Gipsy Hill: Brewed With More... Never Less

Gipsy Hill’s Journey

South London Brewery, Gipsy Hill, has released what is believed to be the world’s first offset-free, carbon-negative beer. Which removes more greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere than it produces, this is something many larger companies have either failed to achieve or have only attempted through the route of greenwashing. The dedication that Sam, Charlie and the rest of the Gipsy Hill team have towards creating a truly sustainable and holistically managed brewery is nothing to be overlooked. So, how have they done this?

It all started in 2013 when through a mutual friend, Charlie & Sam discovered they both had the same goal, create a quality brewery. After getting to know each other over a few pints, the plans were in motion to make their mark on the brewing industry. Leasing a unit within Gipsy Hill, they began brewing half batches in July 2014, maintaining an open mind, listening to their loyal customer base, they made changes accordingly whilst always keeping quality at the forefront of their priorities.

2015 was a key year for the development of Gipsy Hill, opening their first tap room and introducing a few new products – most importantly the Hepcat, which was instantly a hit and remains their best-selling beer to date. Continuing to grow their business over the coming years, opening more warehouses and multiplying their staff count and customer base respectively. By 2019 most big players in the craft beer industry sold their businesses, leaving Gipsy Hill as one of the largest independent breweries in London. Of course, we all know what happened in 2020 - with covid dramatically effecting the hospitality industry, breweries were forced to approach business in a completely new way, adapting to the ever-changing online world. However, despite this, in 2021 Gipsy Hill managed to generate a growth of 23% and ever since they have been on a mission to innovate within the industry whilst becoming increasingly more efficient and sustainable allowing for them to create a clear pathway for businesses to grow economically whilst striving for a greener and more prosperous future.

The First Offset-Free Carbon-Negative Beers & How it was achieved

There is no doubt about the vast amount of shady green claims made by businesses nowadays, with green washing being the go to approach for so many corporations – claiming to be pro-environmental and striving for a better future when it is simply good business and an attempt to appeal to the increasingly more progressive mindset we see from consumers. Despite this, we are seeing more and more businesses taking their sustainability, longevity and the welfare of our planet seriously and Gipsy Hill is definitely one of them. With their products Swell (Lager) and Trail (Pale) being the culmination of years of hard work and dedication - constant research, trialling different suppliers and processes to get the carbon footprint as low as possible. Swell and Trail finish with a CO2e footprint of -30g and -40g per pint respectively, compare this with a standard pint of lager which has a footprint of over 350g per pint and the difference is hard to ignore. All of this is also guaranteed all the way from the farm to your pint glass. With every pint poured, the same amount of CO2 is sequestered as what a medium sized tree does in a day.

Gipsy Hill is able to achieve this incredible feat through the use of certified regenerative barley farming – all sourced from Wildfarmed. Founded in 2018 by Andy Cato, George Lamb and Edd Lees, the company now consists of over 50 farmers across the county who Wildfarmed works closely with, helping them grow wheat in a regenerative system that prioritises plant diversity, returning health to the land and paying people fairly. This process of regenerative farming uses intercropping, cover cropping and reduced tillage on the land to allow for maximum plant coverage in the fields instead of simply planting for harvesting – this means there is reduced erosion on the land, improved soil health and on top of this, it allows for the barley farming to sequester more carbon in the soil than it releases into the atmosphere. Therefore, making it?truly sustainable.

The next step in creating the carbon-negative beer is through the use of an in-house developed process which allows for the brewery to recapture the waste hops from a previous batch of beer. Usually, hops would be thrown away after a single use, whereas this process allows for Gipsy Hill to not only make sure they are getting the most out of their materials – they can also greatly reduce the carbon footprint of production, waste materials in the brewhouse and the outgoing costs of the business. This process results in net zero greenhouse gas emissions and when coupled with the regenerative barley farming mentioned previously, allows for their beers to be carbon negative – making their production of beers beneficial for the planet.

Overview

The brewery emphasised that these are the first carbon negative beers that reduce carbon in the brewing process rather than using carbon Offsets. Carbon offsets reduce the carbon footprint of a company’s products through activities that don’t involve their own production, like forest restoration or renewable energy investments. So at the heart of Gipsy Hill’s journey to reduce their carbon footprint they wanted to inset the carbon and negate it from the source instead of looking elsewhere to address the problem – as a result of this they have worked with a company called Zevero, who is actively and precisely tracking the carbon footprint of the Swell Lager and Trail Pale lines from the cradle to the grave, ensuring they are carbon negative.

“Making great quality beer has been our obsession for 10 years, but I felt we had to find a way to do it more sustainably,” said Sam McMeeken, co-founder of Gipsy Hill Brewery. “Great beer should be guilt-free, and our new Trail Pale and Swell Lager mean that for the first time, our drinkers can enjoy a pint safe in the knowledge it’s actively improving the environment and helping solve our climate crisis. By truly embedding sustainability into our brewing process, rather than simply offsetting emissions, we have created a blueprint for sustainable beer range and the wider food and drink industry.”

Following on from Sam’s statement, I couldn’t agree more with the fact that they have created a blueprint for the industry to follow. However, I also believe that the principles and attitude displayed within Gipsy Hill can be applied to any business and will hopefully inspire business owners to tackle the climate crisis within their own supply chain instead of shifting the blame and greenwashing when there a clear benefits to becoming carbon neutral/negative; promotes biodiversity, shows initiative to tackling climate change, waste reduction, good publicity, creates longevity for businesses, cost efficiency, streamlines supply chain. There is no doubt that if every business applied similar priorities as Gipsy Hill, we would have a much clearer path to living in a world where production and distribution is truly sustainable and holistically managed. What better way to celebrate your 10 year anniversary than creating the worlds first offset-free carbon-negative beer! There is a lot to be learned from businesses such as Gipsy Hill, actively creating new business models in our changing world.