Wind Powered Beer
Beer powered windbags are common but a wind powered beer really stands out. Here in Boston many are big on drinking green beer on St. Patrick’s Day but now you can drink some really green beer all year round. New Belgium Beers of Colorado makes over a million and a half gallons of green beer a year by being committed to using wind power and other earth friendly sources of power.
They put their waste water from beer making inside closed pools filled with anaerobic bacteria. The microbes then feed on the nutrients from the brewing process, and produce methane gas, which is then converter to electric and thermal energy and pumped back into their factory. New Belgium currently get 30 percent of its energy needs with the remaining 70 percent comes from wind turbines. They also are committed to green building, using such technologies as sun tubes and reusing heat from their brewhouse. An impressive statement on their sustainability philosophy can be read here.
Their earth-friendly attitude also spreads to other areas. For instance, employees are not just encouraged to bike to work, the company gives each employee a new bicycle on their first anniversary with the company. A 3/2006 Wired article talks more about them here.
