Five & 20 Spirits and Brewing and TimberFish Technology Announce Launch of Aquatic Ecosystem To Benefit Consumers, Environment, and Local Economy
Westfield, NY – Summer 2017 – Five & 20 Spirits and Brewing and TimberFish Technologies announced their first collaborative sustainability project focusing on a fish production farm at the Five & 20 Spirits Brewing facility. A launch event will take place at the treatment-production system on September 8th at 10:30 a.m., at Five & 20 (8398 West Main Road, Route 20) in Westfield, New York. Tours of the system will be available after the event and a reception will follow.
The event will initiate a major innovative advancement in seafood production that incorporates unused byproducts from beverage and food processing facilities like Five & 20. Three different species of fish will be introduced into an aquatic ecosystem that produces its own feed from stillage, brewery wastes and wash waters. The process removes wastewater, thereby reducing pollution in local streams and lakes. Greenhouse gases are reduced by encouraging reforestation and by shortening the length of the long seafood supply chain, which reduces fuel consumption.
The fish introduced in September will be ready for harvest early spring or summer 2018, at which point Five & 20’s onsite restaurant, Bird, will feature the fish. Longer-term goals include having the fish available periodically for direct-to-consumer sale at the farm, as well as local and regional restaurants and grocery chains. The technology mimics nature by growing seafood’s natural feeds, so seafood produced will have an all-natural taste, texture and health benefits.
“Working with TimberFish provides us with a novel way to create a value added product from what would otherwise be a significant waste stream from the brewing and distilling operations,” says Mario Mazza, General Manager and Enologist at Mazza Vineyards and Five & 20. “Not only are we able to be more sustainable, but we have the opportunity to contribute to a technology that has positive potential impact for the region and beyond. Personally, I get excited every time I have the opportunity to take someone on a tour through the facility and make the connection from grain fields to whiskey or beer production and now to Timberfish.”
The benefits of the project are threefold: consumers and businesses have access to contaminant-free, high-quality fish at an attractive price; recycling waste from distillery operations allows Five & 20 to take a more sustainable approach to production; and the creation of jobs at the Timberfish site can stimulate the local economy.
This project contributes to the Mazza family and Five & 20’s long-time mission of being a multi-faceted business invested in the surrounding community. The current commercial facility at the site will serve to launch larger commercial installations throughout New York State and the world. These projects have the ability to create jobs and revitalize local economies while preserving the unique aesthetics and biodiversity of each region.
In the future, a single commercial facility like the one at Five & 20 could produce two to three million pounds of seafood per year, directly employ over 40 people, and add over $15 million to the local economy. TimberFish will be utilizing a $100,000 grant from Empire State Development and a $10,000 grant from Directed Energy to complete the project.
ABOUT FIVE & 20 SPIRITS AND BREWING
Five & 20 Spirits and Brewing is the latest addition to the Mazza family. The Five & 20 team harvests and prepares the ingredients with local farmers near the distillery and brewery, a place dubbed the “Westfield Wonder.” Nestled between Routes 5 and 20 in Westfield, NY and sitting on 80 acres of farmland used to grow grapes and grain, this one-of-a-kind location is New York State’s first ever combination winery, distillery, and brewery. The Five & 20 approach to spirits is focused on master blending and barreling, not unlike the Mazza approach to wine production over the last 40 years and the family’s approach to fortified wines and fruit eaux de vie for Mazza Chautauqua Cellars over the last decade.
Five & 20 Spirits are available throughout Western New York and the metro New York City area, and available online in Pennsylvania at finewineandgoodspirits.com.
ABOUT TIMBERFISH
TimberFish Technologies develops innovative eco-technologies for aquaculture and agriculture, that address some of the key issues facing humanity in the 21st century. These technologies will help restore the global ecology and assure the futures’ food supply by economically producing local sustainable seafood from renewable resources that are not otherwise used as a food source and are not grown on agricultural land.