Believe it or not, the next time you quaff a mug of beer or take a sip of a rum and Coke, you can call yourself an environmentalist! Just be sure it’s Abita beer or Bacardi rum you’re drinking.

According to an article published by Biomass Magazine, The Abita Brewing Company and the Bacardi Company are on the forefront of using renewable energy in the manufacture of their famous beverages. Abita Brewing, located in Albita Spring, Louisiana, is famous for their premium beers, such as Turbodog, Abbey Ale, and Purple Haze. What’s not as well known is how they convert their brewery waste into renewable energy.

A portion of this waste is transformed into animal feed and sold to a local dairy farmer. But the unused waste does NOT just go down the drain. Instead, the rest of Abita’s waste goes to a 570,000-gallon anaerobic digester, which can convert 75,000 gallons of waste per day into biogas. The methane-rich gas is then sent to the brewery’s boiler, so the brewery does not have to rely totally on regular electricity to heat up its boiler. In operation since April 2008, the anaerobic digester processes 45,000 gallons of brewery waste per day, creating a red hot 490 million cubic feet of biogas each month!

Bacardi environmental policy also makes use of anaerobic digester technology, allowing Bacardi to be its own power plant. The maker of Grey Goose vodka, Dewer’s Scotch whisky, Bombay Sapphire Gin, and the famous Bacardi rum has patented an anaerobic digester system specially suited for distilleries.

The anaerobic digesters at Bacardi’s Cataño facility process a whopping 1.2 million gallons of still bottoms, unfermented molasses and water every day. The result is an average of 7 million cubic meters of biogas each year, which in turn is sent to heat up the boilers. Bacardi gets an impressive 30% of its energy from this biogas. In the process, Bacardi doesn’t need the 5 million liters of oil it would need to heat the boilers.

Bacardi also employs this cutting edge technology at its Martini and Rossi plant in Pessione, Italy. That particular facility gets 50% of its energy needs from anaerobic digestion, fueled by wastewater creating during blending, filtration, clarification, and bottling operations. Bacardi can be proud to say that more than 92% of their waste is recycled into renewable energy.

Bacardi has licensed their ingenious technology to other distilleries, such as Cervecería India Inc. in Puerto Rico and Brugal & Co., C. por A. in Santo Domingo. More and more breweries and distilleries are now seeing the economic sense of upgrading to anaerobic digesters to take advantage of biomass.

When it comes to shrinking their carbon footprints, Bacardi and Abita are hard to beat. So let’s make a toast to Mother Earth and the recycling campaign…with a pint of Abita and a shot of Bacardi Rum!

Article Source: Biomass Magazine

Additional Information on Abita and Bacardi:

Abita Brewery solves its corrosion problems.

Classic City Brew takes a fascinating tour of Abita Brewery plant.

Learn the amazing history of the Bacardi Family on the Funding Universe site.

The Bacardi Family Foundation is an educational, religious, and charitable trust located in Arlington, Virginia.

Bacardi Environmental initiative: Bacardi Foundation, Stockholm Water Foundation Establish MIT Professorship.

Bacardi seeks to raise the retail environment in the Bahamas with the opening of the new Bacardi store.