Get the Organic Buzz

By The Daily Green Staff

If you're going to be celebrating, give an organic beer a try.

Here are two good reasons: It's good for the environment, and organic beer represents the latest wave of the craft brewery movement. In other words, beer lovers will love the taste. The national organic scene grew out of the microbrewery craze and has only picked up steam since its birth about a decade ago. From 2004 to 2005, sales increased 40 percent to $19 million, and by all appearances sales have continued to increase.

At least 40 brewers will participate in this year's North American Organic Brewers Festival, billed as the largest organic beer festival the world has ever seen. Several brands with certified organic labels are distributed nationally, including Wolaver's, Butte Creek Brewing Co., Eel River Brewing Co. and Goose Island Brewery.

The nation's big beer companies have also recently gone organic — causing some controversy in the organic brew community — with their Green Valley Brewing Co. and Crooked Creek Brewing Co. (Anheuser-Busch) and Henry Weinhard's Organic Amber (Miller) labels.

Many hops growers, particularly since the 1997 outbreak of the downy mildew fungus, have relied on the use of fungicides to maintain their crops. Hops are also typically grown with heavy use of chemical fertilizer. With 77 percent of the country's hop crop grown in the Yakima Valley in Washington, one of the watersheds important for endangered steelhead, any reduction in fertilizer and pesticide runoff can't be a bad thing for wild Pacific salmon.

Before you run to the beer distributor, don't forget to check first with your local brewery (if you have one), because as we all know organic is one thing, local is another. Cutting down on beer miles is part of reducing your food miles. And if you can serve beer that is both organic and local? Sit back, and pour yourself another. You deserve it.

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