Hopworks Urban Brewery: A Model for Sustainability

    Although we've been highlighting local beers around our current location of Burlington, Vermont, we want to take a minute to highlight what is arguably the most sustainable brewery in the world.  Hopworks Urban Brewery, located in Portland, Oregon, is an "Eco-Brewpub" that offers world-class organic beers and locally sourced food.  Everything from the brewpub itself, to the revolutionary "bike-bars", to their food and beer is made as sustainably as possible.  Even their HUB apparel is made with organic cotton.

    The first thing you notice when you roll up to Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB) is that the amount of bikes far outnumber the amount of cars in the parking lot.  The bar offers free repairs for your bicycle and sells spare tubes in case you have a flat tire.  They also have a smaller bar called the "Bike Bar" in North Portland where the only parking available is for bicycles.  Recycled materials are used for nearly every part of these buildings and they even have two Plug-Out stationary bicycles you can ride that generate electricity back into the buildings grid when pedaled.  The buildings themselves have all the energy saving mechanisms you can think of along with compostable materials for anything that is not re-usable.  

   Hopworks has too many green practices to list in one blog post so I will include a link to their website below.  We've been talking about how unlikely it is that we will be able to brew beer in the future, but a brewery like Hopworks is a glimmer of hope showing that we may be able to sustainably create our age-old fermented beverages in an uncertain future.  They are not just practicing sustainability at the highest level, but creating an entire culture around food and beer that treads as lightly as possible on the planet.  Besides their work in sustainability, Hopworks also creates some of the best beer I've ever had, and at very reasonable prices.  HUB is a model for any brewery trying to work in an ecological manner.  If you're ever in the Pacific Northwest be sure to check this place out.  

http://hopworksbeer.com/