REUSE (AND RECAPTURE!)
C02 Recapture:
In 2019, Jackalope became the first brewery in Tennessee to use CiCiTM, a C02 recapture system developed by Earthly Labs that captures carbon-dioxide from the brewing process to be used later in the canning and kegging processes. This means some of the C02 in Jackalope beer is made by a trusty source – our beer!
As yeast breaks down sugars to create alcohol, C02 is created, a byproduct of fermentation. Instead of releasing this C02 into the atmosphere, Jackalope uses CiCi to recapture, purify, and store the C02 to be used later in the canning and kegging processes. As we continue to align all Jackalope fermenters with CiCi, this will prevent over 100,000 lbs. of C02 from entering the atmosphere each year.
Spent Grain:
Even after we extract the sugars from grain, it’s still useable! Each month, Jackalope spent grain is picked-up by local free-range cattle and pig farmers for feed, because the grain is still packed with protein. Luckily, it’s non-alcoholic by the time it reaches the animals – so there’s no drunken cows stumbling about!
Each 30 barrel batch brewed at The Ranch produces around ~1500 lbs. of spent grain, and each 15 barrel small batch at The Den produces ~750 lbs. That means each month, over 30,000 pounds of spent grain is diverted from the landfill to the farms.
Water:
Our water source derives from the beautiful Cumberland River, twice-filtered through carbon filters. Each time we brew, we reuse a small percentage of the cold water to knock out, or cool near-boiling wort, to help reduce the temperature of the wort prior to adding yeast. Each brew, we reuse 930 gallons of water, or 290,160 gallons per year.
That Big Waste:
What do we do with a majority of our larger waste? Pallets are reused for beer shipments, and unusable shipping pallets are given to customers for that fun weekend project you had in mind. We’ve seen our customers build everything from a pallet chicken fence to a fold-down desk! Cardboard is recycled through Waste Management, and empty 55-gallon barrels are used as employee projects for rain barrels or repurposed on Craigslist.
Paktech:
Paktech, the colorful 6-beer plastic topper on the top of all Jackalope 6-packs, is made from 100% post-consumer material repurposed from milk jugs and similar containers. We believe in the structural integrity of our Paktechs, so we ask that our customers bring these back into our bar staff for reuse. If they’re reuseable, we’ll wash, dry, and re-enter them in our packaging line. If the Paktechs are unusable, we’ll walk them down the street to Turnip Green Creative Reuse for use in local artists’ projects, or recycle the Paktechs to be repurposed as composite lumber, flower pots, pipe, park benches, new PakTech handles and more.