Outdoor Central Oregon Issue 7 | September/October 2018 | Page 36

36 SEPT/OCT 2018 DESCHUTES BREWERY| WATER CONSERVATION IN BREWING Sixth nnual A At Deschutes Brewery, we’ve always thought that lots of damn tasty beer can be brewed, packaged and shipped to the outstretched arms of raving fans around the country with much respect for the long-term health of our planet. Every day, we look for ways to lessen our environmental impact by using fewer resources and returning what we can to nature. One of Oregon’s first breweries, we were early adopters of the craft brew + outdoor lifestyle. Good beer just tastes better when paired with a day in the woods, on the trail, the slopes, the river – anywhere nature calls. It’s a deeply rooted value to preserve those spaces and a lifestyle our industry has become well known for. 6 Shu . t c O th regon , O a g o n a W Bend k r a P - o Sn Y A D L L s e l tt A . KING M R O & ST Trails E S AVER Down sort R T ’S YLER Riders ake Re nt. T , S e WINK Guide t Elk L of ev Y L D R, TID es to ping a RATION E N N h U T m ON F • Coac EE Ca REGIS FR FULL n & r e h ratio t t n s i i n g i w ns Re • D optio t t ing a star 0 4 $ Beneficiaries Include: St. Charles Foundation, Partners in Care of Central Oregon, Central Oregon Trail Alliance, Oregon Adaptive Sports, Candlelighters for Children with Cancer Here are a few things Deschutes Brewery co-owners are proud to do every day to con- serve water, waterways & energy: PROUDLY SUPPORTED AND PERMITTED BY: • Working with the Deschutes River Conservancy, every year since 2012 we’ve restored one billion gallons of water into the Deschutes River, from which we draw our name and the crazy-pure, volcano filtered water that goes into our beer. This restoration offsets four times the average amount of water we use at the brewery and that our suppliers use in producing what we buy from them. Fish, rafters and kayakers rejoice! • We support the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council at their annual Deschutes River clean ups, which helps with fish and wildlife habitat restoration. We’ve done similar clean ups at Tinker Creek near our new home in Roanoke, VA, and we regularly support The Freshwater Trust’s efforts throughout the western region. • We are currently piloting our own on-site wastewater treatment facility at our Bend brewery, which can process more than 150,000 gallons of wastewater a day right here, rather than sending it to the city. When fully up and running, the system can also produce electricity for the brewery by turning broken down sugar and yeast from the brewing process into methane gas that runs a generator. This will reduce our overall power usage by 50 percent. Can you hear the earth breathing a small sigh of relief? (Heck, yeah.) 37