Welcome, everyone, to Park Innovation Flow Podcast. Thanks for being here today. This is the podcast where we talk about projects, initiatives, and research that comes out of the park program at South Platte Renew. We are off site today on location at a brewery, which we'll get to in a minute. But before that, I want to read a disclaimer from our legal folks. This podcast is produced by South Platte Renew as part of our public outreach and education initiatives. The views expressed by our guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of South Platte Renew or the cities of Littleton or Inglewood. No endorsement of specific products or services is implied. So with that, I'm your host, Blair Corning. Thanks for being here. And we're here today with a guest. Great guest. I'm excited to today for this episode. Justin Fisher is here. Thanks for being here, Justin.

I'm happy to be here.

Justin is an innovation brewer at Breckenridge Brewery in Littleton, Colorado. And I'll turn it over to Justin. Justin, can you tell the viewers a little bit about yourself, your background, how you got to where you are?

Absolutely. I mean, by happy accident, it feels, but really, I've been brewing beer for about 17 years now, some of which was at home, some of which with a few other breweries. But the majority of my career the last 10 years has been here with the Breckenridge Brewer Brewery. And I have some education in biochemistry and brewing science as well, from a metropolitan state university.

Nice. Well, it sounds like a good gig. What's the best part of your job, you think?

I mean, honestly, my absolute favorite part of the job is what I can bring to my community. I think being able to be creative and finding inspiration in the food and beverage industry and bringing that to our people is really important to me.

Nice. Well, we're here today to talk specifically about a project that Breckenridge Brewery undertook using purified recycled water. If our viewers have been watching, hopefully you have. They know we had a direct potable reuse trailer at the South Platte Renew facility, which purified water into drinking water. And so we took some of that water, you know, as well as I do, Colorado, purified water in Colorado is a valuable commodity, and there's a lot of uses for it, a lot of different industrial, whether it's drinking water, whether it's, you know, lawn watering. But you found a. You found a use for that purified drinking water. Why don't you tell us what that use was?

Oh, I absolutely did. So we decided after learning a lot about The DPR message and what DPR is about, we thought it would be a really fun collaborative effort to create a beer using this potable resource. So we're releasing the beer in celebration of World Environment Day, and part of the proceeds are going to go to protect our rivers, which is. I mean, I guess they. They help clean up our South Platte river as well as some other rivers. But the South Platte is actually directly where this water came from for this beer. So it's really fun to be able to have that come full circle.

Yeah, that's great. It's great to keep it local and to protect. You know, it's crazy that it's full cycle protecting the actual water that went into the beer. I think that's. That is. It's nice.

That's a lovely message, I think.

Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about how this initiative came to be, how this whole thing got to where it is?

Yeah, certainly. A little while back, my environmental and safety manager set up a tour of your facility, and we went and visited, and we were very inspired by the message that DPR is putting forward and the importance of potable water. And so I think that is where a lot of the inspiration for this project really comes from. Just trying to be as mindful of everything that we have at our disposal in the industry and being as environmentally conscious as we can be.

Nice. What did you think personally, as a brewer with your brewer hat on? What did you think when you heard about this? Was there excitement? What was your first thought?

I mean, for me, 100% excitement. I'm very much an outdoor type of person. I understand that everything that we touch has an influence directly from us. And so everything we can do to minimize our impact is crucial for generations moving forward.

Yeah, well, nice. Let's get to the beer now.

100%.

What style did you come up with for this beer? Using direct potable reefs, which is dpr, or the purified recycled water we're speaking of. What beer style did you make out of that?

Well, the goal, I think, was to emphasize the cleanliness of the water and really make a product that was crisp, light and refreshing. So I chose to draw inspiration from the Munich Helles German Light Lager. Very light floral expression. No excessive malty or hoppy tones to cover up this ingredient that we're trying to showcase.

Nice. Well, that sounds like a great pairing. You paired the purified recycled water with the style. What about yourself? If you were a beer, what kind of beer would pair with you?

My goodness, I would say Depending on the day, I could be really one of two beers. On my lighter, more refreshing, low key days, I'm a pilsner through and through. I like a little bite, but still light, you know, always lighthearted, always fun. But on those, on those more creative, influential days, a West coast ipa, all those unique hoppy flavors and aromas and the way that you can incorporate that into something a little bit with a little bit more oomph, you know, sometimes I'm that too.

Yeah. Nice. Sometimes it's good to have a little variety in your personality.

I think so. So it depends on the day.

Right on. Well, let's talk about chemistry. Let's talk about the chemistry of the beer. And how does chemistry affect what eventually comes out the final product? How does chemistry play into that?

My goodness, that is such a difficult question to answer succinctly. I would say when it comes to especially the water aspect of things, it's crucial to understand what the chemistry of your water is. Certain salts, alkalinity. It's going to affect the overall profile of the beer. So knowing what you're working with and knowing what you want to create that water chemistry is huge.

Did you run into any challenges or any advantages to this water source, the purified recycled water?

I would say absolutely. I think challenge wise, I'll start there. The water was delivered in large totes. And so figuring out the best way to incorporate that water into my brew system without contaminating it, so to speak, with any other water source that is not contaminated. But what I mean by that is no cross waters. I just wanted one form of water. The hardest thing was to keep any of our other processed water out of the beer. But I was able to do it. Just took a little bit of fancy maneuvering, I would say. As far as advantages, one of the big advantages here would be you have bare, naked water stripped down to nothing and so you can build up your water profile to wherever you want it to be from. So. So all the more reason why I decided to choose Munich. Because their water profile is pretty simple. It just made it a little bit easier to build up to something light, crisp, and still focus on the water.

Nice. So you had a clean palate and you just went to work building the. Building the art you wanted, huh?

Exactly.

All right, well, how do you think. I know it's scheduled for release and it's a small batch. How many totes did they bring in and how big of how much beer did you make and when are you gonna.

I was able to produce approximately. I Want to say about seven to eight barrels of volume.

So how much is it? How much is a barrel?

I would say a little over 200 gallons, if that helps anybody out. Gosh, I wish I could give you finer math. I didn't think about that one in pints. I could break it down, but that's gonna be boring for everybody watching me do math. I don't want to do that.

Hey, at least the folks at home.

Are smarter and faster than me.

Well, cool. What do you think? What do you think, people, when you do unveil it, when you do tap it, what do you think people's reaction will be? What do you think will happen?

You know, I think curiosity is going to be the biggest spark. I think when people hear the idea of unique water source, where it can come from, and unique ingredients just in general, there's always going to be this push pull mentality. People are going to have to, I think, look forward to being educated a little bit about where their water comes from when they learn about this beer. Because I don't think that that's something that everybody thinks about. We just turn on the faucet and turn it off, wash our hands with it, don't really think about where it's going. So I think it's going to turn some heads.

Yeah, I do too. Mine will be one of those heads because I'll definitely be here to check it out.

Looking forward to that.

What's the name of the beer, would you say?

So we are calling the beer Project Green.

Project Green.

The idea is to emphasize that environmentally friendly concept and sustainability in everything that we're trying to do here.

Cool. Have you ever undertaken a project like this before as far as a brewer?

You know, I've used a lot of unique ingredients in my years here at Breck as an innovation brewer, but I haven't really ever gotten the opportunity to use this unique of an ingredient from like a water perspective. Usually we just, we pull the water we have, we modify it on site. So to actually get one water shipped in as an ingredient I think was super fun. Yeah, you know, cool.

I wanted to dig in. I could geek out all day because I'm a beer guy. But tell me a little bit about what an innovation brewer does. What's your role and what types of innovations have you, have you done here?

You know, that is a very multifaceted question.

Yeah, I didn't mean to.

No worries. I'll try to keep it, to keep it concise. But I have the ability to explore new cutting edge ingredients that we are just now becoming aware of in the market. I also have the opportunity to explore any sort of advantages we could have in efficiency and also sustainability practices. There are a lot of recipe development, I guess, projects that I am involved with and then just trying to keep unique small batch offerings available at our farmhouse restaurant across from the brewery. It's the only place you're gonna get the really small batch beers that we make. So that's kind of more of what I'm geared towards. But I'm really a catch all. If they got a project and they need somebody, I'm here.

Yeah, Jack of all trades. I like it. I always wonder, you know, you go to breweries and there's 10 different flavors, different profiles, different types. I think, where do these come from? Who thinks of this? And now I know. Now I know exactly where it comes from. So thanks for. Thanks for clueing me in.

Hey, happy to be here for it. If you ever got something you want to see, talk to me.

All right, will do. Let's talk a little bit about sustainability. You know, I pulled into the parking lot getting here, I saw electric chargers. I know this is a totally sustainable initiative here. Talk to me a little bit about some sustainability efforts that, that Breckenridge is undertaking.

I would love to. I'm need my cheat sheet a little bit for this, I'll be honest. But we do have those EV chargers. We also utilize a bunch of solar on site. It provides 20% of our production needs per year, which is amazing. We also are working really hard on water savings. We have a steam condenser that can save us up to like 1200 gallons of water per per 100 barrel brew, which is a lot. 100 barrels is 3100. So that's like almost a third of recapture. It's kind of crazy. We also have a bottling water vacuum reuse pump. We have LED lighting to conserve on energy. We use native landscaping as well as some turf on our backyards to just use as little water as possible on things of that nature. And then, I mean, when you really break down the brass tacks of water use in breweries, it's not uncommon to see craft breweries requiring 10 to 15 pints of water to create one pint of beer. So I mean, when you picture that, when you picture 10 to 15 pints next to this, it's a lot. Here at Breck, we are closer to around five pints of water per pint of beer. Like very large macro brewers are even closer to like one and a half to two, which is really impressive. But it's about trying to continue the effort. Always. As much as we can push, we're going to push. So we're always working on trying to touch that. Four pints. I think that's always going to be the goal.

Nice. Well, that. So brewing is a water intensive process and you guys keep driving it down as far as you can and saving, saving water around the facility as much as you can as well.

Everywhere we can, you know, wherever you can cut down on chemical usage, water usage, ingredient usage, it's important to just always be focused and mindful. Never turn on a faucet and walk away. Right, guys?

Well, cool. Why do you think, why do you think sustainability is important in your industry as a brewer? You know, more big picture. Why do you think that matters?

I mean, sustainability in the brewing industry is huge. Like I just said, the water numbers are immense. And how many craft breweries do we have here in Colorado? Like one per neighborhood almost? It feels like sometimes two or even three. So that's a lot of water that could be going down the drain. And so figuring out how to, you know, clean that water up, figuring out how to waste less of it is very, very important. And it goes all the way out to back to that message of me being a very outdoors guy. Like these outdoors, they're not going to be there for us anymore if we keep wasting them. So I'm just really, really passionate about that. I just enjoy doing a lot of backpacking, a lot of hiking. I'm always needing these streams at any time of the day, whether I'm jumping into them, whether I'm pulling water out to drink from them. I need it. And I need to be mindful of how I can acquire it and how I can respect it and how I can take care of it. That's the, that's the message there.

Yeah. Well, I think it's great that you're doing the cleanup. Donating a portion of the proceeds from this beer to the, what was it? The clean rivers.

Oh, protect our rivers.

Protect our rivers. Yeah. Because I think, you know, I've been in Colorado for probably I've been here my whole life, but I've been in the metro area for, you know, 20, 30 years. And to see how the river is used now compared to how it was used, you know, 30 years ago, it's like cleaning up the river has its value. It draws people in. People love the water. They love to interact with the water, build things by the water, see the water.

Absolutely.

Water makes you Feel better.

I float the plan at least two, three times a year because it's right in our backyard.

Oh, yeah. Where do you start? Where do you put in?

What is it? Is it Reynolds Landing or. No, that's where we finish, actually, over here, and then pop off and hop back into the farmhouse for some beers. There's a little pull off up the road, though, where you can pull off, park your car, and drop your tubes in. We actually have a company that comes by and has tubes that you can pick up and rent and they'll shuttle you as well during the summer. So that's kind of fun.

I'll have to check that out. That sounds like a good. A good summer afternoon.

Absolutely.

Cool. Well, is there anything I didn't ask you that you wanted to. You want to close on. You want to leave with the. With the listeners, with the viewers about you, about the beer or about sustainability in general?

Yeah, I mean, more than anything, if you're. If you're a beer lover, we're still down here making beers and listening to live music just about every weekend, trying to make things fun and exciting for our local communities. So if you like biking trails or if you're coming out with your dog, we have a huge beer garden. We're just here to celebrate with you guys. So, I mean, as long as you guys keep coming out, I get to keep making fun stuff. It's kind of a cyclical thing.

Nice. Well, I appreciate you being here and sharing your knowledge, sharing a little bit about this purified recycled water project and what you. What you turned it into. I think it's awesome. And I appreciate you being here today.

It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.

You bet, Justin. And to our listeners, if you like the podcast, if you enjoy watching on YouTube, make sure to like and subscribe. Make sure to give us a five star rating on whatever podcast player you're listening on. And we'll see you next time on the Innovation Flow podcast.