Delray brewers rush to meet demand
for ocean-friendly packaging
Tyler Immell, brewer at Saltwater Brewery in Delray Beach, removes the leftover grain barley
after mashing it. The waste material will be used to make edible six-pack rings (top).
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Mary Hladky
The Delray Beach friends who launched Saltwater Brewery have two passions: beer and the ocean.
That sparked an idea to marry their priorities by creating six-pack rings out of byproducts of the beer-making process that are biodegradable and edible. If the rings ended up in the ocean, they would not harm it or marine animals.
When the craft brewery’s founders unveiled their concept this spring, they thought it would draw interest. But the staggering response stunned them.
A video about the rings went viral, drawing international attention. The Huffington Post, Time, CNN, NBC, BBC, ABC, Fox, National Geographic, The Verge, Yahoo, People and other media outlets ran with the story. In the first 50 days, the video got 105 million Facebook views and 1.8 million shares.
Breweries — lots of them, big and small — called wanting in.
“It was what we always wanted to believe would happen but did not have full faith that everyone would get on board,” said Chris Gove, Saltwater Brewery’s president and cofounder. “It was overwhelming and still is overwhelming and surreal.”
Working with creative agency We Believers, they developed a prototype that proved their concept would work and now are improving it. Final patents are in the works.
They hope to launch their rings into the market this fall, producing 50,000 units a month with the intention of growing that number significantly.
Chris Gove, president and cofounder of Saltwater Brewery, hopes the new edible six-pack rings
will reduce the amount of plastics in the ocean.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
“The idea is to get it into as many companies as possible,” Gove said. “Every large player we know has contacted us to help out to get this to a larger scale. They want to partner with it.”
If everything falls into place as hoped, he said the rings could become the new industry standard.
“What we have done is spark the fire for resurgence of a new packaging world where ease and durability and inexpensive cost do not outweigh environmental benefits,” Gove said. “The world has finally seen the detrimental effect plastic has had and now they are waking up and wanting to support the companies that want to reduce waste.”
The rings are made from the spent wheat and barley from beer-making. The challenge has been transforming this waste product into a substance durable enough to hold six-packs together.
The Saltwater Brewery team donates the beer byproduct to cattle ranchers to use as animal feed or fertilizer, but that has proved to be time-consuming and not the best ecological solution.
“Instead of getting rid of the byproduct, it becomes an asset,” Gove said.
He has tasted a prototype ring, and pronounces it as “very plain, with a bit of a grainy finish.” Hot sauce works wonders, he said.
Tons of trash reach ocean
Six-pack rings for beer and sodas have been made with plastic for years. But plastics are a huge problem. They end up in landfills, where it will take them at least 450 years to biodegrade. Some types don’t biodegrade at all.
Vast amounts make their way into the oceans.
A study published last year in Science reported that in 2010, 8 million tons of plastic trash ended up in the oceans from coastal countries, with that tonnage expected to increase tenfold in the next decade unless a way is found to improve how garbage is collected and managed.
That 8 million tons alone is more than the amount of plastics already measured in gigantic “garbage patches” floating in the oceans.
Fish eat one of the biodegradable six-pack rings in an illustration provided by Saltwater Brewery.
A report from the World Economic Forum and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation earlier this year estimated 165 million tons of plastics are in the oceans. By 2050, the oceans will contain more plastics than fish by weight if nothing changes.
Seabirds, fish, turtles and other marine life ingest it and die. Or they get tangled up in the plastics, leaving them unable to eat or swim.
Biodegradable, compostable six-pack rings that are safe for marine life won’t solve that problem by themselves, of course, but it is a start.
“We think this is part of a bigger movement,” Gove said.
In June, the edible six-pack ring got a big boost when it was named one of four international winners of the Cannes Lions 2016 prize in the category of creative innovation. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals on June 1 announced that Saltwater Brewery’s rings had won its Compassionate Business Award.
“Saltwater Brewery has set an example for other beverage companies with its edible six-pack rings that feed marine animals instead of choking or poisoning them,” said PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman.
Brewery already expanding
Even before its six-pack ring idea took off, Saltwater Brewery was in expansion mode.
The brewery opened in December 2013, after the four friends decided to pool their talents. Gove, Bo Eaton and Peter Agardy attended Gulf Stream School, and now Eaton is head of sales and Agardy is creative director. Dustin Jeffers, who moved to South Florida about five years ago, is director of operations. Their original brewmaster, Bill Taylor, has since left and Justin Rick moved into that position one month ago from Brooklyn Brewery.
Gove’s parents, who invested in the idea and owned an old barn, Delray Feed Store, that could be converted into a brewery, actively helped out.
In short order, the co-founders moved beyond brewing beer that could be consumed in the bar that fronts the barn, at 1701 W. Atlantic Ave., just west of Interstate 95, or taken home in growlers.
Their first move was to get their beer on tap at South Florida bars and restaurants. They then began canning two of their core brews, Screamin’ Reels IPA and Sea Cow Milk Stout, which are now available at several liquor stores, Whole Foods and The Fresh Market.
Next up was getting their beer in more markets. They now have five distributors that have made their beer available everywhere in Florida except the Panhandle.
Production has skyrocketed. Gove said they will produce 5,500 barrels this year, and plan to increase that to about 12,000 barrels next year.
They have outgrown their brewing space and plan to contract with a brewer to increase output. At some point, Gove expects to build a new brewing facility. International sales are also in his sights.
And they are not done with sustainable and environmentally friendly projects. Gove said they have begun considering making biodegradable straws, since straws also often end up in the ocean.
The pressures of rapid growth have ended many a friendship in the business world, but Gove said he and his cofounders are as tight as ever.
“It is a family here,” he said. “Anytime anyone has a problem, we are all here. We drop everything. It has actually gotten us closer.”
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