The Session: Smuttynose Gets a Little Greener

First, for any new readers unfamiliar with The Session, an explanation:

“The Session, a.k.a. Beer Blogging Friday, is an opportunity once a month for beer bloggers from around the world to get together and write from their own unique perspective on a single topic. Each month, a different beer blogger hosts the Session, chooses a topic and creates a round-up listing all of the participants, along with a short pithy critique of each entry… The idea for the Sessions began with fellow beer writer Stan Hieronymus, who noticed similar group endeavors in other blogospheres and suggested those of us in the beer world create our own project.”

Okay, so I’ve been trying to think of an Organic Beer-related post for the March Session since it was announced nearly a month ago and was completely drawing a blank. I didn’t want to do just another Peak Organic review but nothing was coming to mind. So, when I got an email from Peter Egelston – the owner of Smuttynose Brewery in Portsmouth, NH – yesterday with details about their long-rumored new facility, I decided I could stretch the topic a wee-bit and include the Green Beer Movement (no, not the St. Patty’s Day kind).

Smuttynose has reached a P&S agreement on a beautiful fourteen-acre site located on Towle Farm Road, and are working their way through the design and permitting process. If all goes according to plan, a shovel will be in the ground in early 2009 and they will move into the new brewery in 2010.

What does this have to do with Organic Beer and The Session, you ask? Well, the reason for the move, Peter stressed, is that their present building is extremely inefficient in terms of energy usage, and Smuttynose would like to create a more sustainable facility. So that’s exactly what they’ve decided to do:

The Towle Farm site is an old farmstead which has many beautiful, natural features that we’re committed to preserving. We’ve registered our project for LEED certification and plan to incorporate as many innovative technologies as we can, including geothermal heating and cooling, co-generation, gray water recovery systems and a low impact development site design.

To read more about the amazing changes happening at Smuttynose, read this article from The Wire or this from the Portsmouth Herald. Great news for a great brewery and a great group of people – what better way to celebrate The Session? Thanks to Chris O’Brien at the Beer Activist Blog for hosting!