Connecticut-based Two Roads Brewing Company puts sustainability at the forefront of its beer-brewing business. The Stratford company uses a solar energy system to create high-temperature water for its production needs and only uses LED lighting.
Two Roads also reuses spent grains and water waste. Additionally, the brewery works closely with the community, including projects in conjunction with the Northeast Energy Efficiency pilot program and Audubon Connecticut at Stratford Point via its annual three-mile beach race, Shore 2 Pour run.
Photo Courtesy Two Roads Brewing
Established in 2012, the brewery revitalized a circa 1911 vacant building in Stratford for its business, which has since been described as a “cathedral of craft beer” by the CT Insider. The company even went as far as to build its tasting rooms with used materials from that old building. Just two years after opening, Two Roads added 70 panels for a complete solar energy system.
While any typical brewery uses five to eight gallons of water to brew one gallon of beer, according to a case study by Back East Brewing Company, Two Roads started a Clean in Place system, conserving water by capturing rinsed water and reusing it.
The Clean in Place system makes a big dent in the brewery’s wastewater, the production of which is common in any brewing system due to the combination of yeast, grain solids, rinsing water, and small amounts of alkaline cleaning solutions used in the process. Two Roads wanted to make sure it had minimal environmental effects in this process and could reuse as much water as possible.
Photo Courtesy Two Roads Brewing Company
Water reuse is just one of many sustainable processes the company has in place. Two Roads was also chosen as a part of a unique pilot program to replace all standard lighting with LED. The project was completed more than a decade ago.
Photo Courtesy Two Roads Brewing
“The advanced lighting and controls initiative implemented at Two Roads provides a great example of strong energy-saving and cost-saving results to show how other businesses, manufacturers, and retailers can benefit from this type of technology,” Michael Doucette co-sponsor United Illuminating engineer, said in a press release.
To heat the brewery and its popular tasting rooms, Two Roads uses highly efficient natural gas-fired radiant heating elements that emit ultrasonic waves that heat the surfaces below them, absorb them, and emit them in the form of heat. Two Roads also does its best to eliminate any waste. Each month, the company sends an average of 500 tons of spent grain to area farmers.
Photo Courtesy Two Roads Brewing Company
The company is certainly turning heads across the United States, with recent beer collaborations with stars from Food Network star Guy Fieri to musician Noah Kahan. Two Roads hopes the exposure will not only turn people on to its brews but also to its mission to create beer using sustainable processes with as small a carbon footprint as possible.
