Building Sustainability 

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We designed our building with sustainability in mind. The original goal was to be LEED certified bronze.  Unfortunately the certification cost was outside our budget, but we moved forward with the guidelines anyway.  Our building highlights two key sustainable themes of reduce and reuse.  We highlighted all the areas in our building where these two themes were implemented. 

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Brewery

 

1.  Cold Liquor Tank – The owner’s uncle and one of our farmers gave us their old dairy bulk tank that the farm used to store milk in when it operated as a dairy farm.  This tank has been in the family since 1979 and it served the farm for 27 years.  We are proud to use this tank in our brewery operations.

2.  Cooling Water – The dairy bulk tank enables the brewery to conserve water because we save and reuse the water we used to chill our beer with during the brewing process.

3.  Cold Liquor Tank – By pre-chilling our cooling water before brew day we can slowly cool the water overnight during a non-peak energy usage time.  This helps reduce peak demand on our power plant which means more efficient power production.

4.  Spent Grains – We save the spent grains left over after brewing beer and send them to our farmers.  The grain still contains valuable proteins and nutrients that serve as a beneficial food source for the animals.  When the farmers pick up the grain shortly after brewing the grain is still warm and the animals get a hot meal (which they love just as much as you and me)!

5.  Back to Back Brews – When possible we brew multiple batches of beer consecutively which enables us to save energy.  Brewing back to back allows us to save the leftover thermal energy from the boil & cool process in batch 1 and use it in batch 2 reducing the heat generation needs in batch 2.

6.  No Transport – Since our beer is made on site we don’t have to transport it to the end user and we save fuel and energy.

7.  No Packaging – Most our beer is served straight from large stainless steel serving tanks into your glass.  This means we don’t have to consume material and energy to package our beer.

 

Kitchen

 

8.  Energy Star Dishwasher – Our dishwasher is STATE OF THE ART.  It uses considerably less energy and water than a standard commercial dishwasher.  The washing of dishes can consume 2/3 of all water use from the restaurant.  This is why we invested in an efficient machine that uses up to half the water and energy.  Our Hobart Advansys machine captures the escaping steam to pre-heat incoming water thereby reducing the amount of hot water required by the machine.

9.  Energy Star Ice Machine – Uses less energy than a standard ice machine.

10.  EnerLogic Fryer – Uses less energy than a standard fryer, and has been rated as energy saving by the California Energy Commission.

11.  Fryer Oil – Our fryer oil goes to a third party to be recycled for other uses, mainly as a fuel source.

12.  EnergyStar Oven – Uses less energy than a standard oven, and has been rated as energy saving by the California Energy Commission.

13.  Low Flow Rinse Valve – In our dishwashing area we use a low flow (less than 1.5 GPM) pre-rinse spray valve (PRSV) to clean heavy debris off dishes before running them through our dishmachine.  Standard PRSVs can use 2-5 GPM and consume twice the volume of water consumed by the dish machine.

14.  Exhaust Hood System – Our exhaust hoods in the kitchen come with a state of the art control system which activates according to the heat load.  This means fans don’t run at all or they run slower if the kitchen is slow.  This saves power and reduces the amount of conditioned make-up air needed.  Traditional hood systems run continuously throughout the day requiring the HVAC system to waste energy conditioning air that need not be exhausted as well as the power to run the fans.

15.  Refrigeration Rack – We have a single refrigeration system that provides all our cooling needs.  Most restaurants use independent units where each unit has its own independent refrigeration system.  We have a lot of coolers when you think about each cooler behind the bar, each cooler and refrigerator in the kitchen, the ice machine, and each walk in cooler or freezer.  With one unit providing the cooling for all our needs it can operate much more efficiently, which reduces our energy consumption.

16.  Local Meat – Our meat comes straight from the farm, to the butcher, to us which reduces the distance it travels and therefore reduces the energy required for that transportation, like fossil fuels.

 

Building

 

17.  Refurbished barn wood – When the owner found out about an old barn that was going to get torn down he went (with the help of his family) and removed a bunch of the barn siding so it could be reused at Engrained for wall siding.

18.  Refurbished grain silo – Our grain silo that stands outside our brewery comes from the owner’s family’s farm.  They were even so kind as to haul it to Springfield for us!

19.  Glazed windows – The glazing for this project will be Low-E (emissivity) keeping heat out in the summer and in during the winter.

20.  Heavy wall insulation – Our walls are heavily insulated (R-values over 30 in most places) which minimize heat & cooling losses.

21.  Window Awnings – Our windows have awnings above them designed to keep light out in the summer, and let light in during the winter.  In the summer the sun’s angle is higher in the sky, while in the winter the sun’s angle is lower in the sky.  This means an awning with the right physical dimensions can shade in the summer and let warm sunlight in during the winter.

22.  HVAC – We installed high efficiency (SEER rating 15.6) roof top units run by an advanced control system uses zone control to efficiency regulate the building.

23.  High efficiency water heater – Our water heater is 96% efficient, maximizing the use of the natural gas used to fuel it.  This is industry best of class for efficiency.

24.  Vestibule Doors – Having an “air lock” between two sets of doors prevents outside air from gushing in when the door opens.  When there is a single door to the outside, air infiltrates quickly causing the HVAC system to work harder to condition the air.  All our outside doors are vestibule style providing energy savings over traditional doors.

25.  Bathroom Hand Dryers – Our Xlerator hand dryers conserve energy, have low maintenance requirements, and reduce waste.  They use 80% less energy than traditional hand dryers and have a lower carbon foot print versus paper towels.

26.  Automatic Sink Facets – These faucets prevent someone from accidentally leaving the water running.

27.  Efficiency Toilets – These units use less water per flush than traditional toilets.

28.  LED Parking Lights – Our parking lot lights are LED, which use 50% less energy than the next best thing, metal halide.  On top of the energy savings, the LED lights last 4+ times longer before needing replaced.

29.  LED Exterior Lighting – All our exterior lights, including our signage use LED lighting which consume the least amount of electricity and last longer than any other light source.

30.  Lighting Controls – All our exterior lights including our parking lot are operated by an automated control system.  The control system shuts lights off during off hours to conserve power.

31.  Fluorescent Interior Lights – Our interior T8 fluorescent lights use up to 70% less energy and last up to 8 times longer than incandescent lights.

32.  Roofing Material – Our roof is constructed with material of a high SRI (Solar Reflective Index) that will reflect the sun’s heat rather than absorbing and re-radiating that heat on site.

33.  Erosion Control During Construction – An erosion and sedimentation control plan for all construction activities was implemented on this project.  That means we put measures in place to prevent loss of soil erosion, prevent sedimentation of storm sewer and receiving streams and guarded against polluting the air with dust and particulate matter.