Our trip began with a sample of the beer (choice included Twisted Spire, Mild, Bitter) before proceeding on the actual tour. Emphasis was placed on the renewable technologies the micro brewery is using to make the brewing process more efficient as well as ways where they are reusing or recycling products to reduce waste.
A wind turbine supplies some of the energy required by the plant, while ground source heat obtained from 4 boreholes with looped flow/return pipes running to 55m deep provides some of the heating requirements. Underfloor heating is used in the offices while the 2nd fermentation room for bottles is heated to 25'c.
Using a heat exchanger, chilled water used to cool boiled malting barley is recycled to be used itself in the boiling process. Yeast is reused where possible, cleaned with a mild acid bath to kill the weakest and keep the population healthy.
Waste products are recycled or reused, as much as possible, with cardboard being sent to the local school, hop waste being used for horticulture and waste barley used as feed for animals - the feed is of a high enough quality to be used by animals in their last 45 days of life. The brewery are also trialling use of a waste cardboard/hop mix to produce their own beer mats.
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