Sustainability

The Great Dane Pub and Brewing Company continues to contribute toward energy & water conservation for the Madison area and for the world! We are constantly searching for unique and effective ways to bring you the best beer and food in a more sustainable manner.

Current Sustainable Practices at the Great Dane

• Recycle paper, glass bottles, cardboard from packaging
• Real time electrical usage monitoring at all locations allowing us to see real time benefits of curtailing power usage.
• Appliance upgrades to high efficiency units.
• Biodiesel company vehicle
• LED lighting
• Low consumption plumbing fixtures
• Paperless hand drying
• Environmentally friendly to-go packaging and glassware manufacturing.
• Provide local farmers with our spent grain for animal feed
• Installed movement-sensing lights to save electricity in brewery
• Installed Freeaire keg cooler system in both breweries
• Wort cooling water returns to hot tank for future use
• Installing new, more energy-efficient chiller; process-monitoring of fermenter temperatures
• Identifying ways of using less cleaning and sanitizing chemicals by reusing solution where possible

Sustainability

The Great Dane Pub and Brewing Company continues to contribute toward energy & water conservation for the Madison area and for the world! It is encouraging that the spirit of many restaurants, businesses, and consumers in Wisconsin are taking action to ensure a better future. We are constantly searching for unique and effective ways to bring you the best beer and food in a more sustainable manner.

The Restaurant

Our restaurant staff is trained to conserve. We choose to use local and regional ingredients when feasible, reduce water and energy use, invest in alternative energy and energy- saving technologies, participate in recycling and composting programs, and will only bring water to you upon request.

Envied Ewes

One of our most green practices: the symbiotic relationship we have with Arlan, a local sheep farmer.  His envied ewes spend their lunch hour munching on spent grain (Spent grain consists mainly of the barley husks that remain after simple sugar has been extracted from the malt.) from the brewing process. 
 
Regional Ingredients
We love to use local and regional ingredients in our recipes. Local products include honey, cheese, bakery, and ice cream.  We won’t mislead you and tell you that everything is local, but we have made great strives and will continue to work towards this goal. 

Partnerships
Whenever it is possible we support local farms and businesses. The following is a growing list of our local partnerships: Batch Bakery, Chocolate Shoppe, Gentle Breeze Honey, Heartland Bison Farms, Hook’s Cheese Company, Jordandal Farms, Love My Soap Company, Northstar Bison, RP’s Pasta, Sassy Cow Creamery, Twisted Oaks Farms,  Glacial Ridge Hop & Grain, and Underground Meats.