The Brews from the Sun competition brings together craft beer lovers and solar energy supporters to celebrate the many craft breweries across the nation who have made the choice to go solar!
This spring, solar-powered craft breweries from across the country will compete during 6 weeks of public voting to receive the most votes and be crowned America’s Favorite Solar Craft Brewery of 2019. Whether to save money, be more environmentally sustainable, support their local clean energy economy, or become energy independent, there are many great reasons for breweries to go solar.
The 137 craft breweries who have gone solar so far, span from local brewpubs to nationally distributed brands, located in every corner of the country, from Alaska to Missouri, Vermont to Hawaii, and beyond!
More craft breweries are making the choice to go solar all the time and there are many pathways and considerations for breweries who are thinking about going solar.
Throwback Brewery, NH 
Maui Brewing Company, HI 
Rising Silo Brewery, VA 
Right Proper Brewing Company, DC
How to add your brewery to the competition
Sign ups are now open for any craft brewery who has solar PV or solar thermal installed at their facilities and/or powering their operations to join the 2019 Brews from the Sun competition! Sign your brewery up to participate here.
Breweries can sign up to compete through April 30th. By signing up, breweries agree to help spread the word about solar and their company’s choice to be solar-powered to their network of brewery supporters over the course of the competition, encouraging them to vote, via social media, in person, via email, at events, to the media, etc.
Upon signing up to participate, each brewery who has signed up to compete will receive a custom voting webpage and link, that they will have access to edit and add content to, in order to effectively tell their company’s solar story.
In April, each brewery will receive a digital media kit (including resources to promote the competition via social media, email, and traditional media graphic), as well as a mailed package of Brews from the Sun giveaways, swag (and the opportunity to purchase more!), promotional materials, posters, and paper voting sign up sheets.
Competition categories
Participating breweries will compete in size categories, determined by the Brewers Association craft beer industry market segments. In each size category, awards for 1st place winner, 1st runner up, and 2nd runner up will be given, based on the highest number of unique votes that each brewery receives.
The list of competing breweries in each size category will be announced May 6th when public voting officially opens. Voters may vote for as many breweries as they like, but only one vote per brewery per person will be counted.
Public voting
Public voting will take place for six weeks from May 6th – June 15th. Solar United Neighbors will help do promotion and outreach to spread the word about all of the competing breweries throughout the competition, and the participating breweries will also be responsible for encouraging their network and supporters to vote.
There are many ways that competing breweries may collect votes throughout the 6 weeks of public voting, including in person at their facilities, via social media or email, at brewery events or beer festivals, by getting featured in local news and beer media outlets, and more!
The breweries who have historically gotten the most votes are those who incorporate in person voting collection and those who come up with creative ways to spread the word about the competition. Any craft beer lover or solar supporter with a valid email address is eligible to vote, only one vote per valid email address will be counted toward voting totals.
The winning brewery in each category will receive a featured article in an online beer media publication. The top three breweries in each category will receive solar award plaques to display in their breweries.