sustainability

Episode 006: Hamish Coates From Rocky Ridge

In mid-September, Rocky Ridge will open their Brunswick brewery, giving the Jindong brewers a substantial East Coast home. We sat down with co-founder Hamish Coates at the former Thunder Road site the day before he signed the deal.

The Staying Power Of Mountain Rye

What if we could harvest grain crops for five years instead of having to re-plant them every year? It would be better for farmers and the environment. That's the promise of mountain rye, a perennial grain that could be a game-changer.

Zevero's Mission To Help Breweries Cut Emissions

You can't solve what you can't understand and few problems are as complex as climate change. Zevero is a platform built to help breweries slash their emissions and to help their mission locally, they've hired Tom Delmont.

Closing Loops And Brewing Shrooms – Australia's Most Sustainable Beer?

Breweries love to collaborate and many are putting greater focus on brewing more sustainably. Now a new project in SA is exploring just how green brewing can be.

Can Beer Help Regenerate The Planet?

Regenerative farming and the grain grown by such methods have been gaining more attention in recent years. Now, the Good Grain initiative aims to raise awareness and support for both much further, with beer as the vehicle.

Changing The World One Bag Of Regen Malt At A Time

“We wanted to use beer as a catalyst for change.” We examine how one ingredient – malt made from regeneratively grown barley – can make all the difference, and why Stone & Wood are so eager to showcase it to punters and brewers.

Bodriggy Become Carbon Neutral

Bodriggy Brewing have joined the small number of breweries in Australia to become climate neutral. It makes the Abbotsford-based brewery the first indie brewer in Victoria to gain certification from the Climate Active program.

Spangled Drongo Match Good Brews With Great Deeds

Spangled Drongo is a new Northern Rivers brewery with a story that's worth telling before you even think about the beer. We chatted with some of the team about doing good, brewing good, tuk-tuks and kitesurfing.

Who Brews Wild Barrel Beers?

Small batches, single barrels, slow processes, sustainable businesses. Mick Wüst took a look at Wild Barrel, based in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, for our long-running Who Brews...? series.

Dexter-ity – Crafting A Greener, Leaner, Local Malt

The rise of craft beer has changed the landscape in many ways, and the launch of Dexter Malt today highlights many of those. It's a project involving collaboration, innovation, sustainability, provenance and, of course, beer.

Bintani Abstrax B
Fermentis Academy 2024 B2
Brewing A More Sustainable Future

A conversation over beers at Russian River in California sparked a multifaceted collaboration between businesses big and small that has led to the production of Certified Sustainable malts on both coasts of Australia.

High Country Hop Technical Symposium – The Presentations

Ahead of the 2023 High Country Hop festival, Bridge Road Brewers put on a Technical Symposium sponsored by the Independent Brewers Association. We MC'd and recorded the day, and you can listen to all of the sessions here.

Going Green: Bearhug Pallet Wrap

Plastic is often a necessary evil in the beer world: it can help keep beer safe but often ends up in landfill. It's an issue being tackled by Bearhug Pallet Wrap, a startup looking to move beer safely while cutting out single-use plastic.

Going Green: The Common Good Company

What if every single thread of your beer merch was made from recycled cotton and recycled drink bottles? We caught up with The Common Good Company for a chat about their high quality apparel with a low impact on the planet.

Revolution In The Riverina

There are many people who have changed the nature of beer and brewing in Australia over the years. Yet what's happening in the Riverina region of NSW feels as transformative as anything else happening in the industry right now.

The Collaborators: South West Hops

It's not just the brewing scene that's expanding apace in WA's South West – there's a growing number of local producers supplying brewers too. Among them is South West Hops, who significantly stepped up their output in 2022.

Capital Become A B Corp Business

Capital Brewing have secured B Corp accreditation, making them just one of three Australian brewing companies to secure the status in acknowledgement of their positive social and environmental impact.

3 Ravens To Open A Perth Brewpub

3 Ravens have announced plans to build a home in WA as well as upgrading their brewery home in Thornbury. We caught up with head brewer Brendan O'Sullivan and general manager Nathan Liascos to find out more.

Capital Claim Carbon First As Aussies Brew A Greener Future

A number of Australian brewers are leading the way when it comes to sustainability, with Capital becoming the first Climate Active certified carbon neutral brewery, Rocky Ridge and Big Shed winning sustainability awards, and others going carbon neutral too.

A Vision For Indie Beer

Late last year, Young Henrys co-founder Richard Adamson was elected chair of the Independent Brewers Association. As the pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the industry, we chatted to him about his vision for indie beer.


Want to know more?


Beer, Algae & Cow Burps

Young Henrys and researchers at UTS have been researching the potential certain algae have to turn CO2 created during brewing into oxygen since 2020. Now The Algae Project is looking to reduce harmful emissions from livestock too.

Firies-Supporting Brewing Company Wins Brew Rocket Grant

A brewing company created to support emergency service workers has won the first Brew Rocket grant designed to reward sustainability and social responsibility. Firehouse 51 was selected by a panel put together by Craft Instinct.

Going Green: KlippaKan

Plastic can holders might be ubiquitous in craft beer but a local company has developed another way to keep your tinnies together. Johnston Packaging and Grifter have just unveiled the KlippaKan, which has been in the works for a year.

The Collaborators: Grain Totes, Totes Great

Matt Lawrence wants to see repurposed malt bags replace single use bags across the beer industry. We got in touch to find out how he’s making it happen one tote bag at a time.

Blasta Secure $1m Government Grant

The good news keeps coming for Perth brewery Blasta after the trophy-winners secured a $1 million Federal Government grant to help fund the construction of a second brewery.

Capital's B Corp Journey

Capital Brewing are on track to become the latest Australian brewing company to achieve B Corp status. We chatted to the man driving the process for the Canberran brewery.

Going Green: Brew Rocket Launches

A new grant designed to encourage new brewing companies to put an environmental and/or social enterprise focus at the heart of their business has just launched. We spoke to the woman behind Brew Rocket to find out more.

Trash To Treasure

Each year, Australia wastes a gargantuan amount of food. But breweries across the country are finding ways to try reduce this waste and, in the process, are building further value into our agricultural system.

Rocky Ridge's Greener Pastures

Three years on from our first article on Rocky Ridge's sustainable approach, the WA brewery is carbon neutral and heading towards carbon positive. With more eco-minded plans in the works, Jono Outred paid a visit.

Ryefield Hops: Securing A Future

At the start of last year, the small-scale Ryefield Hops' entire harvest was destroyed by drought and the subsequent bushfires. We caught up with co-founder Jade McManus to talk about the year that was and their plans for the future.

Holgate at 25
Krush HPA bonus
Modus Of The Merewether

Modus Operandi are set to build a second brewery. They've been granted approval for a site in Newcastle, where they're planning a sustainable venue close to where co-owner Grant Wearin's grandfather used to run the corner store.

Sun Dog World

Moon Dog World has attracted plenty of attention – and for good reason. There's another good reason to pay attention to the building too, as they've installed so many solar panels they're almost regarded as a power station.

Through The Looking Glass III

After a hiatus in 2018 (for reasons I can't recall) we're back with our New Year's Day look ahead at what the future might hold for the local beer world: what to look out for and where we might be headed.

Insect The Unexpected

Craft breweries are no strangers to innovation. But BentSpoke Brewing have arguably set a new standard by making a beer with local yeast, a hangover relief drink, crickets and fly larvae.

No Beer On A Dead Planet

On September 20, people across the planet will join young campaigners for #ClimateStrike. The Crafty Pint will be one of the local beer businesses taking part and hope more people in the Aussie beer world will join us.

Our Man In NZ: The Yeast Starters

They've been mates since they were 12 and have brewed together for years. Now Simon Cooke and Ryan Carville are looking to change the NZ brewing industry via Froth Technologies.

Going Green: SolaBrew

When Scott Shomer designed Helios Brewing in Brisbane with his business partners, the aim was to produce the most energy efficient brewery he could. Under the SolaBrew banner, he's keen to help other brewery owners do the same.

Hopping Into The Wild

The burgeoning beer scene in the South West of WA grew again this week with the opening of Wild Hop. Jono Outred joined the team on their family farm to find out more about one of the most highly-anticipated new operations in the state.

Going Green: Carbon Reduction

Brewing beer is intensive in many ways, from the amount of energy required to the use of water. Hannah Louise Grugel caught up with the team at Batch to find out how they're working to be a more sustainable brewery.

Going Green: Grants

In an article on the business of beer, an expert raised the issue of government grants and how few breweries were taking advantage. Here, a specialist on cutting the cost of business explains just how easy it could be for brewers to cash in.

Cryer E
HPA Liquid Hops Oct 2024
Going Green: 24 Hour Power

In the second article in an occasional series looking at sustainable practices in brewing, Will Ziebell looks at the growing use of batteries to allow breweries to become less reliant on the grid.

Going Green: Sustainable Brewing

Brewing is, by its nature, an industry that's high on consumption – and we don't just mean in terms of beer drinking. Here, we kick off a new series, Going Green, that looks at sustainable practices within the Australian beer industry.

Betting On The Farm

Next month will see the first beers released by Rocky Ridge Brewing Co. The WA operation aims to be totally self sufficient, growing and harvesting all of its ingredients on the family dairy farm near Busselton.

The Big Issue: Water Sustainability

Water makes up more than 90 percent of the beer you drink. It is also in increasingly scarce supply in Australia. For our latest Big Issue article, Graham Frizzell speaks to three people looking to reduce their breweries' water consumption here and in California.