We’ve custom designed our perfect brewery and built it in Cluses, 40 minutes from Chamonix, and centrally located to serve the Haute Savoie and Savoie regions.
Capable of brewing over 12,000 Hectolitres per year, our 30hl, steam-heated three-vessel brewery consists of a classic mash tun, a holding tank and a kettle-whirlpool tank, supplied with alpine water from our two super-insulated 60hl hot liquor tanks. This then feeds our 710hl cellar of 19 jacketed conical fermentation vessels, from 10hl to 60hl in size.
The brewhouse is technically capable of three turns per day, but we prefer to do single or double brew days, not triple, so we get to enjoy the fruits of our labour in the evening! Our brew house is modern, fast and efficient, and as easy to use as possible, whilst maintaining that hands-on feel of craft brewing.
All of our beer is packaged in house, and stored in our sub 5ºC insulated cold room. We package our beer mainly into steel kegs, which we then collect and reuse, producing zero packaging waste. For small packs, we do a mix of bottles, which we fill with our Italian mono-block bottling line, or cans, which we fill with our Wild Goose canning line.
Our aim is to create the most sustainable brewery we can, and our goals for the near future are to deliver all of our beer locally with electric vehicles and run as much of our brewery from renewable energy as possible.
Packaging-wise, we are working hard to remove plastic from our packing chain, and whilst glass bottles are widely recycled, aluminium cans are even better environmentally, with over 70% of all aluminium produced still in use today, as it is infinitely recyclable. We will continue to push the use of aluminium cans for packaging our beer, and aim to reduce our bottle output over the next few years.
The brewery is as energy efficient as we can make it, and the water that runs through our heat exchanger to cool the wort is then stored in our highly insulted hot liquor tank.
We have refined our cleaning processes, to reduce water use, and all of our spent grain is sent to local farms where it is used as animal feed.
Join the Big Mountain mailing list.
