Alberta-based brewery, Blindman Brewing, is taking a step towards sustainability with their idea on capturing carbon by its emissions in beer.

By using carbon dioxide from the fermentation process to carbonate its beer, Blindman Brewing will be able to recycle those emissions.

The company spends about $60,000 a year buying CO2 canisters and with their newest discovery as they capture, scrub and compress it to carbonate their beers and run canning lines, they will not only be reducing their emissions but also their need for purchased CO2 to nearly zero.

“When you have these ideas that are simple, that reduce emissions and that are financially viable, well, those are Win-win wins,” said Kirk Zembal, the brewery’s cofounder who spent five years researching the perfect equipment to accomplish this task along with the help with a grant through Emissions Reduction Alberta.

“We’re probably going to capture about 100 metric tons of CO2 … there’s 1,100 other craft breweries in Canada, 7,000 or 8,000 in the States, and tens of thousands more around the world. If we can all adopt equipment like this, well now we’re making a big impact.”

The device costs about $200,000, half of which was covered by ERA and the investment is expected to pay for itself in two to three years.

“I think it’s baked into the ethos of craft beer to do better and, you know, we really all need to reduce our carbon emissions,” Zembal said.

Along with installing a solar array and recycling its plastic can holders, the carbon capture program will be installed this summer to help the sustainability journey the brewery is working towards.  

Photo courtesy of Emilio Avalos/Radio-Canada