Sebago Brewing Founder Kai Adams, left, and Director of Brewery Operations Peter Dahlen at the company headquarters in Gorham. The brewery’s new carbon dioxide recapture/recovery system allows them to produce their own CO2, cutting costs while also reducing the brewery’s carbon footprint. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer Remember pandemic shortages ? In your household, it may have been toilet paper , flour or chicken wings.
For Maine’s about 150 craft breweries, the COVID-19 pandemic engendered scary shortages of CO2 , a gas that is essential to make beer. The funny thing is, breweries also produce CO2, or carbon dioxide, in the beer-making process. Recently, a few Maine breweries have turned to technology newly adapted to small craft breweries that allows them to recapture the CO2 they produce and reuse it to make their beer.
These closed-loop systems can save the breweries money, offer security in the event of future CO2 shortages and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. They may well be the future. “As these systems become more customizable and affordable, they really will be the new normal,” Dave Love, Maine Beer Company’s sustainability manager, said in an email.
Maine Beer Company, which is based in Freeport, is one of at least three breweries in the state that has purchased the carbon recapture technology. The others are Lone Pine Brewing, which installed it within days of Maine Beer in 2022, and Sebago Brewing, just now familiarizin.