All Natural Ingredients

While Food Canada allows over 100 ingredients in beer, Steam Whistle uses only four, all natural ingredients (pure spring water, malted barley, hops and yeast), all GMO-free. Although not required on alcohol packaging, Steam Whistle lists our ingredients on our bottles & cans because we believe the consumer deserves to be informed.

Our Green Bottle Really is Green

Since the first batch of Steam Whistle Pilsner rolled off the line in March, 2000 we have been proudly using our unique green glass bottle which is made with 30% more glass. This means the same bottle can potentially be washed, inspected and refilled up to 45 times - about three times as many as the industry standard brown bottle. Our painted logo not only saves trees from becoming label paper, but also eliminates ink, varnish and glue from contaminating the water drained from our bottle washer.

The Good Beer Folks are proud of the fact that every element from our packaging line is recycled: cardboard cartons, broken glass, old bottle caps and even shrink wrap are compacted in the bottle shop to be recycled into new packaging materials. We also have the "spent grain" from our brewhouse shipped to farmers in Wellington County to be used for animal feed.

Our bullfrogpowered^® Brewery

Steam Whistle Brewing made the conscious choice in 2007 to support our friends at Bullfrog Power and help save our planet. Our Brewery uses clean, renewable power for its electricity, sourcing power from wind and low-impact hydro generators that meet or exceed the federal government's Environmental choice Program EcoLogo standard for renewable electricity. 100% of the electricity used at the brewery comes from these renewable sources.

Click here to learn more about Bullfrog Power

Cleaner Fuel for Cleaner Air

Canada Clean Fuels has been supplying Steam Whistle's truck fleet with B20 Bio Fuel since late 2006 - just another way Steam Whistle Brewing helps ease the stress on our planet. This bio fuel, containing soya fuel and recycled restaurant oil, powers the trucks hauling our brew ensuring our green-packaged Premium Pilsner is also green-conscious. Canada Clean Fuels comes to our parking lot with a tanker of Bio Fuel 3 mornings a week to fill up all our trucks. In some of the far corners of the province, we may have to fill up with regular diesel, but as much as we can we use this renewable Bio Fuel.

Click here to learn more about Canada Clean Fuels.

A company's distribution fleet is often the biggest contributor to carbon count, so we've taken other measures. Our fleet over the years has included notably efficient vehicles like Canada's first Smart Car, energy-awarded Minis and several hybrids. We have a well-maintained fleet to improve fuel efficiency and have updated engines in a number of our vintage vehicles.

Keeping Cool with Enwave

Since the year 2000, Steam Whistle Brewing has opted to use Enwave's Deep Lake Water Cooling for climate control in our building instead of conventional air conditioners that rely on harmful CFC refrigerants and eat up valuable energy. The icy cold water drawn through intake pipes deep in Lake Ontario moves through our facilities giving off chill (prior to it travelling to Toronto household taps) and helps provide a comfortable working environment for our staff each summer. Steam Whistle draws 60 tons of water for Deep Lake Water Cooling annually reducing avoiding 79 tons of carbon dioxide per year generated from air conditioning ( equivalent to 16 fewer cars on the road). Deep Lake Water cooling also reduces our power bill by the equivalent of 7 fewer homes that would require electricity.

Click here to learn more about Enwave’s Deep Lake Water Cooling.

Steam Heating

Steam is the most efficient form of heat and is the exclusive resource used by Steam Whistle to heat water for brewing and climate control of our brewery. Instead of having our own natural gas boiler on site running 24/7, we source steam from Enwave's efficient central District Steam Plant drawing only what we need, when we need it. This same steam is used to sound off our operational steam whistle every hour from 9am to 5pm and when visitors tour our brewery, they can sound off the whistle as well.

Click here to learn more about Enwave's District Steam Heating

Energy-Efficient Equipment & Lighting

In the winter of 2008, Steam Whistle Brewing installed a new state-of-the-art Brewhouse (sourced in the Czech Republic) to craft our Premium Pilsner. This new, efficient Brewhouse reduces our waste water output down to 1/3 of the older Brewhouse, a considerable savings to the environment! The same new technology also reduces the energy needed in our operations. We capture the steam coming off the top of the brewing vessels and condense it. The resulting captured heat energy is used to produce all our own hot water needs at the brewery. First we heat up spring water coming into the brewhouse for the next batch of beer, then we flip a switch and begin heating municipal tap water for bottle/keg/tank/floor washing later that day.

A voluntary audit with GreenTBiz.org, partly funded by the Ministry of Energy, enlightened Steam Whistle about some energy saving options for our facility's lighting. Rather than do a wholesale changeover which would result in older fixtures and bulbs potentially going into a landfill, Steam Whistle has taken a more conservative approach, this year adopting energy-efficient fixtures and bulbs as old fixtures burn out or as we expand our facilities. We've become more conscious of leaving electrical lights off and taking advantage of the natural sunlight flowing into our building, and we've added motion detectors to cut down on power usage. We’ve added a power capacitor to our main electrical panel for more efficient power usage (improving our power factor from .79 to .97) among other projects.

It's these kinds of energy savings that Steam Whistle keeps in mind. We will strive to continually improve by sourcing new energy-efficient technology in our production facilities.

Waste Diversion Program

The brewery's on-site event space hosts several hundred parties annually and we've now send leftover edibles to either a local street mission or a women's shelter to reduce waste generated on site. Other organic waste is composted.

Clean Air Commute

A clean air commute to the brewery is encouraged with our proximity to local bike paths, transit and commuter trains. And, we provide showers, towel service and covered bike racks for our staff.

Support for the Green Community

Steam Whistle lends support to many sustainable organizations and events annually, hoping to help integrate environmental responsibility into daily lives.

Steam Whistle Brewing is a proud participating supporter of these green organizations:

Retro Electro: green electric powered vintage hot rod

This custom-built, earth friendly vehicle combines a 1958 pickup truck saved from the metal scrap heap, retrofitted with a high efficiency AC motor powered by 100% green electricity from Bullfrog. Possibly the world's first wind-powered hot rod!

Learn more about Retro Electro.

Steam Whistle Brewing is a proud winner of the following environmental awards: