Do You Know Your Green Brew?

Just as food items can carry a USDA certified organic label, so can your favorite beer. A USDA organic certification means that you know that the hops and barley in your beer were grown without toxic pesticides, artificial fertilizers, and chemical preservatives. Remember, drinking organic (and buying organic) is a great way to support more sustainable agriculture and helpful in the fight against global climate change.

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Sierra Nevada, the world's oldest microbrewery, is powered almost entirely off grid using solar power. The brewery's solar panels capture the sun's rays and enable the brewery to approach 100 percent self-sufficiency when the sun is at its peak. The brewery is around 80 percent efficient during off-peak hours, at night, and on cloudy days.

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Due to the resource savings from the packaging differences, draught beer has been found to have a 68 percent lower impact than bottled beer according to a Life Cycle Assessment done on both). A full keg contains nearly a hundred servings without the waste that accompanies bottled beer?provided, of course, that everyone brings their own cup or you provide them. While bottles and cans are recyclable, the process still takes energy that's not expended when you drink from a keg.

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How to Go Green: Recycling

After you've finished a sixer, make absolutely sure to recycle the cans. An aluminum can will likely be recycled and back on the store shelf within 60 days. Aluminum is a sustainable metal, so it can be recycled ad infinitum (well, almost). If it's bottles you've got, make sure those get recycled too. Curbside programs accept both.

For a little perspective on the benefits of recycling bottles, consider that "1 ton of recycled glass saves 1,300 pounds of sand, 410 pounds of soda ash and 380 pounds of limestone," according to Earth911

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Every time that you order your favorite German beer (and you're not in Germany) consider that a 0.5 liter beer in a bottle that weighs 0.25 kg equals roughly 0.75 kg of shipping weight. That beer is likely trucked from Munich to Hamburg, about 775 km, then shipped 5,300 km to New York. All of which results in 82 grams of greenhouse gas emissions per bottle. If you live in San Francisco and the container ship has to steam through the Panama Canal to the Port of Oakland (13,000 km) those emissions climb to 140 grams of greenhouse gases per bottle. Of course, if you live in the center of the country, the added emissions from trucking to your city could add up to 28 grams per bottle according to Pablo's article on TreeHugger.

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Perhaps the most eco-friendly beer in the Southeast comes from the Pisgah Brewing Company in Black Mountain, N.C. It's the only Southeastern brewery currently certified organic for each of their brews. While other breweries might produce a special organic brew, Pisgah produces nothing but organic.

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The Worst Effect of Global Warming So Far...

To some, the worst potential effect of global climate change is less beer. According to Jim Salinger, a climate scientist at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, the warming globe will likely cause a decline in the production of malting barley, which, when combined with the scarcity of hops right now, stands to have a profound negative impact on the world's beer supply now and for decades to come.

"It will mean either there will be pubs without beer or the cost of beer will go up," Salinger told the Institute of Brewing and Distilling convention.

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These are all true. Why have beer flown in from Germany when you can buy beer locally? Depending on where you drink, good local brews can seem to be few and far between at best. If you can't find a good brew in your area, that's all the more reason to make your own. According to Aaron Schenk, the 2008 Highland Cup Homebrew Competition Winner, it's really not as difficult as you might think.

Aaron insists that everything that comes into contact with his brew is properly sterilized. He also suggests using dry yeast and making sure the yeast grows a little before adding it to the batch of beer. Vigorous fermentation is crucial to a great beer, so do not open the batch while it's fermenting.

Use an extract kit of concentrated malt sugar to get started making the beer. They aren't very difficult to use. Simply brew your mix, ferment for about two to four hours, and siphon the beer off the top. Use primer sugar to add in carbonation, and bottle.

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Sadly, the nation's largest brewery only makes 2 organic brews in a nation that is ranked 13th in annual per capita beer consumption in the world?we're topped by countries like Czech Republic (#1), Ireland (#2), and Finland (#9).

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How to Go Green: Beers

Make Your Own Green Beer for St. Patrick's Day

All of Back Hand of God's beer is brewed old school-style at a certified organic farmhouse in Canada. The farm and brewery are connected and excess wheat from the beer-making process feeds the livestock. The hops are grown right on the farm. The water for the beer comes from the farm's water well, nearby streams, and fresh springs.

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