Ethical and Sustainable Brewery and Cidermaker Directory

The Really Good Beer Guide

Click these hyperlinks to jump down to the brewery list, further reading, female brewers and cidermakers and anti-AI list.

August 2021: I’ve been doing a lot of work recently researching UK-based ethical and sustainable brewery and pub businesses. Lots of this hasn’t been published yet. It will be released over the next few months. It’s heartwarming to see the amazing work that is taking place across the UK to take extra care of people, community and the environment.

It’s been a tough time for the beer industry, with sexual harassment charges, poor treatment of employees and other unsavoury actions hitting the headlines. So to counteract the negativity, and instead of giving more air time to businesses whose behaviour I don’t like, I’ve decided to start a directory of the breweries who are doing Good Things and making Good Beer!

Scroll down for lists of female breweries, some good news stories collected over the years and NEW for 2026, the brewers and cidermakers who have publicly professed to be anti-AI, which has serious environmental implications in its use.

Who is in?

I’m not, for the moment, including vegan or gluten-free beers. That might be a separate list. Admittedly omitting isinglass from your processes arguably supports sustainability. I think many beers can be incidentally vegan without any conscious choice on the brewery’s part to make a positive change.

I am including cider makers, even though I know they aren’t breweries. But it’s my list so deal with it! I think we can applaud ethical and sustainable producers in both spheres.

With over 2000 breweries in the UK (2026 edit: barely over 1700 now), this list could get pretty long! And I hope it does. I hope it grows over time as more people adopt better business practices. They will be making beer that is as good for the soul as it is for the palate. Now, if you know someone great that is missing, add a comment, or tell me on BlueSky or via email. Also more detail about what businesses are doing is welcome.

This is a living list! I can add, and I can take away (I have a private blacklist. No, you can’t see it.) Read all about our ethical and sustainable brewery friends. Happy drinking!

Ethical and Sustainable Brewery List

Abbeydale Brewery, Sheffield

The UK’s only 100% employee-owned brewery since 2024 – putting their people first! “We truly believe in the power of beer as a mechanism to bring people together.“

Ascension Cider, Sussex

Their apples have all been rejected for sale by supermarkets. The Wildwood Series is a low intervention cider fermented directly in oak casks with wild yeasts.

Adnams, Southwold

Adnams donate 1% of their profit each year to support community charities. They champion local ingredients and support the natural environment by employing a beekeeper who cares for over a million bees. Adnams are committed to using more English hops as they have a lower carbon footprint and require less irrigation. Founder members of Open to Everyone. Closed to Racism.

Allkin Brewing, nr Tunbridge Wells

Since their previous brewery was hit by lightning, Allkin have been on the Road to Unruin. A successful crowdfunder has allowed them to rebuild the former Good Things Brewing back better and even more sustainable than before and create a new brand – Allkin. They reused every last piece of sandstone they could find in the foundations.

In October 2022, they launched a new crowdfunder to take Allkin to a new level and get their sustainable beer out as far as possible. Now their tagline is “A force of good for both people & planet. To positively impact as many lives as we can.”

Artistraw Cider, Hereford

Growing an orchard in a wildflower meadow with rare and delicious apple varieties. While this grows, they pick from established, unsprayed local orchards and make full juice cider bottled and labelled by hand using corn starch glue with recycled paper and natural inks.

Atlantic Brewery, Newquay

A Soil Association certified organic unfined cask ale brewery based in the barn of Treisaac Farm where they grow many of their own ingredients including Cornish Green Fuggle Hops. They draw water from their own spring and use locally produced organic malt. They use solar and heat exchange to maximise energy efficiency.

Bewdley Brewery, Bewdley

Have established plenty of green initiatives – solar panels on the roof generates up to 10KW and the power is used in the brewhouse and for the electric delivery van. Lighting is 98% LED. Air source heat pump is used to heat the bar. Waste grain goes for cattle feed, general waste is recycled and waste pallets go to the Severn Valley Railway to fire the steam engines. Empty bottles from the bar are collected by a specialist recycling company and empty boxes are reused by another local business.

Big Hug Brewing, cuckoo brewers

A Work For Good Partner where some of their profits from Pave The Way pale ale support their nominated charity, Only A Pavement Away, which supports people who are homeless. They have a long track record of supporting charities – “In 2015 we started an initiative called Hugs4Snugs to help raise clothing donations for local homeless charities nominated by the venue at our Tap Takeover events.”

Black Isle Brewing Co, Munlochy

Scotland’s first organic brewery. They pay up to three times as much for hops, and twice as much for barley from farms that have massively more abundant insect, plant and birdlife. They importantly help to support declining bee populations.

Blue Barrel Cider, Nottingham

Small batch cider which is the product of inner-city scrumping (my new favourite phrase.) Cider supports Summerwood, a community garden project and a range of projects for the community there, including vulnerable adults, families and young peoples’ groups.

Bluestone Brewing Co, nr Newport Pembs.

The world’s first Green Key accredited brewery. They have their own water supply with reed bed filtration for waste water. The brewery and site has solar panels, living rooves, solar energy and heat exchange in the brewing process. There are lots of recycling and composting activities taking place on sit. They house community events like a local gardening group.

Jan 2025 – Working with Swansea University, Bluestone capture carbon dioxide from the brewing process and pipe it through to a photobioreactor to fuel the photosynthesis of spirulina, a blue-green algae. The algae that is cultured as a result can be harvested for use in the food, health and pharmaceutical industries.

Brewsters Brewery, Grantham

Using compressed sugarcane can holders for loose cans and fully renewable energy supplies to power the brewhouse.

Brewgooder, Glasgow

For every pint of beer sold, they aspire to provide 100 times that amount in clean water. This benefit is delivered via various charities around the world. B Corp certified.

Bucks Star Brewery, Milton Keynes

Pioneers of the growler swap, to reduce the use of single use packaging, and creating the UK’s first solely solar powered brew – still one of the only breweries in the UK to be powered completely by its own solar panels.

Bushel & Peck, Gloucestershire

Using unsprayed apples to make natural cider. Reviving neglected traditional orchards and supporting the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and Gloucestershire Orchard Trust.

Castle Rock Brewery, Nottingham

Outline their position with a clear sustainability statement and openly commit to no greenwashing. They have been Green Certified with Investors in the Environment since 2016 for their commitment to reducing the environmental impact of their energy and water use and decreasing emissions. In 2019 they won the Visit Nottingham Ethical, Responsible and Sustainable Tourism award and work in partnership with a range of local and national nature charities.

Charnwood Cider, Leicestershire

Rob uses locally collected fruit from unsprayed trees (that would otherwise go to waste), has planted around 500 trees in his burgeoning orchard, and uses minimal electricity.

Cloudwater Brewery, Manchester

They run an ethically conscious, human-centred business that is helping to support innovation in Northern communities. They are also notable for using their own not inconsiderable platform to help amplify the voices of under-represented groups under their Beer with Big Ideas project. See their collaboration packs in Tesco stores around the country (although these beers are brewed on their behalf by another large brewery who won’t be making this list, so you pays your money, you takes your chances). Edit – these have now been withdrawn from sale, following a certain documentary. So continue to pay your money and take your chances as you see fit.

Clyde Cider, Glagow

Forage apples from residents of Glasgow and Clyde and use their profits to plant a community orchard.

Conwy Brewery, Conwy

Solar generation reduces power consumption by 30%, reuse of spent grain and waste products along with a commitment to reduced use of water and chemicals.

Cornish Orchards, Duloe, Cornwall

Asahi-owned cider farm Cornish Orchards announced in June 2025 that their farm has entirely replaced fossil fuels for energy use by switching to a solar-powered heat pump system (replacing the old diesel boiler). They have also planted four acres of woodland for carbon capture, with a further 21 planned. They use a wetland for cleaning water and have built bee boxes and swallow houses on the property.

Crumbs Brewing, Reigate

Saving waste bread by making it into artisanal beer!

Cullercoats Brewery, Cullercoats, Tyne & Wear

Corporate partners of the RNLI, they donate 3p to the charity for every beer they sell, totalling over £60k to date!

Drop Bear Beer Company, Swansea

Wales’ first Certified B Company, brewing alcohol-free beers that use renewable energy and recyclable materials throughout the production cycle. An LGBTQ+ owned and female-led business. In March 2022, Drop Bear submitted plans for the world’s first carbon neutral alcohol free brewery in Abergavenny. And in July 2022, they became the world’s first certified carbon neutral alcohol free brewery.

DuckChicken Cider, South London

Making cider in South London from three revived Kentish orchards that are dry and unpasteurised.

Duration Brewery, Norfolk

Recently build a destination farmhouse brewery on a working farm, with respect to the historic character of the building they restored and the protected wildlife in the area. Working from a farmhouse base gives huge opportunities for working more sustainably and recycling waste.

Eko Brewery, London

An increasing criticism of beer in the UK and beer writing is the lack of representation of People of Colour. This will certainly mean many people wish to support one of the few Black-owned breweries in the UK. Eko are producing delicious beers using what they have learned from researching traditional African brewing techniques and ingredients.

Fell Brewery, Cumbria

March 2026 – Fell were given a Green Growth Award by Small Business Britain recognising their embedding of a sustainable approach to their operations over a number of years. They are looking to use the prize money to convert the van to biofuel or look at repurposing an old tank as a cleaning solution recovery vessel to reduce chemical and energy use.

Fierce Brewery, Aberdeen

Collaborated with Beer52 and US brewers Notch to send out their pale ale ‘Brave Noise’ to all Beer52 subscribers in December 2021 with a portion of the profits going to The Drinks Trust. “The project is part of a global initiative to fight sexism in the craft beer industry, after many women took to social media earlier this year with their personal stories of misogyny.”

Find and Foster Cider, Huxhum

Reviving neglected traditional orchards and grafting rare varieties to replace dead trees and replenish the orchards and historic disease-resistant strains.

Freedom Brewery, Staffordshire

All of their wastewater is naturally filtered on site.

Futtle, East Neuk of Fife

Soil Association certified organic brewery blending natural beers that have a real sense of place, with wild yeasts and fermentation being central to their small batch brewing.

Good Chemistry Brewing, Bristol

A business with a pub and brewery running off 100% renewable energy. Spent malt feeds local cows, all packaging is reusable and they aim to be part of an open and inclusive community.

Good Things Brewing, nr Tunbridge Wells

Good Things described themselves as the ‘first closed-loop, fully sustainable brewery.’ They were making their own power, drawing water, making spent grain into flour (using the world’s first spent grain dehydrator, which they invented) and using an electric van for deliveries. Their historic barn brewery was destroyed by fire after being hit by lightning in July 2021. The resulting crowdfunder hit the target within 48 hours. Watch this space to see what they are able to achieve as they rebuild their brewery.

Update October 2022: Welcome a new brand – Allkin Brewing. Yep, I want you to scroll all the way back up to A now please.

Great Newsome Brewery, East Yorkshire

Part of a family farm, the brewery has made a commitment to sustainability by supporting hedgerow development and bird and bee feeding to encourage pollinators.They are using cover crops to promote soil health and carbon capture. Their 2022 beer range ‘Chrysalis’ celebrates the butterfly species found at the farm and they chose to can the range as they are more easily recyclable than bottles. They are also using sustainable materials in their packaging and marketing, using locally grown malt and more British hops and reducing energy consumption by harnessing steam for heating water. They plan shortly to switch to steam for washing casks too.

Gun Brewery, The Sussex Weald

Generate power from solar, heat from a wood powered boiler and feed spent grain to local livestock. Water for brewing comes from a spring beneath organically farmed land which is then microfiltered and UV filtered to remove the need for chemical treatment before use.

Gyle 59, Sadborow, Dorset

Spring-powered, log fed and propane-driven beers according to their website!

Hackney Brewery, Hackney

Their brewery, warehouse and office is powered from renewable energy used in efficient ways thanks to a nitrogen reclaim system, and heat exchange for example. They are members of the Living Wage Foundation paying the London Living Wage and staff go through ongoing training to help them develop. Waste grain is recycled and recycling is key with their packaging. They also work with local charities to support community events.

Hepworth Brewery, Horsham

October 2024 – Hepworth install a Futraheat heat pump, believed to be the UK’s first steam-generating high temp heat pump. It “recovers low grade waste vapour from the brewing processes and delivers it back as steam.” It could eventually replace the oil boiler completely. Their website reads “we have embraced industry leading energy-efficient processes and advanced recycling techniques, moving us significantly further on our journey towards the goal of carbon neutrality.”

Ignition Brewery, South London

Ignition train people with learning disabilities – a group who are chronically under-employed. The team all learn to brew, package the beer and run the tap house. Apart from the two directors, Head Brewer and the bar manager, everyone who works in the business has a learning disability. They create great beer which people drink within the same postcode to keep the food miles down.

Lost and Grounded, Bristol

September 2025 – L&G installed a Dalum CO2 Recovery Plant so they can capture and store the CO2 from the brewing process to reuse in the rest of the brewery, for packaging etc. This continues on from receiving a Green Business Grant in 2023 which they used to install an Energy Recovery which captured steam from brewing and used it to heat water for brewing and cleaning. This gave them a 10% reduction in gas consumption.

Ludlow Brewery, Shropshire

Brewing from a converted railway shed that was designed with environmental sustainability and reduced carbon emissions in mind – including installing an air source heat pump system to reuse heat, recycling rainwater, using low carbon insulation and aim to deliver locally to reduce beer miles.

Magpie Brewery, Nottingham

This microbrewery is powered by green energy, recycle their water to wash casks, waste malt is fed to cattle and waste hops are composted. Plus they offer bring your own bottle refills.

Mashionistas Brewing Company, Coventry

Using 100% renewable energy through Octopus Energy, compost spent grain at a local allotment and only make vegan beer.

Mauldons, Sudbury

Striving for net zero with a mission “to become one of the greenest breweries in the UK” – introducing electric delivery vans, solar pannels and using malt barley grown on their own farm.

Merakai Brewing Co, Framfield

A brewery that aims to connect people in an inclusive community with equality at its heart. They released a Brave Noise beer in March 2022, the proceeds from the beer are being put towards creating Wellness Officers, trained individuals who will be present at craft beer events and festivals to help, support and act as a witness for attendees.

Neptune Brewery, Liverpool

In September 2021, they brewed a charity beer called Sangfroid with the Global Ladies of Wort GLOW ALONG 2021, who aim to highlight female representation in the beer industry. Proceeds from the project are directed to a local women’s charity, Sefton Women’s and Children’s Aid.

Norton Brewing, Runcorn

Norton use the brewing process as a way to give adults with learning difficulties pre-employment opportunities to increase skills and confidence. The bottling plant is also particularly staffed by autistic people who value the employment experience they gain from the structured activities that take place there.

Oakham Ales, Peterborough

Thanks to a partnership with Electron Green, Oakham have had the roof of their Peterborough brewery upgraded and fitted with a solar array. Their first exclusively solar-powered beer, Sun City, was released in August 2025.

One Planet Brewing, Farnham

Sept 2023 – A new brewery in Surrey brewing using 100% solar power generated on site. This brewery is funded by and on the same site as Hogs Back Brewery. They will be using homegrown hops wherever possible and packaged using mainly reusable materials. Distribution is being kept within 30 miles so that an electric dray can be used for delivery. It will be interesting to see how much of this sustainable agenda is taken on board by Hogs Back as proof of concept comes through.

People’s Captain, Hove?

A craft beer range dedicated to supporting mental health initiatives through a dedicated foundation. Appear to work with existing breweries to create their products, but I can’t be sure. More on that as I get it!

Powderkeg, Woodbury Salterton, Devon

Find their sustainability policy here. It includes limits on water usage, operating heating and cooling at 85% efficiency, spent grain to feeding livestock and composting and bioplastic can labels.

Purity Brewing Co, Warwickshire

Their brewery uses heat exchange and steam capture to reduce energy consumption. Spent grain feeds Longhorn cattle and spent yeast feeds pigs. Waste water is recycled using a natural wetland reed filtration system. To support their community they support rugby (from the grass roots up) and encourage and support cycling as a sport and a greener method of transport. (Purchased by the Breal Group Dec 2023)

Ramsgate Brewery, Kent

Aiming to net zero for their brewery. Ramsgate are not just installing solar panels, but publishing useful data about how well they are working and projected payback schedules. Take a look at their blog for interesting information.

Rooster’s Brewing Co, Harrogate

March 2025 – Rooster’s have installed acoustic ceiling rafts in their taproom to help deal with the poor acoustics in the space and to make the venue more accessible for people who are hard of hearing to enjoy their time there. A real win for inclusivity.

Ross Cider, Ross-on-Wye

Traditional family-run full juice natural cider makers who conducted the Innovative Farmers study into the use of a Shropshire breed of sheep to graze orchards.

Rull Orchard, Bickleigh

A project in permaculture encouraging the natural biodiversity of the area. Grow or source locally and sell direct to customers to minimize transportation. They have a new orchard, bee hives, wildlife pond, bird and bat boxes and logpile habitats. They don’t use pesticides or insecticides and use homegrown comfrey and nettles for fertiliser. The farm is carbon negative.

Salcombe Brewery Co, Kingsbridge

Sept 2023 – Donated £2000 to the Seahorse Trust raised through sales of its Seahorse Beer.

Seb’s Cider, Herefordshire

Slow matured natural cider from unsprayed orchards. Hand picked apples pressed in a low-impact cider barn and pommace fed to local cattle.

Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing, Scotland

Producing low alcohol and regular strength beers and aiming “build the most inclusive, accessible and sustainable brewery in the UK” in 2022. They actively seek to employ people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Sustainability is a long term goal, and inclusivity and community are their key watchwords of the moment.

Shepherd Neame, Faversham

Oct 2025 = the brewer has invested in two 42 tonne electric delivery trucks to reduce emissions over their 10 trip-per-day delivery schedule from the brewery to the distribution centre. This is part of a recently introduced strategy aiming for net zero carbon by 2030.

Small Beer Co, South Bermondsey

The first certified B Corp certified brewery in London, cutting water use and implementing a dry floor policy, recovering energy and using sustainable packaging. June 2023 update – they have been using more British hops and are gradually moving their whole range across to this option.

Spookton Brew Co, The Wirral, Merseyside

A new venture donating 5p per can or pint sold to support charitable ventures. Each beer they brew will support a different charity to literally share the wealth.

St Austell Brewery, Cornwall

In June 2024, St Austell announced a partnership with ScottishPower to install 300 new electric vehicle charging points in Cornwall across their pub estate. Their flagship lager, korev, has been partnering with the Marine Conservation Society since 2020 – they sponsor beach cleans in Devon and Cornwall and 10p from every supermarket pack of cans goes to the charity. Each pint of korev sold in a St Austell pub also generates a 10p donation (partnership is continuing in 2024).

In May 2026, St Austell released plantable beermats – made of biodegradable material embedded with seeds – as a conversation starter about sustainability. A QR code takes customers to a website giving more information about their sustainability actions, including all 45 of its managed pubs running off renewable energy sources.

Stonehouse Beers, Oswestry

They built an energy efficient brewhouse in 2013 and actively try to save water and energy. They only make cask deliveries within a 30 mile radius. The brewery uses bottles for small pack because glass is less damaging to produce.

Stroud Brewery, Stroud

A dedicated, Soil Association approved organic brewery and the first UK brewery B Corp (see below). They only source ingredients that have a positive impact on ecosystems and the environment, and prioritise local.

Tap Social Movement, Oxford

Deeply committed to social justice, their brand was developed using prisoner artwork that needed a platform. They created a brewery and social space where they hire currently serving inmates and recently released people. Tap offer support to develop new skills, gain experience and learn about setting up their own businesses. They also offer one on one employment support.

Thornbridge Brewery, Bakewell

Sept 2024 – Thornbridge joined the Zero Carbon Forum to make their business more sustainable.

Toast Ale, London

Using surplus bread instead of virgin barley to use less land, water and energy.

Utopian Brewing, Crediton, Devon

Brewing lager using 100% British ingredients, they do not add finings or enzymes for clarification and they also have a commitment to sustainability: no single use plastics in the packaging, own nitrogen generated on site and beers naturally carbonated to reduce carbon dioxide usage.

Vault City, Edinburgh

Sept 2026 – Installed 400 solar panels on the brewery at Edinburgh’s BioCampus and working with Brew Resourceful and Fermcraft to maximise the energy generated by storing energy through chilling beer, not just relying on batteries. Apparently refrigeration accounts for nearly half of their energy use, so by scheduling cooling to coincide with periods of solar generation they hope to power 100% of refrigeration energy through the solar panels in the summer. Very clever!

Verdant Brewing Co, Penryn, Cornwall

June 2025 – installed a C02 recovery system to capture the natural carbon dioxide produced through fermentation and reuse it in the brewery. It is hoped to prevent 150 metric tons of C02 entering the atmosphere each year. This is in addition to solar panels already installed on their roof.

Welbeck Abbey Brewery

Small changes can make a big difference. By converting to a pressure washer for cleaning Welbeck Abbey have cut down their water usage by 75% . This deserves celebrating if you ask me!

Welsh Mountain Cider, Powys

Making full juice, natural cider from a museum orchard of 450 varieties of fruit trees.

Wimbledon Brewery, London

Aiming to reduce their carbon footprint and promote sustainability by reducing waste, controlling energy usage and recycling. November 2023 – working with Charles Faram to showcase recently developed English hops in pale ales and IPAs due for release in 2024.

Wildcraft Brewing, Norwich

They offer to swap locally foraged ingredients for beer. Sounds like a tasty deal.

Wilderness Brewery, Powys

A transparent brewery who publish their brew sheets and a Code of Conduct. Wilderness use renewable energy and recycled materials wherever possible, calculate and attempt to offset their carbon emissions and each new beer helps to fund new nature reserves. They also support charitable and progressive causes.

Wiper & True, Bristol

July 2022 – A new taproom has been opened in Bristol that is accessible and sustainability focused. June 2023 – Upside Down was released, using Slovenian hops instead of New World in an effort to find new ways to reduce emissions from transportation.

Wold Top Brewery, Hunmanby

They use homegrown barley and water from the farm’s borehole to brew. Alongside this they are planting trees to offset their carbon footprint and planting wild areas to support biodiversity. They use renewable energy from the farm’s wind turbines. Given the Company CSR/Green Initiative of the Year award at the Scarborough Business Excellence Awards in 2021.

Wylde Sky, Cambridge

A vegan friendly brewery who support local charities, offer local delivery within 10 miles and use recycled materials and growlers to make packaging more sustainable. In the brewery they use a heat exchanger and steam capture as well as spent grain going to local farmers. They also have a snazzy mobile phone charger in the taproom and public EV charging point thanks to an arrangement with a neighbouring garage.

Female Brewers and Cider Makers

With the sexism and harassment that has been recorded in the beer industry recently, I know many of you will like to take the opportunity to support our excellent female brewers. Here are some breweries to look out for that have female brewers making delicious things.

30Six Brewery
Artistraw
Barley Wood Orchard
Bartestree Cider
Bath Ales
Binary Botanicals
Brewsters Brewery
Burnt Mill Brewery
Cidentro Cider
Cider Women (pan industry group)
Cloudwater Brewery
Coalition Brewery
Cullercoats Brewery
DuckChicken Cider
Durham Brewery
Drop Bear Beer
Eko Brewing
Find and Foster
First and Last Brewery
The Five Points Brewing Co
Grazed Knee Cider
Harviestoun
Heist Brewery
Honey’s Cider
Jaspels Cider
Kniveton Cider
Letchford Cider
Liquid Light Brewing
Mashionistas Brewing Co
Meon Valley
Merakai Brewing
Mothership Beer
Naked Orchard / Ragged Stone
Newtown Park Brewery
Nomadic Brewery
The Orchard Project
The Park Brewery
Pomme Boots (pan industry group)
Pressure Drop
Round Corner Brewing
Stroud Brewery
Truman’s Brewery
Turners Cider
Welsh Mountain Cider
Wild Card Brewery
Wilding Cider
Wiper & True

Can we save our traditional orchards?

A thought-provoking piece by Chris Russell-Smith in Cider Review.

Heineken begin low carbon barley farming trials

September 2021 – Whatever you think of the big brewing conglomerates, they are spending a lot of money marketing their environmental and sustainable credentials. Heineken announced a trial this month with malt supplier Muntons and Yorkshire farmers which will take place over the autumn 2021 crop sowing.

Interesting developments in Japan

June 2022 – Sapporo Breweries have been upcycling brewing waste products (yeast) to create “washi” paper that is then spun into denim threads and made into jeans by the Shima Denim Works. Apparently, demand was huge when the first 30 pairs were put up for sale online. Definitely an interesting idea and worth watching how the technology – and demand – develops.

More yeast recycling news

June 2022 – “Frontiers in Animal Science suggest that using leftover brewer’s yeast as a feed additive may benefit the environment by helping cows belch less methane into the air as a greenhouse gas that contributes to global climate change.”

BII announce partnership with Zero Carbon Forum

August 2023 – “The British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) has partnered with Zero Carbon Forum to support pubs on their sustainability journey as part of the BII’s recently launched Sustainability Champion Award.

The Award recognises and celebrates the pub sector’s outstanding commitment to sustainability and the environment, supported by Sky Business. The forum, a non-profit organisation dedicated to helping Hospitality and Brewing reach net zero at pace, will be providing BII members with access to the Carbon Calculator and toolkit.” BII members can access the Zero Carbon Forum Carbon Calculator via their website here.

Crisp Malt

Crisp have been working with Terracycle UK to divert waste malt sacks from landfills and incinerators. They announced in March 2025 that over 5000kg had been recycled so far – that’s over 53,000 25kg sacks.

September 2025 – Crisp now have their Return-A-Bag scheme, for empty malt bags from any producer. 16,000 x 25kg bags were returned and recycled in the first month alone. The only cost to brewers and distillers is transporting the bags. More details are available on the Crisp website.

October 2025 – Crisp announced the largest sustainable agriculture initiative in the UK malting industry. Field Forward aims for continuous improvement in soil health, water usage, biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions by using a data driven approach to sustainable farming.

The Anti-AI Brigade: 2026 addition to the directory

The use of AI has a huge impact on the environment through its huge water use and the consumption of electricity, minerals and elements. It is also a big two-fingers to human creatives, who are being denied opportunities to fulfil paid contracts as copywriters, designers, artists etc. but also having their work scraped and stolen to “train” AI. Given that this list is a positive one, I’m not going to name and shame breweries who do use AI, instead I’d prefer to list those who have made a statement against its use, so you can support them with your beer money instead.

Abbeydale Brewery
Beeston Hop
Brass Castle Brewery – Sept 2026 – There is a little trend for breweries to post handwritten notes on Instagram saying they will not use AI to market their beers. Brass Castle have done just that.
Burton Bridge Brewery/Heritage Brewing say that they have struggled as third party events like beer festivals or things on at the pub might use AI that isn’t under their control. But they are looking at it to try and come up with a workable in-house policy. And I think that honesty and process is worth marking and respecting.
De Dolle Brouwers (Diksmuide, Belgium)
Donzoko Brewery – actively advocate working with local artists as part of their design strategy.
Free Trade Inn and Mean Eyed Cat in Newcastle announced a ban on all breweries who use AI artwork on their pumpclip and labels from Feb 2026.
Grain Brewery – produced “I am not a robot” in 2023 as the supposed world first anti-AI beer. Unfortunately, they had initially wanted to produce the first AI generated beer, but realised they were way behind the curve already and so did this instead. So whether that puts them in the anti-AI group now, I will leave up to your good judgement.
Green Duck Brewery – no AI statement on Instagram March 2026
Heartland Ciderworks (OR, USA)
Indie Rabble Brewery are AI free.
Not the slightest bit of AI from Jawbone Brewing.
Lost Cause Brewing Co
Lost and Grounded Brewers
Maverick Brewery‘s Kirsty posted a particularly nice Instagram vid, saying “if you need to use AI to promote your brewery… What the f**k were you doing before that was even an option?” Go follow them, and her.
No AI at Neptune Brewery.
Omnipollo
Otherworld Brewing
Parrett Cider Company are AI artwork free.
Pipe Maker’s Arms in Broseley are a no-AI pub.
Pellicle – Not a brewery, but industry mag Pellicle has been vocally anti-AI for as long as anyone now, so worth putting on your list if you can sustain a small (or large!) monthly subscription. Most content remains free to read also and a print version is promised on the horizon.
Simple Things Fermentations are AI free.
Stigbergets Bryggeri and Beerbliotek in Gothenburg have their own label artists and O/O Brewing also work with various artists.
Torrside Brewery tell me they are “fiercely anti AI”.
Walhalla Brouwerij & Proeflokaal (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Have I got anything wrong? Missed anything? Drop me a line on BlueSky and let me know, my DMs are open.