Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

How a Finnish Startup Brewery Is Reducing Its Carbon Footprint

Lee Heidel
By

The Finnish startup Everyman’s Right Brewery is passionate about both beer and the environment. That’s why its nascent production plans include using 100-percent renewable energy sources.

Recommended Videos

A carbon footprint study conducted by LCA Consulting Oy, a lifecycle assessment company based in Finland, confirmed that the brewery’s production plans will start Everyman’s Right at carbon neutral status, with the opportunity to improve and become carbon negative as it ramps up. The initial production level is estimated at 1 million liters. If it succeeds in expanding, Everyman’s Right Brewery contends that it will be the first carbon-negative brewery in the world.

Related

Everyman’s Right Brewery contends that it will be the first carbon-negative brewery in the world.

As a part of the brewery’s commitment to the environment, Everyman’s Right will recycle spent grains and produce its own biogas, which is formed from the breakdown of organic material. This fuel will provide energy to sustain the beer’s production. In the result of excess biogas, it can be used to generate electricity or be further refined for other applications.

The brewery will also collect and purify carbon dioxide, then recycle it into production. Excess carbon dioxide can be pressurized and sold to third parties. Finally, the brewery plans to use green electricity from solar fields and use heat recovery systems. All of these items add up to one extremely energy-conscious brewery.

Everyman’s Right Brewery co-founder and head brewer Jussi Hukkanen has economic reasons for this ambitious goal, in addition to just being a concerned global citizen. “Consumers’ interest in craft beer has been growing for years. And around the world, they are asking more questions about the products they consume, about how they are made and how sustainable they are,” says Hukkanen. “Our target is to export our beer globally, so differentiating from the competition is very important for us. If we can also influence climate change at the same time, everyone wins.”

Hukkanen hopes his brewery will serve as an example, setting a trend toward a more climate-friendly and sustainable brewing industry. He is joined by Antti Suikkari and Keijo Kemppainen, a team with experience in brewing, but also importing and distributing alcoholic beverages, industrial-scale production, and marketing.

Everyman’s Right Brewery is just getting started and is soliciting initial investments via crowdfunding with a minimal goal of raising 480,000 euros ($565,101). If you’d like to learn more about how you can be involved, find out more at the brewery’s Funded by Me page.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Lee Heidel
Lee Heidel
Lee Heidel is the managing editor of Brew/Drink/Run, a website and podcast that promotes brewing your own beer, consuming the…
A Look at Indigenous Breweries in North America
north american indigenous breweries bow and arrow

Equity has no borders, so it was only a matter of time for it to arrive at food and drink. While there’s still a long way to go, there have been some significant gains for BIPOC players in the sectors of eateries, wineries, distilleries, and more.
We’ve seen indigenous communities launch successful brands in places like British Columbia and New Zealand. Native peoples are now doing the same in beer, starting up labels all over America. There are relatively few, to be sure, but the movement is a vital one, injecting some due justice in an arena that’s been fairly one-sided for a long, long time.
Here are some ale-making companies owned and operated by indigenous communities that are worth keeping in mind next time your thirsting for a cold one (or two).

Bow & Arrow Brewing Company

Read more
Oskar Blues Brewery Releases French’s Mustard Beer
oskar blues frenchs mustard beer pr select 2

Mustard and beer is a great combination, but usually we're talking mustard used as a condiment on a sausage or pretzel alongside a pint. Colorado's Oskar Blues Brewery has taken this pairing to a whole new level with a new collaboration with French's Mustard, appropriately called French’s Mustard Beer. It's a tropical wheat beer that is literally brewed with French’s Classic Yellow Mustard, along with an infusion of fruit and citrus flavors including key lime, lemon, tangerine, and passion fruit. “We’re stoked on bold flavors at Oskar Blues Brewery and we never shy away from a challenge,” said Oskar Blues head brewer, Juice Drapeau, in a prepared statement. “With French’s Mustard Beer we elevated the Classic Yellow Mustard flavor with tangy lemon and lime to create a tropical wheat ale I’d pair with a loaded hot dog on the hottest day of the year.”

This isn't the first food crossover for French's, known for its bright yellow mustard that is ubiquitous at backyard barbecues around the country. Last year, the brand collaborated with Coolhaus to release a mustard ice cream that was available in New York and California for a limited time alongside a pretzel cookie. And Oskar Blues is no stranger to brewing uniquely flavored beer, as indicated by its "Death By" series of brews with such flavors as king cake, coconut, and even affogato.

Read more
This Road in Washington is Where All Your Favorite Beers Get Their Start
Hop farms.

On a map, it doesn’t look like much more than a straight north-south line just southwest of Wapato, Washington. Yet, the road known as Lateral A in the Yakima Valley is one of the most famous hop-growing stretches on earth. Here, one of beer’s critical ingredients grows up along tall trellises as far as the eye can see, harvested annually and sent off to brewers near and far.
It’s a reminder of the many people and places that go into your favorite brews. Rural areas like this provide the space, climate, and human beings for such sprawling agricultural tracts. Those who’ve been to the Yakima Valley know of the openness of this arid country, with mountains beyond and glimpses of Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams to the west. If it wasn’t for the dramatic topography in the distance, you’d think you were in the desert, or some farm-heavy stretch of the Midwest, mid-drought.

Here, the sun shines more than 200 days per year. It’s an energized environment, one that’s responsible for three of every four hops produced in the entire country. What started as an experimental planting in 1868 is now an impressive patchwork of hop-farms. It’s said that a hotel room in the area is hard to come by in August and September, when bottom cutters meander through rows, harvesting the annual crop and brewer’s celebrate with farm-fresh creations.
The valley is quickly approaching 150 hop varieties, which emerge, cone-like, from hop bines (yes, bines, not vines) that can surpass the height of a three-story building. It’s home to many family-run operations which have been hauling in hops for generations. Places like Perrault Farms, in Toppenish a bit south along Lateral A. The Perrault Family arrived here in 1902, when Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House. In addition to growing eleven hop varieties, the family raises bison and grows blueberries.
The hops end up in everything from specialty one-off seasonal beers by Bale Breaker Brewing Company (just north and on the other side of the Yakima River) to Budweiser. Business is booming and the area has its requisite commissions, grower-owned coops, and the like. It’s not uncommon to see reps from the big boys like AB InBev-owned labels sniffing around for a good deal on some choice hops.

Read more