A new Surrey brewery One Planet Brewing has launched its first beer made using 100% solar power, all of which has been generated on site.
The 15-hectare electric brewery was launched at Tongham, near Farnham, with an investment of £250,000 from Hogs Back Brewery.
The first beer created by the company is a 5.5% Hazy IPA, with the roster set to include New England IPA’s, Pale Ales, Helles and fruit beers.
The beer will be sold using reusable kegs and glass flagons, with some going into 440 ml aluminium cans. In addition, the brewery will use home grown hops wherever possible, with the hops being dried, vacuum packed and chilled within 24 hours of picking for maximum freshness.
The beers will be distributed through its partner pubs using reusable packaging and an electric dray where possible. To further reduce emissions, delivery will only be available to customers within a 30-mile radius.
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“Our investment to launch One Planet Brewing is an evolution of the ambitious sustainability agenda that has been fundamental to Hogs Back from the outset, and we are proud to have been the founding investor behind this new venture,” said Hogs Back Brewery managing director Rupert Thompson.
“It is, we believe, the first UK brewery to make the commitment to brew using power generated on site.”
“We are working hard on the next steps to take One Planet Brewing beers as close to zero carbon as we practically can for all the elements we can control and with the minimum of offsetting, ideally within the next year.”
The move follows the launch of Pernod Ricard’s Chivas Brothers brand’s efficient heat recovery technologies in its Glentauchers distillery, and more recently its £60 million investment in carbon neutral distillation.
Traditionally, brewing can take 50 – 60 Kwh of energy to produce a single beer barrel, however, many brewers are researching techniques in order to make that cheeky pint more sustainable.
