Oh no, we don’t mind at all! In fact, we like to get as much trash as we can from this sophisticated brewpub located in The Small Town of Seymour, Indiana.
Each week, we pick up between 10 to 20 buckets of spent
brewers’ mash, cast off pelleted hops bags and dry mash bags. All left in a
neat little row each day at the rear of the brewery.It sounds a bit like a hoarding situation, right? Well, actually – it’s a commitment that Purple Shamrock Farm has had from the very beginning; to recycle as much as possible and keep as much as we can out of the landfill.
The spent brewers’ mash has three actual purposes when we get it.
Depending on the demand and how dry the mash is – some
will go into making those super famous, super favored dog treats called I.P.A.
Bites (Incredible. Pupper. Appetizers.)® made by our farm called Purple Shamrock Farm.A second use is supplemental chicken feed for our 40+ hens that inhabit the farm. It’s amazing how excited these feathered flock mates get when we drive the car up to the side of the chicken run, get out and dump five gallon buckets over the side of the fence where the birds are all too eager to run up and gobble it up. In the winter- steam rises from the mash so it warms them up while feeding them.
The final use for the grain is compost for the 5 acres of the farm. Garden and field get regular donations of spent brewers’ mash to help keep the soil as rich as possible.
The cast off pelleted hops bags go into making zippered pencil/money/whatever-you-want-to-hold bags that still hold the smell of the hops. Talk about a beer lover’s delight that when they reach into the bag for beer money- the money smells like hops!
The dry mash bags- they go into making sturdy, waterproof tote bags that proclaim the love of beer and recycling.
We don’t mind being called trashy if it means keeping more of what we love out of the landfill and back into use. We’re fairly certain that The Seymour Brewing Company likes us that way.
