Mark your calender and reserve your tickets now for the Clipper City beer dinner at Magnolias in Purcellville, Virginia on Thursday, May 22 featuring Oxford Organic Beers, brewers from Clipper City, and me talking about organic beers.
Greg Kitsock writes today in his Washington Post column about the growing interest in organic beers. His article begins:
“All beers were organic 100 years ago,” says Christopher Mark O’Brien, Silver Spring-based author of “Fermenting Revolution: How to Drink Beer and Save the World.
He goes on to announce the launch of Clipper City’s newly organic Oxford line of beer which includes a raspberry wheat and an amber.
Check out the whole article in the Washington Post right here.
During her presentation last week at the Craft Brewers Conference, Jenn Orgolini, Director of Sustainability at New Belgium Brewing, discussed a surprise finding in their new study that assessed the lifecycle carbon impact of a six pack of Fat Tire. More than half the greenhouse gas emissions from their flagship beer comes from the refrigeration units at beer retailers.
A new group in San Francisco, going by the name Carrotmob, may have the solution to this carbonated conundrum. Here’s the plan: everyone go get some beer.
Okay, it’s slightly more complicated than that and the organization’s founder makes it look a lot easier than it really is, but he does seem to be on to something. He asked 23 local liquor stores how much money they’d be willing to spend on environmental improvements if he rallied hundreds of customers to converge on the store in a buying spree. The winning bidder, K & D Market, committed to spending 22% of that day’s proceeds on energy efficiency upgrades.
They ended up raising nearly twice as much money as the retailer expected (and more than five times what they earn on a typical day) and the revenue was spent on updating the store’s entire lighting system and replacing all the refrigerator gaskets.
I call that beer activism at its finest. Using the carrot, er, the beer, rather than the stick, to advance sustainability.
The front page of today’s Washington Post contains a somber story about mass closings of rural pubs in Ireland. What could be causing the closure of these venerable community institutions in Ireland of all places, the emerald of world pub culture?
Ireland’s booming economy is providing younger folks with higher paying jobs far away from their rural homes. At the end of the day, after a long commute, more of these folks are opting for drinks at home in front of the television or weekend vacations to the continent rather than popping down to the pub for a slow round with the neighbors.
The article goes on to describe how this is leaving many of the older rural inhabitants stuck lonely and at home when they would rather be celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, funerals and other special occasions with the community at the pub.
What’s at stake when pubs close down? The art of conversation, says one pubgoer. Live, participatory music as well. Another community member (in the video above) says when the village pub closed it was like “a sudden death in the family.” And when it reopened, “everything back to life again.”
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