The St-Pancrace microbrewery collects awards for the beers it brews or for its business development, but this time it stands out in a completely different competition: the Eureka Awards! of a green and prosperous Quebec.
These awards recognize organizations in Quebec that have adopted local clean technologies to improve their efficiency, competitiveness and environmental performance. The company from Baie-Comoise is now one of the 20 finalists in this competition presented by Écotech Québec in collaboration with Microsoft and the Fonds de solidarité FTQ.
“We are very pleased to be a finalist for our project to enhance brewing grains,” emphasizes St-Pancrace production manager André Morin.
According to Mr. Morin, who wanted to maximize its utilization, spent grain as a brewing residue usually molds very quickly when wet. “We bought a dryer that dries the spent grain to extend its life and be able to use it in other farms and other feed sources for animals or plants,” he explains.
S-Pancrace already works with two companies in the region that have a circular economy perspective, namely ChampiNord and Les Jardins Carmanor, which use spent grain.
“For example, ChampiNord already uses our spent grain, but for them using dried spent grain will change everything. He will be able to do more, he will be able to work more flexibly,” continues Mr. Morin, pointing out that the microbrewery produces around 100 tons of spent grain per year.
“The biggest challenge is to create a value chain to create a circular economy. It’s about including all actors with different needs and different production processes and ensuring that everyone can benefit,” says André Morin.
In front of numerous entrepreneurs, investors, researchers and users of clean technologies, the winners of the seven categories of the Eureka! The idea of a green and prosperous Quebec will be unveiled in Montreal on September 28th.