Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Gravity Bound Brewing Company makes sustainability a priority with rooftop solar panels, captured rainwater, and recycled building materials. The brewery, started by Cameron Frigon and his brother Chris Frigon, is known for its award-winning beer and kombucha.
From day one, the Frigon brothers believed brewing great beer is important, but the environment is even more critical. In fact, the name of the brewery comes from the company’s motto: “We figure we might as well treat this place well and have fun because we are, for the moment, bound by gravity to it.”
Photo Courtesy Gravity Bound Brewing Company
“Hopefully, we would like to reduce our footprint as much as possible in the brewing community, too,” Chris told the Albuquerque Journal.
Gravity Bound is 100% electric, with about 20% of its energy coming from the brewery’s rooftop-mounted solar panels. The company also captures rainwater for landscaping and growing ingredients for some of its products on-site. The Frigons also chose to reuse glass bottles, car tires, pallets, and other items bound for the landfill in their building renovation.
Photo Courtesy Gravity Bound Brewing
“We’re 100% electric. We try to reuse materials,” Chris said to the New Mexico News Port. “Building materials like the bar and the doors are made out of pallet wood and found on the side of the road.”
“Same thing with the planters as well. We picked up tires from Second Street and repurposed them and then made it something pretty,” he continued.
The brewery, located in downtown Albuquerque, hopes to help make the community a better place. The brothers built a large patio to ensure customers feel at home. Regular events such as Farm-to-Table Day Beer Dinner, live music, and trivia keep visitors coming back for more in a space that the company calls “part Taos Earthship, part modern garage.”
Photo Courtesy Gravity Bound Brewing Company
The company also tries to use as many locally and regionally sourced ingredients as possible.
Gravity Bound sources all malts from Proximity Malts in southwestern Colorado to reduce shipping distance. The brewery’s kombucha is made with organic green and black tea and white sugar and fermented with the brewery’s own homegrown symbiotic culture of yeast and bacteria. The business also has a small fruit tree orchard on site.
Gravity Bound’s beer is unique in that it keeps changing — even a recent award-winning IPA is no longer made. Any beer with an ingredient that goes out of season is simply replaced with an in-season one.
Photo Courtesy Gravity Bound Brewing Company
“One that we have right now in the shop is Kiwi strawberry graham cracker, oranges, and vanilla bean,” Chris said to New Mexico News Port. “And then we’ve made some weirder ones as well, trying to get coffee into sours and just putting some weird stuff on the board that you haven’t really seen here in Albuquerque.”
Because of their wise and clean energy choices, Gravity Bound is a PNM Sky Blue Member. The volunteer program supports renewable wind and solar energy in New Mexico.
