GREEN ALLIANCE

A New-England staple since 1996, Redhook Brewery has for over a decade helped define the rise of the American microbrew. But while the Portsmouth-based craft brewery – one of three Craft Brewers Alliance facilities, the others being located in Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon – might be known for their famous line of bold and flavorful brews, their growing list of green initiatives and policies are going a long way in setting Redhook even further apart from the competition.

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“We’ve always kept an eye on green practices,” says Amanda Telford, Human Resources Director at Redhook. This ever-greening portfolio of practices includes: reusing water heated during the beer’s fermentation in other brewing processes; giving leftover trube, yeast, and spent grains to a Massachusetts cow farm, to be used in feed; and using leftover coffee grounds from one of their Kona brand varieties to help fertilize a community garden located on the premises.

The brewery has also instituted a facility-wide recycling program, uses corn-based, compostable plastic cups in the house restaurant, and emphasizes the use of even the most basic food scraps for stock and other products in their near totally scratch kitchen.

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The brewery also houses an on-site wastewater treatment facility, and is exploring ways to trap the leftover methane and convert it to energy for use on the property. They have also consulted PSNH regularly when undertaking any energy-related project, be it the installation of a new fermentation tank, replacing all of their light bulbs with high-efficient CFLs and LEDs, or installing motion sensors in bathrooms and storage rooms. Although still a ways down the road, the company has also explored the possibility of installing a full-on co-generation system to help with energy production.

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Along with the Kona and Widmer brands, Redhook is one of three beer lines housed in the Craft Brewers alliance. All three are distributed by the Seacoast Redhook facility.