Green Alliance Sponsor
Every beer fan in New Hampshire would recognize the image of the Old Brown Dog, or the old guys on the Finestkind IPA as quickly as they would the Old Man of the Mountain. Few businesses have made such a cultural mark on the seacoast than Smuttynose. Founded in 1994 by siblings Peter and Janet Egelston, Smuttynose Brewing Company has transformed from a tiny microbrewery to craft brew kings, now distributing in 25 states and six other countries. Though they have expanded beyond the seacoast, they’ve maintained their small town charm and their quality beer.
And it’s not just beer they’re good at; they also take care of our planet with the same love and energy they put into their brews. For instance, they send their spent grain to Rocky Meadow farm in Chichester, NH for cattle feed, repurpose buildings to house the brewery. The facility is outfitted with motion-sensored LED lights, solar tubes, and is directionally oriented to capture as much natural light as possible. Additionally, Smuttynose has worked with the Union of Concerned Scientists, Piscataqua River Estuaries Partnership and the NRDC’s Brewers for Clean Water initiative to raise awareness and share knowledge about ways to be better corporate citizens. They know that without a clean planet, there could be no more beer.
"If drastic climate change sets in, we likely will experience, at best, a large interruption in the availability of the agricultural products we need to brew beer, like barley, hops, and cereal grains," said JT Thompson, official Minister of Propaganda at Smuttynose. "We need to do the best job we can to secure a future of barley and hops, so there can be a future for beer."
Talk about reusing! Smuttynose used lumber from on-site trees and salvage timber from existing buildings in building their new brewery. New technology at the facility includes a system to capture waste heat from the refigerant system and use the heat to process water or heat rooms, a bio-swales that catch rainwater and prevent soil erosion, and soon to be an anaerobic digester that will pretreat wastewater, eventually capturing methane that will be used to generate electricity for the plant. And to top it all off, the brewery is registered for LEED gold certification – even the government knows they’re awesome.
