Franconia - Green, N TX local, and great tasting German beer

Dennis, a transplant from Germany, knows how to brew great beer in a super energy/resource efficient way!

I've heard about Franconia before. "Somewhere in McKinney, there is this cool local brewer a guy from Germany runs. They offer tours of their brewery and tasting events weekly."

Of course we did the tasting, but an hour before a regular beer tour on one Saturday, Dennis showed us, NTREG (North Texas Renewable Energy Group), around his energy efficient brewery.

Here are some highlights - IIRC:
His brewery does not generate trash.
Until recently, there was no dumpster on site.
Current dumpster is for glasses and cups, not for beer brewing operation. It gets emptied rarely.
He uses steam from brewing operation to make all needed hot water via heat exchanger. No HWH.
He has 20 kW solar carport, which supplies most of his electricity needs. No battery yet, but Green Mountain helps to mitigate that.
Used vegetable oil generates supplemental electricity when needed. Perfectly Green in McKinney manages the micro-power system shown behind Dennis.
Beer cooler section of his brewery has foam insulation with R value of 55. If power were gone for a long time, the cooler could stay in chilling temperature for three days.

We expected nothing but great tasting German beer from his operation and did not get disappointed.