Hall and Woodhouse have found a sustainable solution to beer left over following pub closures during the pandemic. Rather than waste the unsold beer, they have used it to help generate electricity to power their headquarters.
The family owned brewery, based in Dorset, was founded in 1777 and has been operating out of Blandford Forum since 1900. They used a wastewater treatment plant at their newest site to turn unsold beer into green energy. It is estimated that all the beer that was returned from pubs across the south of England could create enough electricity to power nearly 17,000 homes for a whole day!
Toby Heasman, Head Brewer at Hall and Woodhouse, told reporters: “Brewing is a highly energy intensive process, so as far back as 2015, we were looking at ways we could incorporate green energy into the way we work. The decision was made to make sustainable energy production an integral part of our new brewery, which became operational in 2017.”
As well as the brewery having solar panels, it also has a wastewater treatment plant, which creates biogas, this is then fed into the brewery to power the packing lines and utilities. The heat produced is also used to preheat the boiler feed water, which in turn produces the steam to boil the beer. Since then, the company has set itself a monthly target for its use of self generated electricity as part of its long term goal to be completely carbon neutral.
Going green with beer production isn’t the only positive that has come out of the experience. They have reported a boom in sales for many of their products in shops after the closure of local pubs, which in turn has boosted the amount of green electricity produced, as all wastewater created during the brewing process is also processed through the sustainable electricity generators.
The recycling of unsold beer is music to the ears of environmentalists after South West Water revealed that it had received requests from more than 1,000 pubs across the south west asking for permission to pour unsold beer into the drains.
