My Organic Revelation

This post kind of feels like a "what organic brewing means to me" essay, but I was excited to learn that session 13 was all about organic brewing. So even though I try to post and interview brewers about organic brewing, I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to reflect on organic brewing, my evolution in it, and what I've learned about organic brewing.

First of all, I will be the first to admit that my family and I aren't perfect when it comes to organic products, we are getting better, but its not something that we exclusively buy. I think in some ways that has led me to be more interested in organic brewing because its something that I can easily do when I'm already spending "excess" money on my hobby.

My decision to try to brew organically was a gradual process. It started when I read Fermenting Revolution by Chris O'Brien and learned more about brewing history, the craft brewing movement and how sustainable a lot of small breweries are. This made me respect our 'beer culture' even more and the community that surrounds an industry that makes up 12% of the beer sales in the country. I thought "I need to support my local breweries, craft breweries, and in turn I can do some things responsibly in my own brewing."

I found Seven Bridges co-op and ordered some materials from them. But that proved to be really expensive for one batch, and something that I wasn't able to make the monetary commitment to. As a testament to the growth in interest, I was surprised that in the span of several months, my local shop, Northern Brewer, went from carrying a few organic grains to expanding to extract malts and hops. Needless to say, I was excited. I started brewing a few batches of purely organic beers. As hops became more scarce, and upon learning that USDA says that organic beers only need to be 95% organic to be certified (so hops don't have to be organic) I relaxed and just started substituting my recipes with organic grains and malts. Now, I first think "can I do this organically" when I start formulating a recipe, and I've begun to convert older ones.

Now for the "what have I learned " portion of this essay. First of all, I was born and raised in a small town in Iowa. I've seen first hand the effects of corporate farms on small towns and families who have been farming for generations. Secondly, I've lived in a liberal metropolitan area for the last 12 years and have seen the trendiness and increased interest in organic and local products. One way that small farmers are going to be able to survive in this current climate is to become organic farmers, and for people to make the commitment to support those local and organic farms. A couple of the things I've learned from my series of interviews is that breweries really appreciate the connection they have with organic farmers who are supplying them with their hops and grains. This is a mutually beneficial relationship, and something that helps support the community, and provides a better, safer product.

Another aspect that motivates me is that home brewing is an extension of the history of brewing; there was a time when many people were home brewers. Then it moved to a regional business. It's amazing to learn that 100 years ago, even the smallest towns had a brewery or two. Fresh, local beer used to be the norm. And as Daniel Del Grande from Bison said "60 years ago, all brewing was organic." I love going to a new state or country and finding their great local breweries or brewpubs. I feel like regionalism is what makes beer unique as styles and elements of the beer change in regions. That local tie is important to the beer culture, brewing history, and can be incorporated into supporting local and organic farmers.

Organic brewing is growing in popularity and it seems like a lot more breweries are starting to brew organic lines. It can't be denied that a large part of that is financial. It is trendy right now and so it makes sense for breweries to go that route. But, that really is a win/win for everyone. If it's making money, more breweries will start to tap into that, and that will increase the demand for organic materials, in turn helping out organic farmers, etc. Looking at it from the other angle, brewers I've interviewed like Bison Brewing, COAST, and Peak have all said "it just made sense for us to do this" because they live their lives trying to be organic and sustainable.

This blog has been an extension of my growing interest in brewing organically. I've been really humbled to see that people are interested in reading what I write, and that I've had the opportunity to interview organic and local breweries. That has helped me (and readers) learn more about organic brewing. From my personal perspective, I love home brewing because its something I can create, my friends can enjoy and gives me a sense that I'm doing something sustainable. Moving to organic just made sense, following that logic. The educator part of me looks at this blog as an opportunity for me to share my interest in organic brewing and "educate" people about organic brewing either through my trials and tribulations, or through interviews with people who really know what they are doing. If that increases awareness and people say "maybe I should try that," that's great. At the very least, home brewers, craft brewers and enthusiasts, and organic farmers and brewers are creating a culture, and an industry that is doing things in the right way in my opinion.

Salud!

The Bearded Brewer

Interview with COAST Brewing Company

I recently read a post on beeractivist about a new organic brewery in South Carolina started by a husband and wife. The brewery is called COAST Brewing Company in Northern Charleston, South Carolina. After reading the article, I decided to contact them for an interview about organic brewing and their involvement with Pop the Cap, a beer advocacy group. Owner Jaime Tenny was nice enough to respond to my questions about organic brewing and their operation.
Without further ado, here is Interview Number 3 (or 4 if you count Chris O'Brien) in my series of interviews with organic brewers:

How long have you been a brewery and how did you get started? We became official in March but it took until September until we were ready to brew. We did 99.8% of everything ourselves.

Why did you make the choice to be a "green brewery?
There was no other option for us. It is how we live our life and we couldn't operate a business any other way. At least we couldn't without a clear conscience.

What are some of the things that you do to be sustainable in your brewing and business practices?
It's not just about using organic grain.We think about the most energy efficient/green way to do something before hand, that's half the battle, and probably the most important one. Our spent grain goes to a local farmer, locally made biodiesel for our boiler, recycle and reuse EVERYTHING. Pretty simple stuff in my opinion.

What has been the most challenging part about starting a brewery, and in particular a green one?
Money. No difference in starting a green brewery vs. "non-green" exept for money. Since there was no other way for us, we simply had to make the better, greener choice but it all comes down to money. Cash flow is a major issue with breweries so spending more money on a better ecological choice is hard to justify up-front. So, since (in our opinions) we had no other choice it was easy. We either did it green now or we didn't do (or have plans to do it later when it can be done right). And of course, being flatout exhausted in the process. And I have no idea if what I just said will make any sense to anyone else.

In addition to organic materials, your website states that you also try to support local ingredients, what are some examples of this?
Well, that is the hardest part. Brewing ingredients are extremely hard to come by locally for us. There are no southern maltsters and hops don't grow well around here. So our only choices are any other additional ingredients. Some things in the works are local herbs (heather, coriander, are a few of what we are growing ourselves this year). Honey, easy to get locally.We are going to start experimenting with local grits to see what may come out of that. Local fruits like blueberries,, peaches etc...problem is I am not a huge fruit beer fan. We have just started looking into the possibility of working with southern wheat/barley growers to see if they can grow malting quality organic grains and then get them malted at Briess or the like. Fuel issues then become something to consider.

Could you talk a little bit about the activism you and your husband have been participating in regarding beer?
I am President of Pop the Cap SC. We are a grass-roots craft beer advocacy group. We worked to get the abv limit raised and it was passed in May 2007. That has literally changed the face of craft beer in SC. We now are focusing on better beer laws for breweries in SC. We have a bill coming out shortly addressing a few things. The ability for one business in a tier (manufacturer, distributor,retail) to be able to own more than 1tier. Onsite tasting and retail sales directly to the consumer. This would be absolutely huge for microbreweries to actually be successful! Honestly,we really need this or we just won't see any growth in SC brewed beer.

What advice do you have for organic homebrewers, or homebrewers in general? Don't stick to a certain recipe, explore on your own. Think about brewing organic for all the above reasons.

Where do you see organic brewing going, especially with the recent surg in popularity with a lot more organic beers on the market?
Who knows in this crazy market. I think the craft beer segment is blessed to have as much support from both local folks and people really into good craftbeer. So I hope they will continue to support their local brewery,especially if they brew organic. I think in time organic won't be looked at as different, you might not even know your drinking organic beer."It's really good beer, and oh, it happens to be organic as well"... and then the ball gets rolling. I also hope it will bring organic grain costs down a bit so we can stay competitive.

For more info on check out their website at: http://www.coastbrewing.com/
Salud!
The Bearded Brewer

Interview with Bison Brewing Company

I'm excited that I have two interviews with organic brewers so that I can now technically call it a "series." So, here is the second of my series of interviews with brewers; Daniel Del Grande of Bison Brewing located in Berkeley, California. Since I live in Minnesota, I have not had this beer, but Bob's Woodshed has some great reviews of their beer: http://bobwoodshed.org/beer/ and the scores at Beer Advocate seem to be really solid. Daniel was nice enough to take the time to answer some questions for me about his brewery, organic beer, and some things we can all do to be more sustainable.

First off, how long have you been a brewery?Bison was founded in 1989 by brewpub pioneer Bill Owens. I bought it in 1997. We have focused on bottling our organic beers exclusively the last 4 years when the restaurant closed, but have been brewing organically since about 1999.

How did you get started or founded? Did you know you wanted to start a brewery with the goal to be organic or wanted to appeal to that niche? We had started small scale bottling and when organic brewing malts began to become available, it made sense to sync my personal life with the business. It is easy being green in Berkeley, CA, and easy being organic, so it all just made sense to me. Back then, there was really only Wolaver’s organic beers brewed domestically under contract all around the country (great business model, too bad it didn’t work out for them). So in 2000, we brewed some Bison Blonde organic (but uncertified) and put it on tap, then bottled it as “Bison Light.” By now I was “certified” organic, but I only did a couple beers….slowly I added the Belgian, then the Red, then the IPA and finally, I could buy ingredients to do the Chocolate Stout once all the roasted malt was available organically. Some of my malt comes from Germany. Quality of malt does vary more with organic. Ultimately, being organic is important to me and my customers. But if the beer sucks, you won’t buy it again, even if it is organic. So I focus quite a bit on quality. A couple years ago, I decided to do all bottle conditioning for quality reasons, but given my size, I was not able to keep uniform carbonation levels so I stopped because I thought, overall, it actually hurt my quality. Anyways, I feel pretty good about converting my business like that. It was a risk, and at first consumers didn’t understand what it all meant. “What is that USDA symbol on your label? What does it mean to be organic?” It was a fun educating people, and the process continues. For example, I tell customers (you guys) that obviously the most green thing you can do is patronize a beer on draft, but if you have to buy bottles, buy organic to be just that more ‘green’.

As a homebrewer, its only been the past year or so that organic materials have become easily accessible. On a larger scale, has it been difficult for you to be able to find organic grains and hops?
Yes, as described above. It took about 3 years before I could declare my whole product line fully organic certified…..I had to wait once I could make my most popular Chocolate Stout organically. Homebrewers could get the grain theoretically, but think of it from the shop owners perspective….should they carry twice the # of malts for the few homebrewers that want to do organic? Check on line. There is at least one homebrew shop that does mail order of organics. Tough call. At a minimum, you should be able to ask your homebrew shop to buy you a bag of organic 2-row. In any event, brewing it at home and reusing bottles, or better yet, kegging, is way greener for the planet than buying beer at the store, so take that into account and pat yourselves on the back.

What are some things you do at your brewery to be sustainable or minimize your environmental impact?
1. Every beer I make is certified organic and sports the nifty USDA logo. Every other “organic” brewer that I know of ALSO brews non-organically because of convenience. My conviction is to go as far as possible.
2. Paperless office (I bought Adobe Professional to jockey documents on my laptop….well worth the price).
3. Home office (short commute).
4. Instead of buying and building a resource intensive new brewery, I recently did a brewery co-op with a brewery. My idea is that it is more green to use an existing brewery and bring it closer to full capacity and optimal efficiency than to start a second, private location. It is like a newspaper printing press which can print many different newspapers using the same equipment and people, but the Bison beers has its own exclusive “editor” and “sales and marketing” staff and distribution network….just like a different newspaper editorial board…..
5. Bought a VW Jetta TDI from Detroit so I could run biodiesel during my sales calls (and personal life).
6. Sold my old Isuzu Box Truck which was terrible on fuel efficiency. Now I rent a diesel truck about once per week (not biodiesel, but better mileage).
7. I use recycled paperboard and soy based ink for all my 6-pack carriers…..BTW, recycled cardboard boxes are the norm, so I can’t really take any credit for that.

I have looked at carbon credits and schemes like that, but feel it is just a license to pollute, so I haven’t gone down that road.

What tips do you have for organic homebrewers or just homebrewers in general?
Brewing is 80% cleaning, 10% fermentation temperature control, and 10% recipe…..sometimes homebrewers mix that up.

Where do you see organic brewing going, especially with the recent surge in popularity with a lot more organic beers on the market?

First, there are almost no organic hops available, so hopefully farmers around the world will see the demand and start planting and converting their fields (a 3 year process). I wish the quality was there with today’s organic hops, but it just isn’t. So I have to use conventional hops, but as you know, it is a small %. Important thing is to send a market signal to those darn farmers. I think that is why the USDA gave us a few years allowance to use conventional hops, to develop a market for hops. We will see.

You are right, there are a lot of new organic beers on the market. I am fortunate to be one of the pioneers and think I’ll have staying power, but generally, consumers have to be willing to pay an extra $1 a 6 pack to support organic brewers….if we continue to make sub standard economic return on the business, you will see some existing organic brands convert back to conventional or go away. ALL beer is under pretty intense pressure to increase prices due to world supply and demand of malt and hops. Organics just need a little extra consideration when you are shopping. Heck, people spend $3.25 for a hot latte in a paper cup that took 2 minutes to make, yet the same person won’t spend $10.99 for six organic beers that took 3 weeks to brew, keep cold, package in colorful cardboard packaging, keep cold, and deliver to a market?

Remember, 60 years ago, ALL beer was “organic.” Heck. All agriculture was “organic”. Industrial farming post WW II has harmed our soil health, increased erosion, polluted our rivers and streams, harmed farm workers, and a list of other harms that add up to one big mistake. As consumers, converting to organic has a ripple effect through the economy and environment well worth the small increased price. For some fresh fruits and veggies, there is also a personal health bonus for consuming organic, but not really for beer. Ultimately the goal is to rid ourselves of the widespread reliance on chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. I hope all beer is organic again in the next 30 years.

Check out their website for further information: www.bisonbrew.com
Salud!
The Bearded Brewer

Organic beers

I haven't had many chances to try organic beers because there are very few I can get my hands on in Minnesota. I almost purchased Stone Mill when it first hit the markets, but in searching for the brewery location, I found the Anheuser-Busch logo sneakily placed on the bottom of the six pack. Not that I don't applaud A-B's effort, I just believe there's too much good beer out there to spend my money on the big guys. I do need to try Samuel Smith's organic beers at some point, however.

But anyway, recently Peak Organic Brewing Company has come to the Twin Cities and I bought a six pack of their Amber the other day at my local liquor store. I believe they have two others, a pale and a nut brown ale in their line.

I was impressed with the amber. It pours a nice copper color with a small white head. It has a nice maltiness to the body, with a sweet/caramel aftertaste. A nice hop balance, but not overwhelming by any means. Its a very nice drinking beer. Its nice to have an option for purchasing some organic beers locally. I've heard good things about their nut brown, and will review that if I get a chance.

I found this article about the rise of organic beers, including an interview with Jon Cadaux, founder of Peak Organic Brewing Company.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13803199/

Also, stay tuned, because I contacted Peak and asked if I could submit some questions about organic brewing and got a quick response from Jon Cadaux saying he'd love to answer some questions. I'll post the "interview" once I get the responses back. I sent a similar email to Bison Brewing Company in Berekley, another organic brewery. This could be cool if I could get some interviews as a part of this blog.

Cheers!

-the Bearded Brewer

Organic and Socially Responsible

I wanted to take a minute to explain a few things about those two aspects of my brewing beliefs.
First of all, organic: This is getting easier to do because Northern Brewer is selling more organic brewing ingredients and even has several organic kits. I use organic malts and grains most of the time when I brew. I also try to use organic ingredients as well, for example my upcoming Northwoods Ale was brewed with organic wild rice and organic maple syrup. Hops are a bit harder to come by, but I try to use organic hops as much as possible. The USDA actually considers organic to be 95% of the materials used, so I can get by using non-organic hops if need be.

The socially responsible is a little harder to achieve from a homebrew setting. But there are ways....first of all I think all homebrewers are great about reusing materials like bottles and limiting waste. I reuse my bottles and my friends have been good about saving the bottles I give them to return once they drink the beer. Water is a big part of brewing, and I'm trying to find ways to recycle water that I use. Other than that, its about an attitude I think. I support local breweries, I buy craft beers, and I use as many organic and fair trade ingredients as possible. My upcoming Morris Park Mocha Porter is 100% organic, including the priming sugar, and is going to include 4 oz of fair-trade organic Peace Coffee.
So...just some thoughts...
Drink responsibly...by that I mean support your local craft brewers and other craft breweries, its worth the extra money. Buy organic beer as much as possible, the higher the demand, the more options for organic brews we will have.
-The Bearded Brewer