notable Sustainability goals in just a few short years.
Gene Lohri, Quality and Training Director for the brewery, demonstrates how Orlando Brewing is Florida’s only certified organic brewery in the Southeast and only one of eight in the country. Putting that into perspective, Lohri further qualified the Southeast as everything south of Vermont and east of the Rocky Mountains. Lohri likes to think of the brewery as being “Tip of the spear” in their quest for a superior Organic product and Sustainability. They use only recycled plastic holders for their packaging; donate 28% of their stripped grains to farmers for chicken feed; and their spent yeast goes to home breweries where it can be reused up to 5 times over.
The Brewing Industry & Sustainability
A closer look at this industry we see that across the country as more and more breweries start to embrace green practices, a few have begun to stand out. New Belgium Brewery located in Ft. Collins, Colorado, has done much when it comes to using wind power and cutting way back on waste. New Belgium is using 40% less energy per barrel of output than the average American brewer as they aggressively target reduction of energy use through conservation and efficiency, getting the most out of what other less eco-savvy businesses would consider only waste. Collecting methane from the brewing wastewater and uses it to fire a 290-kilowatt electric generator, New Belgium saves $2,500 to $3,000 a month by generating its own electricity. But the system’s biggest savings came from avoiding the steep fees that would be assessed by the city of Fort Collins to treat the brewery’s nutrient-rich wastewater. All breweries could potentially do this. Reducing waste makes as much economic sense as it does from an ecological point of view.
Orlando Brewing – Organic Plus
Orlando Brewing’s Blonde Ale has been officially certified organic by the USDA. Being organic means the beer has only four ingredients; water, hops, barley malt and yeast. Crafting Orlando Brewing Ales includes using special Briess organic malt #5450 from Wisconsin, which are grown without insecticides, bioengineering, or irradiation. And the rest of the certified organic ingredients come from Tampa. The water used is good old OUC hard water that is carbon filtered using a reverse osmosis process and has no chlorine; perfect for brewing. A look at the water fountain in the brew pub and you will see OUC’s branded – Made with H2OUC.
Orlando Brewing brews in accordance with the German Purity Law of 1516; which means that they use only natural, organic ingredients. They never use fillers or adjuncts to the brewing process. The beer is fresh and never pasteurized; hence has a limited shelf life of only a handful of months; as long as it stays cold. These hand-crafted organic ales and lagers are already available in many bars and restaurants across Central Florida.
Lohri relies a great deal on “brew interns” to get the brew out the door. The stainless steel brew kettles are from “Modern Brewing & Design” in Santa Rosa, CA, and are big enough to brew 15 barrels (31 gallons each barrel) per week. And the bottling line can put out 60 cases per hour when fully engaged. And the bottles are grouped into six packs using recycled plastic bottle rings.
Impressive Reclaim
Lohri says that even though they are too small to capture the CO2 from the spent yeast, which would lower their carbon footprint, all of the yeast goes to home brewers where it can be used up to 5 times over. And much of the decoction mash, the spent malt and grain, is dried and goes to a local organic chicken farm as feed and fertilizer. Since it is comprised of some 28% protein, some of it also goes into making dog food. Lohri is also working with a local baker to pelletize the malt so that it can be used to make bread, pizza dough and pretzels!
The USGBC here in Central Florida applauds Gene Lohri and Orlando Brewing for being an outstanding example of recycling, reusing and renewing precious local resources and practicing a truly sustainable business.
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