Tin Whistle Brewing Co. Shows What a Sustainability-Minded Brewery Can Look Like
Photo: Tin Whistle Brewing Co.
Some breweries focus only on what’s in the glass. Others, like Tin Whistle Brewing Co., ask bigger questions about how that glass gets filled in the first place.
Founded in 1995 as one of British Columbia’s earliest craft breweries, Tin Whistle has long been part of the fabric of the South Okanagan Valley. Named after the first locomotive to run the Kettle Valley Railway, the brewery has always been rooted in place, history and community.
But a defining chapter began in 2020, when Alexis Esseltine and Tim Scoon acquired the brewery during the uncertainty of the pandemic — and made a clear decision to challenge how a small, independent brewery could operate with a lighter footprint.
That combination of legacy, intention and action is exactly what makes Tin Whistle Brewing today’s Seeing Green Solutionist of the Day.
(story continues below)
The Beer Comes First
At its core, Tin Whistle is about brewing beer that people genuinely love to drink. The brewery produces a lineup of well-crafted, approachable beers alongside rotating experimental releases inspired by local flavors and ideas. Longtime favorites like Coyote Blonde, Black Widow Dark Ale and Killer Bee Honey Porter sit alongside newer creations that allow the team to test, refine and innovate without excess. Their beers are available across British Columbia, with many styles also poured fresh at their Penticton taproom.
Where Sustainability Becomes Operational
Where Tin Whistle really stands out is how deliberately it approaches sustainability. The brewery describes its philosophy simply: taste matters, but so does impact.Today, Tin Whistle operates as a zero-waste, carbon-neutral facility, sending no waste to landfill. They’ve built systems that make reuse and recycling the default, from returning and reusing plastic four-pack rings through a customer take-back program to carefully sorting materials ranging from grain bags to shipping dunnage and gloves.
From Ingredients to Innovation
Ingredients and brewing inputs receive the same level of scrutiny. Tin Whistle sources B.C. and Canadian-grown ingredients whenever possible, supports local farmers and upcycles 100 percent of its spent grain. On the water and energy side, the brewery relies on small-batch brewing to reduce waste, conducts regular energy audits and continuously upgrades equipment to improve efficiency. They’re also collaborating with Okanagan College on an ambitious algae bioreactor project that captures CO₂ released during fermentation and converts it into oxygen and usable biomass — a creative example of climate innovation showing up in unexpected places.
Nearly three decades in, Tin Whistle Brewing Co. hasn’t lost its curiosity. They continue to refine their beers, explore lower-impact ingredients and push toward a future where sustainability is built into the brewing process itself — not bolted on after the fact. It’s a reminder that progress doesn’t have to be flashy to be meaningful, and that even something as familiar as a beer can be brewed with intention, community and care at the center.