NINKASI BREWING COMPANY OFFICIALLY STARTS BREWING IN NEW EUGENE FACILITIES
Ninkasi’s Expanded Brewery Boasts Sustainability and Innovation
Press Release:
EUGENE, Ore.—April 4, 2014—With more than three years of planning, countless hours of hammering, welding and
commissioning, and hundreds of gallons of its signature teal paint, Ninkasi Brewery Company’s
second Eugene brewery
brewed its very first batch of beer last week. The first official brew
not only marks a new era of growth, but also establishes the brewery as
an industry leader in sustainable practices and innovation. Working
hand-in-hand with
ecoReal Solutions of Portland, Ore., the brewery’s design and construction teams have been able to add numerous
sustainable features to the brewery, setting it on the path to reach LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certifications
from the U.S. Green Building Council.
“Since
the beginning of Ninkasi, we have continuously been in a state of
construction with four expansions in the last seven-and-a-half years,”
explains Nigel Francisco,
CFO for Ninkasi. “Finally, we will have a space that we can grow in to
for the next 10 to 15 years instead of constantly adapting our
facilities to fit our needs.”
Currently,
Ninkasi’s 55-barrel brewhouse has a capacity to produce 90,000 barrels
of beer per year. With a second, 90-barrel brewing system installed
across the street
in Eugene’s Whiteaker neighborhood, the brewery will be able to add an
initial 70,000 barrels of capacity with room to grow to 250,000. Perhaps
what is equally exciting for the brewery is its gained ability to
produce a wider variety of beers with longer fermentation
times.
“With
two breweries operating together, we will have the space and capacity
to brew more beers, like lagers, that can take anywhere from eight to
twelve weeks to ferment,”
explains Jamie Floyd, founding brewer and co-found of Ninkasi. “We’ll
also have the capacity to brew more under our Rare and Delicious Series,
exploring new beer styles and ingredients.”
Sustainability
In
partnerships with ecoReal Solutions, a sustainable solutions firm based
in Portland, Ore., Ninkasi has been able to make smart upgrades to
boost its efficiencies throughout
the brewery, aspiring to reach LEED® standards once the brewery is
fully operational. This includes investing in materials, systems and
processes that will benefit the brewery and its community over time.
Sustainable attributes and performance goals met:
·
10% of all construction materials are made of recycled content.
·
10% of all materials are sourced from regional manufactures (within 500 miles of the brewery).
·
Niagara
high-efficiency toilets installed throughout the brewery, using half of
the water required by standard toilets—and the first to do so.
·
Energy recovery systems that capture hot liquid throughout the brewing process to be recirculated in the brewhouse.
·
High efficiency natural gas boilers that use 40% less energy needed to run conventional boilers.
·
Cleaning-In-Place (CIP) system to reduce water usage and chemical usage when cleaning brewing vessels.
·
Waste water balancing system to pH balance all waste before going to the City.
·
Bulk grain unloading system to cut down on packaging waste.
·
Bulk chemical storage to cut down on packaging waste.
·
High efficiency hop cooler.
Innovation
When working with the
GEA Group
to install the new 90-barrel GEA Huppmann brewhouse in Ninkasi’s
expanded facility, the team realized that the amount of hops used in
its brews could make for a less efficient brewhouse. During the brewing
process, the hops soak up a significant amount of liquid wort which
could be used in the brewing process instead of
being captured in the hop filament.
Due
to Ninkasi’s commitment to brew without hop extracts, Ninkasi’s teams
worked with GEA to develop a proprietary technology that will allow
better yields with more hops.
This took the form of a hop strainer, which, if successful, will be
deployed and used more widely across the brewing industry. In short, the
hop strainer allows Ninkasi brewers to pass the hopped wort through a
strainer to help remove the hops and also garner
as much liquid as possible from the hop matter.
“We’re
excited to be on the forefront of brewing technology and looking
forward to the opportunities we’ll have with the new system to produce
more beer and more varied
beer styles,” says Nikos Ridge, CEO and co-founder of Ninkasi.
Ninkasi plans to operate both brewhouses moving forward, with its expanded brewery fully on-line by May of this year.
This
expansion is part of a larger growth project for Ninkasi, which
includes a new local distribution facility which opened last April,
along with a new administrative
building set to open in early June. All buildings are registered to be
LEED® certified under the new LEED® campus platform.
Tours of the new facilities will be available this summer. To learn more about Ninkasi’s current sustainable practices visit:
www.ninkasibrewing.com/
About Ninkasi Brewing Company
Founded in 2006 by Jamie Floyd and Nikos Ridge,
Ninkasi Brewing Company
continues to grow from its first batch of Total Domination IPA, to two
brewhouses, a 55-barrel
and a 90-barrel brewhouse, located in Eugene, Ore. Ninkasi’s Flagship
beers—Total Domination IPA, Tricerahops Double IPA, Believer Double Red,
Oatis Oatmeal Stout, and Vanilla Oatis Oatmeal Stout—are sold
throughout Oregon; Alaska; California; Idaho; Montana;
Washington; and Vancouver, British Columbia. The brewery remains
privately-owned and is committed to community support and giving.
Ninkasi’s
Beer Is Love program offers in-kind donations and support for organizations throughout its footprint.
