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Green Goat
HOW TO CLEAN A MOUNTAIN GOAT
Reducing the Environmental Impact of a Microbrewery
Microbreweries are typically small industrial operations that craft fantastic beer but consume a lot of power and water and often have significant emissions. We at Goat are hell-bent on doing things smarter by reducing our impact on the environment. Moving to the new building during 2004 gave us a great opportunity to set things up right.
SITE AND RENOVATIONS
A big issue was finding the right site in inner Melbourne. The building we found has10 metre ceilings and is north facing giving us lovely winter sunlight. When we took over the site it was a disused warehouse shell. We tracked down a huge range of reclaimed materials including corrugated iron for internal walls, windows and frames, doors, timber for the bar and the 3 big tables, various cupboards and cabinets, a cool room and even a second hand urinal.
RAINWATER
One of the first things you notice when you walk in the front door is a big rainwater tank by the bar. This tank holds 11,000 litres of rainwater that we catch from the roof, filter and use as drinking water and to flush all the toilets. In our first 18 months in the building this tank saved just on 200,000 litres of mains water.
ORGANIC BEER
All our beers are naturally brewed avoiding all preservatives and additives and our India Pale Ale was Australia’s first certified organic beer. We spent 12 months registering with the Biological Farmer’s Association for certification and import specialty malt and hops to craft this tasty IPA.
PAPER PRODUCTS
Whenever we order boxes, coasters, letterheads, business cards etc they are all made from recycled paper.
STEAM AND ODOUR
These are very common emissions from all breweries. We have fashioned a copper vapour condensing unit and attached it to our brew kettle. This almost completely eliminates steam and most of the odour when we are boiling the wort.
SOLAR HOT WATER
In June 06 we won a government grant to help us install 9 solar panels on the roof. These panels preheat all our brewing water to around 55 degrees c and minimise our use of mains power.
WASTE WATER
Before any waste from the brewery floor goes to sewer it is Ph and temperature neutralised in a holding tank.
RIDE TO WORK
Every Christmas our staff are paid a bonus based on the number of times in the year they rode their push bike, walked or caught public transport to work. Each week our staff rack up around 300 k’s commuting to work sustainably. We also have two goat bikes that live at the brewery and are used for daytime trips to the bank, post office, bakery etc.
STAY CLOSE TO YOUR BEER
It’s a simple thing but an important thing. We sell the vast majority of our beer in Victoria- approx 90% by volume. This keeps transportation to a minimum and also helps our beer stay fresh.
WHAT NEXT?
We’ve got a hundred more ideas to reduce the Mountain Goat footprint. More rainwater tanks are in the plans along with carbon filters so we can use more rainwater for brewery processes. An expensive but necessary change will be to install a steam boiler that will reduce our current power usage.
You can visit the Mountain Goat Brewery any Wednesday or Friday evening from 5pm. We have all our beers on tap and cook rockin’ pizzas.
Cnr North and Clark Streets, Richmond, Victoria. Ph 03 9428-1180
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Solar brewing: extra-responsible drinking for the festive season « Yes to Renewable Energy Says:
[...] brewing, such as Buckley’s at Healesville (who also frequently deliver by pedal power!) and Mountain Goat in Richmond. If you know of others, please tell us about them in the comments section [...]
December 22nd, 2011 at 1:07 am
you guys should googles “solar charge” to help your green
missions..they do electrical solar panels..mmmm electric goats…
see you at the bar.
You guys should show your thing to everyone!
Yeah I agree with Kelly. Why is this tucked away on your website in a
corner? I had no idea you guys did a green organic brew when I’ve seen it in at bottle shops before.
” We sell the vast majority of our beer in Victoria- approx 90% ”
Im so
glad I live in Victoria then! Mountain Goat is the best!
Should you ever wish to go even greener and carbon offset your worker’s cars or the company’s cars please look me up. I am a small business owner in regional Victoria trying to get more native trees planted. I’d love to be associated with Goat Beer and the bonus will be that I will go up in my brother-in-law’s estimation.
I like you guys! And your beers, BTW! Nice rant!
Nice one guys, others should follow your example, I will prioritise your beer wherever it is available (it tastes good too of course)