Alchemist gets its water

Water is the most important part of beer, making up more than 90 percent of the beverage.

Stowe officials have granted the Alchemist Brewery that all-important ingredient, allocating more than 6,000 gallons a day to the brewery it has proposed on Cottage Club Road.

The brewery still needs state environmental permits, but the water allocations and a wastewater management agreement approved by the Stowe Select Board July 28 were the last things the brewery needed at the local zoning level.

The Alchemist will keep its Heady Topper brewing operations and cannery in Waterbury. The Stowe building will brew other types of Alchemist beers, and will have a retail sales outlet.

The town government has allocated the Alchemist 6,083 gallons per day for water use and 4,868 gallons for sewer use. There are two reasons the sewer allocation is lower: Beer-making uses most of the water in its product anyway, and the new Alchemist design calls for a pre-treatment system that will exceed the town’s requirements for sewage.

The wastewater management agreement between the town and the Alchemist lays out storage and spill protection measures affecting:

• Water pre-treatment systems.

• Chemical storage facilities.

• Storage, containment and disposal of both leftover ingredients and of wastewater treatment sludge.

• Heating and cooling equipment.

• Herbicides and pesticides for the brewery’s gardens and orchards.

• Underground tanks for fuel oil or other beer-making processes.