What we Believe:

• We believe in crafting the best lager beers available anywhere.
• We believe that our beers are made to be proudly shared amongst ourselves, with our neighbors and friends, both old and new.
• We believe that the beers we brew have a proud seat at many tables, and should be enjoyed responsibly.
• We believe that brewing and farming are noble professions.
• We believe in Stewardship, in preserving and working the land in our trust for future generations.
• We believe in the power of family.
• We believe that we are truly blessed to live and work in such a special place.
• We believe that the best smell in the world is that of beer brewing on a crisp fall New England morning.

Our American vision of “green” has gone beyond simply recycling our bottles and returnables. Today, we are all paying close attention to minimizing our carbon footprint and maximizing responsible use of our resources. In particular, trucking food supplies across oceans and continents is being looked at with a suspicious eye. It is expensive and costly. The farmer, the consumer and our environment all pay dearly. One has to marvel at the fact that the average meal travels almost 1500 miles from farm to plate! But because we, as consumers, are beginning to get savvy to this, local farmers markets are booming. People are demanding a head of lettuce, a bouquet of flowers or a bunch of carrots grown in their own neighborhood.

So how does this fit our beer?

First of all, for those who don’t know, beer is mostly water! Water is heavy and takes a lot of energy to ship from place to place. One reason to drink local brewed beer is that it is undeniably better for the planet than beer shipped from thousands of miles away. For every 24 bottle cases of European beer sold in our SouthCoast, 2 cups of diesel fuel is burned and 5.7 pounds of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere (that’s 1/4 pound per bottle). For every keg sold in restaurants, almost 2 gallons of diesel and 20 pounds of carbon dioxide is used and produced! That's 2 ounces of diesel for every pint! Local brewed beer doesn't travel long distances!

Secondly, local brewed beer keeps our green dollars in our local economies. Many don’t realize the powerful impact of money staying close to home. When dollars come into the pockets of your neighbors, they spend it in local businesses and support the local community. Our goal should always be to bring more money into our local economy than goes out of it. Buying local brewed beer is a great way to help build a strong local economy!

Local beer is green beer.

In 1898, when James Perry Russell emigrated from Ireland, he came with the hope of building a future in America. He never forgot the emerald isle of his birth nor the family he left behind. James risked everything for a chance to have a place of his own. If he could see the beautiful, rich farmland that Buzzards Bay Brewing calls home, James would weep with joy. For 10 years, Buzzards Bay Brewing has gone beyond simply being the local "green" beer; we embody the very concept of green-ness.

• We help to sustain over 500 acres of permanently preserved farmland. These green spaces remove over 10,000,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year.
• Our state of the art brewery maximize efficiencies and uses less than 50% of the energy than other brewers our size use.
• The barn was not only designed to appeal to the senses but also to be extraordinarily energy efficient. For instance, our warehouse has special windows so that lights are only needed when it is dark outside.
• Our spent grain feeds our neighbor's dairy cows.
• Every beer shows the quality of our farm's own natural spring water.
• In 2009 we are planning to install a windmill to not only power 100% of our electric needs but also sell electricity back to the grid.

I'll admit, it isn't easy being green.

Buying local demands that we go out of our way and suffer the slings and arrows of dreaded inconvenience; the wonderful farmer's markets aren't in the produce isle at your supermarket. Buying local brewed beer is a bit easier, most package stores enjoy carrying the local stuff. Also great pubs find that supporting the local effort helps them appeal to their customer's values and differentiate themselves from the TGI McScratchy's line-up of mass-produced international brands (and how cool is it when the brewer Harry shows up to play some blues on a Friday night? Very cool).

You can be assured that we spend an extraordinary amount of time and effort making sure that every brew produced at Buzzards Bay Brewing is a source of local pride. It takes us 6 weeks to brew one single batch of Lager; that's 3 times as long as most craft brewers spend brewing their beers.

The result is that every sip is not only extraordinarily delicous but great for the community and planet.

Cheers to all of you,

Bill Russell
owner/brewer/steward