Boozin’ Blog

This is the first I’ve heard of a distillery turning to alternative energy sources. Admittedly I pay more attention to the beer industry so I’m familiar with breweries from Anheuser-Bush Inbev and Molson Coors to New Belgium and Brooklyn Brewery using energy produced from wind, spent grains, spilled beer and waste water. Chances are Maker’s Mark isn’t the first to look for ways to squeeze some energy out of their by-products but they still deserve recognition for doing so.

Making booze, any kind of booze, takes a lot of energy and water. Growing the sugar source, fruit or grain, that will ferment into alcohol, transporting the materials, heating and/or boiling vast amounts of liquid, cooling vast amounts of liquid, cleaning and sanitizing tools and packaging, and storage and shipping all take energy or water and sometimes both. So anytime a booze maker can give one of these two things back or cut down on their usage of them it’s a good thing.

In Maker’s Mark’s case they’re using a system that traps the spent grains and water from the distillery. This soup is then allowed to basically rot which produces gasses like methane. When controlled and used properly these gases can be burned in place of natural gas. MM’s new system, which cost them $8 million, will produce up to 165 btus of usable gas or an offset of 15-30% of the natural gas they currently use.

Not bad at all, Maker’s Mark!

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