For us at Hirt, sustainability is not a duty to be fulfilled; at Hirt, real sustainability is lived. From our own 24 water sources incl. in-house hydroelectric power plant, 1,368 photovoltaic panels and reusable containers to sustainable gift packaging in the Bierathek.
For us at Hirt, sustainability is not a duty to be fulfilled; at Hirt, real sustainability is lived. From our own 24 water sources incl. in-house hydroelectric power plant, 1,368 photovoltaic panels and reusable containers to sustainable gift packaging in the Bierathek.
We use the power of the sun every day to brew our Real Beer with the 1,368 photovoltaic panels on the roof of the brewery. In this way, we can save around 230 tonnes of CO2 per year.
But it's best to see for yourself. Our energy balance shows you in real time how much electricity we are currently producing.
Thanks to our own 24 natural mountain springs from the water protection area, we do not need any form of water treatment for our brewery.
The spring water bubbles up from the mountain with an average hardness of 6.5 and is perfect for our beer. Another advantage: We don't need pumps. The water tank is located 60 metres above the brewery in its own forest. The water therefore arrives at a pressure of 6 bar.
We need around 2 million kWh of electricity a year for beer production. We have been relying on hydropower since 1964. Two power plants on the Metnitz, virtually on our doorstep, provide us with an average output of around 600,000 kWh of electricity per year. In addition, we purchase around 500,000 kWh of sustainably generated hydroelectric power from the Gurk diocese each year.
A photovoltaic system was installed in 2014. 1,368 panels on the roof of the brewery have been supplying us with an additional 400,000 kWh of electricity since they were put into operation a year ago. Since 2019, this system has also fed two e-charging stations on the brewery premises, which are available to all employees, visitors and guests free of charge.
All the barley we use is produced in Austria, and a very large portion even comes from Carinthia. For example, the barley for our Hirt Märzen grows right outside the brewery gates in fields in the Krappfeld. In this way, we keep the distances short and the environment is less polluted.
Regionality is also very important to us when it comes to hops. Especially for our organic beers, which are 100% Austrian beers, we use hops from the Mühlviertel, the nearest growing region for high-quality hops. We also source hops from Hallertau in Germany, the world's largest hop-growing region. A small portion comes from the Czech Republic, from Žatec, where some of the highest quality hops are grown. The hemp seeds for our organic hemp beer come from Grafenstein in Carinthia.
As ever, we are committed to using reusable containers: recyclable glass or barrels account for around 90%. The brewery also uses a lot of cardboard, paper and recycled material instead of plastic packaging, even for the gift packaging in the Hirt Bierathek. This is usually more expensive, but more environmentally friendly and that is worth it for our environment and future generations.
We switched our heating from oil to natural gas years ago in order to have as few energy losses as possible. A lot also runs on heat recovery in production. In addition, we use the carbonic acid produced in fermentation in the production of our lemonades and give the spent grain to surrounding farmers as high-quality animal feed.
Fortunately, there are enough at Hirt. As the bees' habitat is becoming increasingly restricted and the preservation of the Carnica bee's habitat is very close to our hearts, we have been hosting the "Hirter-Bienen-WG" at the Hirt site for 2 years now. A colony of bees housed in an old Hirt beer barrel and cared for by our beekeeper Willi Bierbaumer. We have also created several flower meadows around the brewery for the hard-working helpers, who also contribute their liquid gold to our honey beer.
