Sun-powered beer: Berlin brewery gets creative with no-waste approach

This Berlin brewery’s innovative take on sustainability has seen it use rooftop solar panels to fuel its beermaking, feed spent grain to local cows and sell its beer in tins.

Operating for three years, the Fuerst Wiacek brewery in the German capital makes mostly high-end craft beer and is known for its high-quality IPAs and traditional German beers.
Once a week, a local Berlin farmer drives his tractor to the brewery and picks up the spent grain used to brew the supply.
“The cows really enjoy it and are already waiting,” farmer Christoph Brundke told Euronews.
Recycling spent grain isn’t the only way the brewery tries to be environmentally friendly.
“We attempt to source a significant amount of our power from solar,” said the head of sales, George Shumay. “It doesn’t power 100% of the brewery, but it does help to balance out where we’re getting our power.”
Shumay said the brewery wants to expand its solar panels to increase renewable energy usage.
The beers made there are completely natural, free from preservatives and extra chemicals.
Each run of beer has been rigorously tested and is less than six months old. Fuerst Wiacek exports to 34 countries and collaborates with other companies, releasing at least one new beer per week.
The company’s beer is recognisable by its quirky design and the fact that it is sold in tins rather than bottles.
Shumay explained that this decision has been made to be more environmentally friendly, as tins take up less weight in shipping.
“There’s a higher recycling rate in Germany of aluminium than there actually is for glass, because it’s infinitely recyclable,” he concluded.