Otter Brewery wins at 2007 Devon Environmental Business Awards

The DEBI awards were set up 15 years ago by the Devon Environmental Business Initiative to celebrate and raise awareness of the environmental steps that were being taken by companies across the county.

From nearly 90 overall entries, Otter were shortlisted into the final four of their category and during a glittering ceremony held at the Met Office in November 2007. Patrick was presented with the sought after award by Niall Duffy, the Head of PR and Public Affairs for FlyBe.

As part of our entry, we had to prove a long term commitment to protecting and enhancing our immediate surroundings, (the Blackdown Hills are both an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and a Site of Special Scientific Interest) as well as ensuring that our long term future was wholly sustainable. Judges were impressed at the tremendous lengths the we had gone to as well as our exciting future plans.

Sustainability plays a key role at every stage of the process, from the locally sourced malt from Tuckers Maltings in Newton Abbot to the water for the beer that is sourced from the head springs of the River Otter. Spent malt is then used to feed a beef herd in the Luppitt Valley, waste yeast goes directly to a pig farm in nearby Stockland and the used hops make excellent mulch for organic gardeners. All remaining brewery effluent is treated naturally using ponds and willow beds and the site is a haven for frogs, toads, newts, birdlife, deer, badgers and foxes.

The family has been determined to make the buildings as energy efficient as possible, whether it be the state-of-the-art Brewhouse or the restoration with local stone of redundant buildings. Our employees, who all live locally, take their meals together in Mary Ann's 'soup kitchen' and we now looking forward to converting all the delivery vehicles to run on biofuel. Our entry also featured the completion in the new year of a new eco-friendly 'clay' cellar. Planned for July 2008, this will be surrounded by willow beds and finished with a sedum (living grass) roof that captures and recycles rain water. (see about us / the environment)

Patrick says: "This award means the world to us. For seventeen years we have strived to become an exemplar for the brewing industry as a whole whilst providing everyone that drinks Otter with an honest, distinctive and long lasting memory of Devon."