Almanac Beer Co. and Aircapture have released Flow – Clean Air Edition, a beer carbonated with carbon dioxide pulled from ambient air by a direct air capture (DAC) unit installed at Almanac’s brewery in Alameda, California. The launch was announced March 23, 2026, and the partners describe it as the first commercial beer carbonated with atmospheric CO2 captured through onsite DAC. The change is real but narrow: it concerns where the carbonation gas comes from, not the rest of the beer and not whether the carbon stays out of the atmosphere. For anyone deciding whether a climate-branded product is worth paying more for, the useful questions are what was installed, what was measured, and what has been left unpublished.
What launched, and where you can buy it
Flow – Clean Air Edition, also abbreviated Flow – CAE, is a launch product from Aircapture and Almanac Beer Co. The key dates and distribution details, as stated in the March 2026 launch materials, are:
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- March 21, 2026: public debut event at Almanac’s Alameda brewery.
- March 23, 2026: the partnership and product launch were announced through an Aircapture press release distributed over PR Newswire, with secondary coverage the same day from Interesting Engineering.
- Launch-time availability: the Alameda brewery and more than 800 retail accounts statewide, which the company named as Safeway, Whole Foods, Total Wine, and BevMo.
Those distribution figures describe what was true at launch. They are not a current store list. As of this writing, more than six months after the announcement, I could not confirm which shelves still carry the beer, and the materials do not say whether it is sold online or through alcohol marketplaces. Check with the brewery or the retailer before planning a purchase around a specific store.
How air becomes beer carbonation
According to the launch release, the system works in three stages:
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- A highly effective powdered compound containing Trichloromelamine (TCM) for fast and effective sanitization of bar glassware.
- Designed specifically for use in the third sink of three-compartment sinks for the sanitation of all types of glassware. It rinses clean and leaves no odor, aftertaste, or residue.
- Each Beer Clean Last Rinse Sanitizer package is color-coded red to ensure easy identification.
- Pair with Beer Clean Low Foam Detergent or Beer Clean Detergent and optional Beer Clean Mineral Solvent to deliver a perfectly Beer Clean glass every time.
- A modular DAC unit draws carbon dioxide out of ambient air.
- The unit purifies that CO2 into beverage-grade liquid CO2.
- The liquid CO2 is delivered directly into Almanac’s brewing process, where it carbonates the beer.
Two boundaries matter here. First, only the carbonation gas changes source; the malt, hops, water, and yeast are not described as coming from air. Second, the process describes capturing CO2 from the air and putting it into a drink, which is a short-lived use. Nothing in the launch materials says the carbon is stored permanently, so the beer should not be treated as a permanent carbon-removal product.
The release says the unit was integrated with existing brewing equipment and was operating within weeks, without a new facility or a disruption to production. Those timing and integration claims come from the company.
Company claims compared with what has been checked
Most of what is known about this launch comes from the partners. The table below separates each headline claim from the independent verification the launch coverage provides.
| Claim | Who reported it | Independent check |
|---|---|---|
| CO2 purity of 99.999%, described as exceeding industry specifications | Aircapture, March 2026 | None reviewed; no independent test report published in the launch materials |
| Modular unit operational within weeks, with no new facility or production disruption | Aircapture, March 2026 | Not stated |
| Available at the Alameda brewery and in more than 800 retail accounts statewide | Aircapture, at launch | Not current; launch-time figure only |
| A portion of proceeds donated to Carbon180, a US nonprofit working on carbon-removal policy | Aircapture, March 2026 | Percentage and total donation not stated |
| “World’s first” commercial beer carbonated with air-captured CO2 | Launch partners | Not independently verified |
| Carbon-removal benefit or lifecycle emissions result | Not stated as a figure | No lifecycle assessment, energy-use figure, or net-removal figure published |
| Delivered “at a cost that works for business owners” | Aircapture CEO, in a quotation | No cost, price, or payback figures published |
The absence of an independent carbon figure is the most important gap for a buyer. A product can be novel and still have a climate impact that is small, large, or hard to measure, and the launch materials give no basis for choosing among those possibilities.
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The partners present onsite capture as a hedge against outside supply. Aircapture’s release says a nationwide CO2 shortage disrupted food and beverage manufacturing in 2022. It also notes that much commercial CO2 is a byproduct of industrial processes such as ammonia and ethanol production. The release gives no figure for how much the 2022 shortage cost producers or how much output it removed, so the scale of that risk is not measured here.
For a brewery, the trade is between buying gas on the open market and owning equipment that must run, be maintained, and be paid for. The launch materials do not say what the installation cost, how it is financed, or how its operating cost compares with delivered CO2. That is the number a business would need to judge whether onsite capture is a sound investment rather than a branding choice.
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- This powdered compound cleans in hot-cold, hard or soft water and is concentrated for quick cleaning.
- An odorless detergent system provides excellent rinsing results that cuts down on water marks.
- Beer Clean glass cleaner provides thoroughly cleaned glassware with no odor, aftertaste, or residue, leaving your customers with a better tasting product.
- Clean beer glasses deliver better-looking beer with bigger heads for higher profits.
- This glass cleaner is for use with either manual or electric 3-sink systems and is perfect for behind the counter drink-ware cleaning systems.
What the launch quotations say
These statements are company-provided and appear in the launch coverage. They describe intent rather than results.
- Matt Atwood, CEO and founder of Aircapture: “Until now, CO2 has been a volatile byproduct of fuel and chemical production,”
- Matt Atwood, CEO and founder of Aircapture: “With Flow – Clean Air Edition, we’re making high-purity CO2 from the air right where it’s needed, and delivering it at a cost that works for business owners.”
- Damian Fagan, CEO of Almanac Beer Co.: “Brewing is both science and craft,”
- Damian Fagan, CEO of Almanac Beer Co.: “By integrating direct air capture into our production floor, we’re rethinking one of our essential ingredients and contributing to carbon-removal efforts.”
How to judge a climate-labeled beer before paying extra
If Flow costs more than a comparable beer, the premium is paying for a story that the launch materials only partly support. A short checklist helps separate what you are buying:
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- Ask for the donation amount. The release says a portion of proceeds goes to Carbon180 but gives no percentage or dollar figure. If the donation is part of your reason to buy, find out how much it will be.
- Separate the carbonation claim from the climate claim. The verified-as-described part is that the carbonation gas comes from onsite air capture. The climate value depends on lifecycle and removal data that have not been published.
- Look for numbers you can check. A purity figure is a useful specification, but a claim of a carbon benefit should come with a method, a boundary, and an independent reviewer.
- Compare shelf prices directly. Because no launch price was published in the materials, compare the sticker price with a similar beer from the same store on the same day.
- Confirm the product is still sold where you shop. Launch-time distribution is not a guarantee of current stock.
Flow is a genuine, physical product with a clearly described process and a documented launch. Whether it is worth a price premium depends on how much you value the novelty and the donation, and on how much weight you give to climate claims that the partners have not yet quantified.
The launch coverage, both the company’s press release and the secondary reporting from March 23, 2026, should be read as the partners’ account. Later independent testing, a published lifecycle assessment, or an updated distribution list would change how much of this can be confirmed, and none had been published in the materials available for this article.
Nothing here should be read as advice to buy or avoid the beer. It is a description of a single launch with a specific, limited set of verifiable facts.
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