From side streaming to carbon capture, sustainability is worth the investment for Grey Sail and other local breweries

Grey Sail Brewing of Rhode Island was recognized in June for its environmental sustainability practices. (Photo courtesy of Grey Sail)

When Grey Sail Brewing of Rhode Island first opened its doors in 2011, the local craft beer industry consisted mostly of Newport Storm and a handful of brewpubs. Non-mainstream styles were still gaining steam, and environmental sustainability was the last thing on anyone’s mind.

Today, Rhode Island is home to nearly forty breweries, which collectively produce tens of thousands of barrels of beer per year. All that beer comes with a lot of waste byproduct — a typical gallon of beer takes about seven gallons of water to produce and leaves behind spent grains and other materials — and that waste has to go somewhere.

Enter side streaming, or the practice of pulling out concentrated wastewater from the main flow. It’s one of several sustainable practices breweries like Grey Sail are investing in to reduce their environmental impact.

“It’s a part of being a responsible business owner. Seeing that it works for some other companies, it was something that was worth investing in for us,” says Jennifer Brinton, owner of Grey Sail and its sister company, South County Distillers.

In June, Grey Sail became the first brewery in Rhode Island to be recognized by BetterBev, a group that assesses environmental sustainability practices in New England breweries. Grey Sail and several other local breweries have been working with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management’s Green Breweries Program to review and enhance their practices. The program offers technical assistance and a checklist of steps breweries can take to improve their sustainability.

“A lot of the best management practices on there are usually low cost to no cost,” says Alyssa Lewis, an environmental scientist for the DEM who oversees the agency’s green certification programs.

In addition to side streaming, which prevents waste-heavy effluent from ending up in bodies of water like the Pawtuxet River or Narragansett Bay, breweries can engage in other practices like using environmentally friendly cleaning detergents, sourcing ingredients locally and reducing water use to below industry standards. At Grey Sail, spent grains from the brewing process are sent to a local farm where they’re used for animal feed. The partnership recycles about 2,000 pounds of spent grains per day.

“They get clean feed, and for us it’s an easy way to dispose of it. For them it’s an easy, less expensive way to obtain nutritious feed for their livestock,” Brinton says.

While many environmentally-friendly practices are free, others require a significant investment. In December 2023, Grey Sail finished installing a 52-kilowatt solar system on the roof of its Westerly brewery. Though a significant up-front investment, the panels will ultimately help the business reduce its energy usage and costs.

Several years ago, the brewery also installed a carbon capture system to recapture carbon dioxide naturally released during the fermentation process. The gas can then be added back in later in production to carbonate the beer. The method reduces the brewery’s reliance on commercial carbon dioxide and prevents the gas from escaping into the atmosphere.

“If there’s a shortage like we saw during COVID, we have our own CO₂,” Brinton says. “It’s not enough to sustain our current volume, but it is a help for us in the process.”

Lewis acknowledges that some of these practices can be expensive for breweries and says the program is trying to find ways to make them accessible for small businesses. For now, breweries can get technical assistance and participate in case studies looking at how to reduce brewery waste. Other breweries the department has worked with include Tilted Barn, Apponaug, Newport Craft, Buttonwoods, Tower Hill and (now-closed) Linesider.

The next case study, Lewis says, will look at the feasibility of having a composter haul away organic waste side streamed from breweries’ wastewater in a “milk run”-style pickup across several businesses. The program, she says, initially got started after local wastewater agencies began to express concerns about breweries’ wastewater back in 2019. The agency is also working on a Green Wineries Program that would offer similar resources for wineries.

For Brinton, the recognition is a reminder of the responsibility she holds as a small business owner.

“Small companies like ours and others really care, and we invest in the environment. So buy local,” she says.

To learn more about the RI Green Breweries Program, visit dem.ri.gov.

Alan Brinton with the carbon capture system at Grey Sail Brewing. (Photo courtesy of Grey Sail)

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