![]() In stark contrast to those two massive operations, The Alchemist occupies an unassuming two-story building that’s literally the next driveway down from the ice cream guys. This is where Ben & Jerry’s whips up Chunky Monkey to help you survive your break-ups, and Keurig Green Mountain pumps out K-Cups to help you survive the work week. They also shared some of the plans for the future of their family business.Īs you drive through the streets of Waterbury, a small town with a population just over 5,000 in northern Vermont, you might be surprised by how much big business is going on. ![]() Still, husband and wife team John and Jen Kimmich were kind enough to give us a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the operation that churns out Beer Advocate’s top-rated beer, Heady Topper. While there’s no imposing wrought iron keeping prying eyes from seeing what’s happening inside The Alchemist Brewery, the message is the same: you can’t come in here. Those 29 words -uttered by the creepiest travelling tinsmith in the history of the profession-set the tone in the beginning of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory for how special it is for anyone who gets the opportunity to step behind the gates to visit the nexus of Wonka’s candy empire. You see, nobody ever goes in and nobody ever comes out! We dare not go a-hunting for fear of little men. It’s a no-brainer in my mind.Up the airy mountain, down the rushing glen. “I’d guess it’s, maybe, a five-year buyback. “We spend thousands of dollars a year on CO2,” Hartman said. ![]() Early next year, they’ll install the same system in their Waterbury location, at which point they’ll capture the majority of their carbon emissions - enough to carbonate all of their beer. The system is currently capturing enough to carbonate and package 1.8 million cans of beer a year, he said, which accounts for about half of their production. Hartman said the Alchemist uses carbon dioxide both to carbonate the beer and to purge cans of oxygen before filling them. Generally, as a class, brewers with small operations are sustainably minded and “very efficient, so if they can reclaim an ingredient they need, they would happily do it,” George said. CEO Amy George is set to have about 50 operations around the country using the system by early next year, she said, and so far her product has been well-received. Then, at the end of last year, they heard about Earthly Labs, a company based in Austin, Texas, that makes a carbon capture system for breweries of their size. “They couldn’t really, feasibly make it work,” Hartman said. ![]() They tried to determine whether a capture system designed for a larger operation could be scaled down, and when that didn’t work, they thought about feeding greenhouses with captured carbon. Joel Hartman, chief operations officer at the Alchemist, said the brewery recently installed a carbon capture system made by Earthly Labs, the only company currently producing the technology for small breweries, at its Stowe location.Īlchemist owners Jen and John Kimmich first looked into carbon capture options around five years ago, when they constructed the Stowe brewery. The Alchemist, which has locations in Waterbury and Stowe, appears to be the first brewery of its size in Vermont to do so, and one of a few dozen across the country. Thanks to emerging technology, some smaller breweries are now able to follow in the footsteps of larger businesses. However, the same options have long been unavailable to smaller brewers who have had no choice but to release their carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, purchasing the gas for carbonation separately. Many large-scale breweries have capitalized on that situation, using technology to capture the gas and use it for carbonation. Brewers also need carbon to make the drink fizz. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerįans of Heady Topper, one of Vermont’s first popular craft beers, can now consume the brewery’s carbon emissions.Ĭarbon dioxide, a gas that contributes to global warming, is one of two main byproducts created during the brewing process. John Kimmich of The Alchemist in Stowe explains how the brewery is capturing and recycling its CO2 emissions on Tuesday, Oct. ![]()
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