Carbon-conscious beer lovers can enjoy a pint while also helping the environment, after a south London brewery created the world’s first offset-free carbon negative beer.
Gipsy Hill Brewery’s new Swell Lager and Trail Pale are brewed using barley grown through regenerative farming, and hops which have been recaptured and reused, meaning each pint removes more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than it produces.
It is the first time that a brewery has produced a carbon-negative beer without using carbon offsetting, a controversial process where businesses reduce the carbon footprint of products through activities unrelated to their production such as planting trees in another part of the world.
Gipsy Hill’s latest beers have carbon footprints of -40gCO2e for Swell Lager and -30gCO2e for Trail Pale per pint respectively. A typical pint of commercial lager produces at least 350g of CO2, with many craft IPAs starting at 500gCO2e. The “pioneering” brewing process is underpinned by two key innovations.
The beers are the only beers in the world to be made using certified regenerative barley, sourced exclusively from Wildfarmed, which works with farmers to implement regenerative practices such as intercropping, cover cropping, and reduced tillage, which improve soil health, reduce erosion and sequester carbon.
These practices mean that the process of farming the barley sequesters more carbon in the soil than it releases into the atmosphere.
Gipsy Hill then combines the barley with recaptured hops. Recaptured hops are the hop material that has been removed after fermentation from a previous batch of beer and then reused to bitter and flavour a new batch of beer. They would usually be thrown away in a typical brewing process, meaning greenhouse gas emissions from their use are zero.
The complete carbon life cycle of the beers has been independently analysed by Zevero, a specialist carbon accounting firm. The study accounted for the full life cycle of the products, from the growing of the ingredients to the end of life of packaging, meaning punters can enjoy a pint knowing it has left the environment in a better state than it was.
The beers are currently