Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day: Drink Green Beer!
Show your green spirit this St. Patrick’s Day by choosing greener beers. Here are a few tips to get you started….
Choose Organic Brews
Look for organic beers that are produced using no pesticides or genetically modified ingredients. Not only are organic beers better for you and the environment, they are said to taste better than traditional brews. Most large companies offer at least one organic line of beers. Even Anheuser-Busch, for example, our country’s largest beer manufacturer, produces two organic brews, Wild Hop lager and Stone Mill pale ale. Most micro-breweries have organic selections, while others may use exclusively organic ingredients and manufacturing. For a list of some organic beer choices, go to the Green Guide for Every Day Living’s beer guide, at www.thegreenguide.com/buying-guide/beer/smart_shoppers_list .
Buy Local
Buying beer that is made locally is a great step in the right direction. When you buy locally, you are supporting local business-owners and farmers while also reducing the amount of transportation involved in delivering the products to stores. Buying local and organic beers would of course, be even better.
Get a Keg
Having a party this St. Paddy’s Day? Invest in a keg and serve your guests crisp, cold beers in reusable glasses rather than paper or plastic cups. If you like having beer on tap all year round, consider making your own kegerator out of an old fridge you no longer use. A kegerator tranforms a full-size fridge into a keg cooler with its own tap, saving your old fridge from living out its remaining days in a landfill. The taste is great and the environmental benefits are enormous. Think of how many beer cans and bottles you can save over time with this practice!
Brew your own
If you are the creative type, you can brew your own beer at home, storing the beer in reusable glass bottles. Other than the heating process, which is done on your stovetop, there are very few resources needed to make your own beer. Therefore, this is probably the greenest beer-drinking practice overall. For a step-by-step guide to making your own beer, go to www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/makebeer/makebeer.html .
