Article updated: 2/4/2013 7:28 AM

Beer will help power Alaska brewery

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Brandon Smith, the Alaskan Brewing Co.'s brewing operations and engineering manager, speaks about the company's new boiler system. The brewery has installed a unique boiler system that burns the company's spent grain the accumulated waste from the brewing process into steam which powers the majority of the plant's operations.

Associated Press

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The Alaskan Brewing Co. is going green, but instead of looking to solar and wind energy, it has turned to a very familiar source: beer. The Juneau-based beer maker has installed a unique boiler system in order to cut its fuel costs. It purchased a $1.8 million furnace that burns the company's spent grain — the waste accumulated from the brewing process — into steam which powers the majority of the brewery's operations. Company officials now joke they are now serving "beer-powered beer."