Eastern Ontario family business brews climate-friendly local beer
Farm-based brewery adopts clean technology to capture and reuse carbon dioxide
By Lilian Schaer for Bioenterprise Canada
Daniel and Ivan MacKinnon are the eighth generation on a farm that’s been in their family since their ancestors first came to Upper Canada in 1784. They’re the first generation, though, to bring a brewery to the farm and launch their own beer label, MacKinnon Brothers Brewing Co. It’s also become sustainable with the implementation of a new clean-tech system.
“My brother and I were working in different jobs; he was an engineer in London, and I was brewing in England. We both wanted to come home to the farm,” explains Dan. “We wanted to start a value-added business and, when we were looking at brewing and distilling as options, we decided on beer. So, we started renovating an old barn and turning it into a brewery.”
The MacKinnons are committed to maintaining the history of their farm and rural community and place a priority on using hops, malting barley and wheat they grow themselves, as well as sourcing from other local farms. Their beers reflect unique local flavours and characteristics and include seasonal offerings, like a spelt beer that is available during the summer.
“We’re always trying to increase the farm-grown ingredients in our beer and as we’ve been growing and selling more product, we’re continually chasing that goal of 100% farm-grown beers,” Dan says.
It’s not just about history and tradition, though.
A short supply chain offers more control over the product from start to finish, notes Dan, which is important for a business that believes in marrying quality and sustainability with its rural roots. About 85 percent of their product is sold within 50 kilometres of their brewery, including at LCBO outlets in the greater Kingston area, beer stores in Eastern Ontario, select Loblaws stores and local bars and restaurants.
One of the by-products of beer brewing is the carbon dioxide, which is produced during fermentation. Large breweries capture and condense the CO2, but smaller brewers don’t have that option resulting in the gas going into the atmosphere.
At the same time, breweries need CO2 in its liquid, purified form to use for flooding or purging brewing tanks and cans, which means making sure they contain no oxygen that could affect the quality of the brewing process.
“We were buying CO2 for our tanks, while at the same time watching our own carbon dioxide go into the atmosphere – so we were very interested when we discovered a company in the U.S. that had created a capture-and-condense unit, suitable for smaller operations,” he says. “It offered a two-fold solution – letting us catch and re-use the carbon dioxide instead of wasting it.”
To help buy and implement the system, the business was able to access funding through the FoodShift program delivered by Bioenterprise Canada. Funded by the Government of Canada through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), the program offered up to $50,000 in matching funding to help food and beverage processors adopt clean technologies.
“The funding helped make the payback on an investment of this size make sense for a small business like ours,” he says. “It’s also made us more resilient against price fluctuations and shortages in the CO2 markets; being able to produce our own supply and know exactly what the cost will be is a huge benefit.”
In fact, not only is MacKinnon Brothers Brewing no longer discharging its carbon dioxide production, which reduces the company’s environmental footprint, but the company has also been able to reduce its CO2 purchases by approximately 80 percent in the first year and hopes to be fully self-sufficient within the next year.
The company was also able to work with the Bioenterprise team of innovation, business and marketing specialists throughout its project to help validate ideas and help make valuable connections.
“When you have an innovative idea with external benefits like carbon dioxide recapture, for example, it’s really beneficial to have an organization like Bioenterprise, which is familiar with the industry, to help you connect the dots and offer expertise,” Dan says.
Bioenterprise is Canada’s Food & Agri-Tech Engine, a national agri-technology focused commercialization accelerator. Bioenterprise uses its more than 20 years of industry experience and a global network of experts, mentors, funders, researchers, and industry partners to help small- and medium-sized agri-food businesses connect, innovate and grow. Learn more.
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