Spring Break
Drink beer, save the world ... all in a day's work
Thomas Goodwin
Issue date: 4/13/09 Section: Focus
It may come as a surprise to some, not at all to others, that some of the leading activists in the organic revolution are brewers and breweries. In a profession where all of your raw materials are harvested off a farm, it's not really that surprising at all.
Organic beer is just like every other organic product; it must include only organic materials. In order to be labeled organic, the brewery itself must be certified by the USDA to put the USDA Organic label on their bottles. There are many breweries using organic materials, but not as many are legally certified.
Going organic is a relatively easy step for a brewery to undertake. The main barriers are the price of organic materials and the selection. Right now, organic barley and hops are more expensive, and organic hops have a small fraction of the selection when compared to non-organic. It would be like going into a spice store that only sells salt and pepper; you can still make a good dish out of it, but you're limited.
Beer, in essence and by a funny-sounding German law called the Rheinheitsgebot, is made up of four basic ingredients: water, barley, hops and yeast. This is literally it. No preservatives are even necessary; added chemicals or stabilizers won't really improve on beer's inherent natural preservation. Both the alcohol and the hops in beer naturally preserve it. Many brewers would cringe at the idea of tossing in any sort of chemical additive, organic or not.
This has and will always be the way small breweries and brewpubs make their beer. They care too much about their product and their customers to mess around with something that could affect the flavor of their beers. Big breweries, on the other hand, have taken measures in the past to use chemical additives to ensure the most uniform product across all 50 states and beyond.
When a brewery starts to expand, one of its biggest concerns is making sure that whether you go into a bar in Texas and a package store in Vermont, the beer will taste exactly the same. This isn't necessarily a good thing.
Organic beer is just like every other organic product; it must include only organic materials. In order to be labeled organic, the brewery itself must be certified by the USDA to put the USDA Organic label on their bottles. There are many breweries using organic materials, but not as many are legally certified.
Going organic is a relatively easy step for a brewery to undertake. The main barriers are the price of organic materials and the selection. Right now, organic barley and hops are more expensive, and organic hops have a small fraction of the selection when compared to non-organic. It would be like going into a spice store that only sells salt and pepper; you can still make a good dish out of it, but you're limited.
Beer, in essence and by a funny-sounding German law called the Rheinheitsgebot, is made up of four basic ingredients: water, barley, hops and yeast. This is literally it. No preservatives are even necessary; added chemicals or stabilizers won't really improve on beer's inherent natural preservation. Both the alcohol and the hops in beer naturally preserve it. Many brewers would cringe at the idea of tossing in any sort of chemical additive, organic or not.
This has and will always be the way small breweries and brewpubs make their beer. They care too much about their product and their customers to mess around with something that could affect the flavor of their beers. Big breweries, on the other hand, have taken measures in the past to use chemical additives to ensure the most uniform product across all 50 states and beyond.
When a brewery starts to expand, one of its biggest concerns is making sure that whether you go into a bar in Texas and a package store in Vermont, the beer will taste exactly the same. This isn't necessarily a good thing.
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