Sustainability is Key

In a world impacted negatively more and more by humans, it’s become so important for us to help do our part! Since we’re starting a new year we thought it’d be a great time to share how we’re trying to be good neighbors. Divine Barrel keeps sustainability at the forefront of our minds each day, which is why we take part in multiple green initiatives. We have recycling efforts we take part in to help reduce the amount of waste we produce. There are also several ways our brew team reduces our footprint. Let’s jump right into it!

Can Collar Recycling

You know those plastic 4-pack holders every craft brewery in Charlotte and beyond seems to stick on their cans? Well, they are recyclable. However, up until 2022 there wasn’t a good way for us to recycle them. Thankfully, the amazing team at Innovation Barn created a recycling program just for that purpose! When we deliver can collars, they are then able to shred them, melt them, and mold them into plastic bricks. These bricks will be repurposed to build tiny homes, sheds and walls. With your help, we were able to donate over 280 pounds worth of can collars during 2022, which was over 100 pounds more than the next closest Charlotte brewery. We’ve even got bottle shops, like Carolina Beer Temple, collecting them for us as well. We look forward to breaking that record in 2023, so save those can collars and bring them into our brewery the next time you visit!

Can Tab Collection

You know by now we collect can tabs for our partners at Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Charlotte. Im 2021, we helped institute a can tab collection program amongst numerous Charlotte-area breweries and bottle shops. In 2022, we were able to collect 100 pounds worth of can tabs, and with the help of fellow breweries and bottle shops, we collected over 250 pounds in total last year. As a byproduct of collecting, it’s instilled a hyper-focused mindset amongst our team to recycle more. Our hope is to grow this initiative in and around Charlotte every year, so make sure you’re popping those tabs for us!

Make Beer Not Waste

It’s easy to be wasteful when brewing craft beer. Thankfully, the Divine Barrel production team keeps this at the forefront of their minds each day! To minimize waste, we donate all spent grain to a local farmer who uses it to feed his cows. This saves us from having to throw out hundreds or pounds of grain with every batch of beer. Also, we will be implementing the Charlotte Water Best Practice Management Program beginning in February. We will start eliminating the majority of solid waste matter that goes into the public sewer system and wastewater treatment facilities here in Mecklenburg County. The goal is to reduce the burden on the treatment system by capturing our spent solids in large totes. Our local farmer will take the totes to use for composting on his farmland. The goal is to make beer… not waste after all!

Saving Water

As we all know, water conservation is an important aspect of sustainability. Our brewers employ numerous methods to recycle and reuse water during brewing and cleaning. We’ve been able to cut our water consumption significantly as a result of processes, techniques and equipment. Using cleaning chemicals is necessary to keep your brewhouse sanitized and nothing infects your beer. We try to use these chemicals as judiciously as possible so we affect the Mecklenburg County water system as little as possible. We invested in several pieces of equipment that allow us the ability to reuse those chemicals, which helps minimize our impact.

Always Improving

Hopefully this gives you a little more insight into the ways we’re trying to be green neighbors in Charlotte. Reducing waste anyway we can is important to us! We’ll continue to hone in on the ways we make an impact, and look for other ways to do good. We will be further partnering with Innovation Barn on a new initiative, in which we will start recycling empty grain bags. We’re always open to suggestions as well. Drop us a line if you can think of anymore ways we can do good in our hood! Cheers friends, and we hope you’ll join us in being unusually green in 2023!