PEOPLE, PLANET & PROSPERITY - ECO FRIENDY BREWING

From the very beginning of Brightside and in our business before we’ve always worked hard to be as green as possible by keeping waste to a minimum through re-cycling and re-using.

 

In the past we haven’t really shared it with you, but as our customers are increasingly interested in how we run the brewery behind the scenes we wanted to share with you how we do our bit to be an eco friendly brewery. This is what we do…

RE-USE & RECYCLE

RUBBISH

We generally brew 3-5 days a week which is a lot of beer, yet we only fill ⅓ to ½ of a domestic sized black bin which is emptied once a fortnight. Not bad eh?

GENERAL RECYCLING

At Brightside Brewing we make sure we recycle: pallet wrap, grain bags, office paper, ink cartridges, shives and keystones, bottles and cans from production, electronic equipment and any waste with residual value is given to charity.

Customers are encouraged to do the right thing and recycle our cans and bottles once they’ve enjoyed our beer!

GRAIN, HOPS & YEAST

Two dairy farmers collect our spent grain and use it as cattle feed. One of them has been able to increase the size of his herd thanks to the free feed!

The spent hops and yeast go to be composted at the farms, which then help improve soil structure and nutritional value.

CARDBOARD

Where possible we re-use packaging material sent to us; a local engineering company uses our cardboard hop boxes to send his work to customers. What we can’t re-use is sent to be re-cycled.

FLUIDS

We send back empty cleaning fluid vessels to the company from which we buy them to be re-used.

PALLETS AND CONTAINERS

Pallets are re-used and sent back through the system; we don’t buy new ones & take care of the old ones. Our cans are packed in recyclable cardboard boxes rather than film & trays.
We hope to be able to do this for our bottle packing soon.

THE BEER

Our cask and keg population is 100% stainless steel. It is continually cleaned, filled, used and returned to begin the cycle once again. We DO NOT USE one-way kegs! This is something that we care a lot about and also results in a cost saving to our customers as one-way tubs are an expense that has to be added to the wholesale price of beer.

PUMP CLIPS

Our customers are encouraged to keep our pump clips and re-use them rather than throw them away after one use (we don’t send them out automatically with every order). Surplus pump clips from old beers are given away to collectors or to charity.

OUR ENERGY

LIGHTING

We’ve completed a move over to LED lighting which is more energy efficient than regular lighting options. We have movement sensitive automatic lights in the brewery which switch off when not in use.

ELECTRIC

Our plate heat exchanger heats the hot liquor tank which saves energy. All heated and chilled tanks are fully insulated to avoid wasting energy. Our chilled areas are kept closed when not in use. Only essential electrics are left on overnight in the brewery.

DELIVERIES

The vast majority of our beers are sold within a 30 mile radius from the brewery, and we keep our routes efficient. We don’t travel miles to deliver a single cask, our routes are always carefully planned.

FIND OUT MORE

All of this helps us to make as little impact on the environment as possible, and we’re always trying to find ways to get better.
If you’d like any more information or to discuss our methods in more detail, contact Carley who’ll be happy to tell you all about it.

Contact Us

Call us on: 0161 725 9644

Address

Unit 10, Dale Industrial Estate
Radcliffe
Manchester
M26 1AD