SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability Practices within Sunshine Brewery
Sustainability is the idea that humans must interact with the environment in a way that ensures there will be enough resources left for future generations. For us, that means minimising our impact on the environment and maximising our use of all resources available to either improve the environment or supply unwanted product for an alternate use/recycling or repurposing by products.
Supply of raw materials and aids to manufacture.
In these supply decisions we attempt to source as much as we can locally or at least within Australia. This is not always an easy task, as it is a case of balancing quality; consistency; flavours; availability; provenance and relationships with ethical suppliers.
Key raw materials for manufacture include malted grain, rice hulls, water, hops, yeast and adjuncts.
Malt
We source our malt from Gladfields Malt in New Zealand. Yes, it does require shipping from Christchurch to Brisbane, however, the carbon footprint is greatly reduced compared to grains of similar quality sourced from Europe, USA or UK.
Our reasoning behind choosing Gladfields as our malt supplier is the malt is consistent in quality and size. Gladfields Malt is a family-owned business, situated at Michaels Farm near Dunsandel. Doug and Gabi Michaels are fifth generation farmers foremost and developed the malting plant in 2004 to diversify their customer base. They have built a culture of supporting their team; their growers and their customers – a set of values which reflect our own.
They deal with 150 farmers on the Canterbury Plains to grow grain specifically for brewing malt purposes. Doug and Gabi are very conscientious on sustainability issues and have developed planting and tilling systems which significantly minimises soil disturbance (ie carbon release into the atmosphere) and increases water retention to increase yield – all innovations they share with their growers . Each farm lot of grain is malted single sourced without blending. Post malting, barley may be blended to provide consistency, however, each bag can still be traced to the farmers who grew it, providing a provenance which supports our own ethics.
On our visit to the Malting plant in March 2025, we discovered a whole new set of initiatives Doug and Gabi have introduced to further reduce their carbon footprint, including the use of recycled wood chip to firing the malting plant heating. And now two of the three children are involved in the business, setting the succession plan to ensure longevity
Hops
Hops exhibit the similar Terroir characteristics as grapes, which means hops contribute distinct flavours depending on where they are grown. Australian and New Zealand hops contribute very different flavours to those grown in the Northern Hemisphere, and depending on the beer we will use hops from different sources accordingly.
Our key hop suppliers are Hop Products Australia (HPA) based in Tasmania. They have large hop farms in Tasmania and Victoria and all of our Australian-Grown pelletised hops come from them. HPA are part of the BarthHaas group of global hop growers/suppliers, which means we can source USA, European and Kiwi grown hops through the same supplier. They are also signatories to the UN Global Compact and have a clear strategy to build on sustainable practices. One of the interesting ones is Sustainable string theory – HPA (hops.com.au).
We do source Yakima Chief Hops from the USA through Cryer Malt here in Australia and we support local Brisbane growers – Hilltop Hop Farm, collecting fresh hops each harvest to showcase our own terroir.
Water
We use the soft waters of Kuluin town supply and a comprehensive filtration system supplied and maintained by our neighbours, Eagle Lifestyle, for beer production. Water used in cooling and heat exchange is also recycled (it does not come into contact with the beer). Glycol chilling allows us to efficiently use a closed system for maintaining ferment vessel temperatures and chilled water used through the heat exchanger is recycled back to the cold liquor tank for re-use.
Adjuncts
Wherever possible we will make use of spray-free locally grown product that is available. For example; the Kaffir Lime peel used in the Gosé, is hand peeled from fruit grown by Jason and Shay of Safe Hands Catering at Lake Cooroibah; fresh ginger used in the ginger beer is grown by the Erbacher family. And then we make use of other fruits as they are seasonally available, such as mangos, Davidson plums, oranges, lemons and limes, which we hand prepare and freeze for future use. Products not grown locally we source frozen from Australian suppliers, when required.
Waste Products & Recycling Measures
Internally we have a very active recycle regime – returning cartons, pallets, dividers and containers to suppliers as much as possible to reduce waste and encourage re-use. And indeed, we do the same in-house, with many customers collecting and returning paktechs (those plastic four pack holders on the top of cans). We sanitise and reuse these. It does mean you might have strange stickers on top of a four pack of cans or they might be all different colours, but the benefits are far greater. Not only does it keep packaging cost down, which can be passed on to the customer, but it also has a multitude of environmental benefits:
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No shipping cost/energy from USA
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Saving plastics from landfill or energy requirements of repurposing
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We get to see our customers again
Likewise, we re-use our cardboard cartons for the same reason. Cartons we buy new are sourced from Brisbane suppliers Vinson Packaging who use 70% recycled material in manufacturing their cartons.
Sunshine Brewery is a member of the ASPIRE programme which allows us to put up items/resources for redistributing in a circular economy locally.
Current items listed for free distribution include Empty 25kg grain sacks – laminated woven polypropylene bags.
We do also have some direct arrangements for recycling other waste products including supplying spent grain to two separate local farmers as supplementary feed for cattle, pigs and chickens.
We also supply spent grain direct from production to Silver Tongue Foods for use in making sour dough beer chips and Sour Dough Beer Bread, which we then have available to our customers .
Supplying cardboard sheets to locals for use as a garden mulch/weed mat.
We have an arrangement with our local chemical supplier, Sunchem, wherein they take back the empty 20L chemical containers to refill. This is a significant environmental saving.
We have been successfully using diluted spent hops for composting/fertiliser purposes, but need to come up with an easier handling option to do this on a larger scale.
There is also an opportunity to repurpose of spent yeast (high in Vitamins)
Energy Saving Measures
In December 2019 we installed 90 solar panels on our roof. Since then (to April 2024) we have generated 173,952 KWh of power, equating to the accumulative planting of 894 trees and saving 326 tons of CO2. While we have generated more electricity than we actually consume, we are still presented with the challenge that some of our power requirements are outside solar generation times, hence we still have a power bill.
Solar Panels
Generated kWh
Accumulative Tree Planting
Tons of CO2 Saved
Other Products/Suppliers
We are very particular with who we supply our product to and who we source our inputs and products from. First and foremost our policy is support local and independent, hence you will not see our beers in Dan Murphys, Woolworths or Coles-owned stores. You will find them in independently owned bars, bottle shops and restaurants/cafes.
Likewise, we make our purchase decision for goods we stock in the same manner – supporting independent first.
Wines are sourced direct from growers in the Moffatdale/Kingaroy region two hours drive north west of the brewery
Cheeses on our cheese plates are from Kenilworth, Maleny and Woombye cheesemakers
Peanuts are direct from family-owned business “The Peanut Van” in Kingaroy and the specialty flavoured nuts are from Mount Ninderry small-batch roaster, Wicked Nuts, who also source the peanuts from Kingaroy
Beef Jerky we order direct from the farmer, Doug Laurence of Nive Downs who grows the beef on the Darling Downs. Doug also uses the handicapped organization in Toowoomba to package the jerky, supporting another local cause.
Chips are not local but are Australian made. Beer chips and sour dough crackers on our cheese plates are made by Silver Tongue Foods at Chevellum.
Soft drinks and nonalcoholic options are all from south Queensland producers. Softdrinks from Wimmers at Cooroy; non alcoholic ginger beer from Buderim Ginger; non alcoholic beers from Clinton and Lozen of Sobah Brewing on the Gold Coast; Hop Seltzer from our mates at Heads of Noosa Brewing and a selection of kombucha from OK Boocha in Coolum
A Special Thanks to Our Supply Partners
