Sun-powered beer: Berlin brewery gets creative with no-waste approach

euronews (in English)

This Berlin brewery's innovative take on sustainability has seen it use rooftop solar panels to fuel its beermaking, feed spent grain to local cows and sell its beer in tins.

Transcript

00:00This Berlin brewery is taking an innovative approach to sustainability.

00:06Alongside using solar panels on the roof to source a large portion of their brewing power,

00:11they also support local businesses.

00:15The beer is completely natural and contains no preservatives or chemicals

00:20and each can sold is less than six months old.

00:25A big chunk of our grains that we source are from not too far away in Bamberg,

00:30this area, Germany, southern central Germany.

00:33That grain is used for the brewing process and once it's expended we save it.

00:40It's picked up by a local farmer that's only a few kilometres away from here

00:43and he used that because it still has a lot of protein in it as feed for his cows

00:48which are then used and sold locally for beef.

00:52The level of grain for the farmer depends on how much was brewed that week.

00:56The art of brewing can be very volatile.

01:23So we package all of our single serving beers in cans instead of bottles

01:28because we ship so much of it outside of Germany to the rest of Europe,

01:3234 countries actually, and cans take up half the weight, half the space of glass,

01:37so we're only shipping can weight.

01:39It's also 100% recyclable and there's a higher recycling rate in Germany

01:44of aluminium than there actually is for glass.

01:47It's infinitely recyclable.

01:49The brewery releases new styles of beers every few weeks.

01:54The collaboration between the farmer and the brewery has been going on for three years

01:58since the brewery first opened shop.

02:01It's a tradition that spans back to the farmer's father

02:04who originally fed the cows in the farm the spent warts,

02:08beer powered meat, food without waste.

02:12Liv Stroud in Berlin for Euronews.

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