Hop To It: Organic Beer Gaining in
Popularity, Gretchen VanMonette, Conscious
Choice
When you need to satisfy your taste for a good ale, check the label
first. From Chicago’s Goose Island Brewing Company to Olympia,
Washington’s Fish Brewing Company, microbreweries across the
country are starting to include organic beer on their menus. ‘As
part of the burgeoning demand for organic products, which has
lately grown to become a $300 million industry, the demand for
organic beer has helped bring beer back into its own as a carefully
crafted beverage of choice,’ writes Gretchen VanMonette in the
Chicago-based green journal Conscious Choice.
Attributing the growth of organic beer to the popularity of
microbreweries, VanMonette writes, ‘Beer brewed before the advent
of industrial farming was handcrafted and organic, of course, if
only because farmers did not depend on chemicals to raise their
crops or industrial machinery to brew their beer.’ To maintain an
organic brewery, all crops must be certified organic as well as all
vats and instruments. VanMonette’s article includes links to the
breweries she highlights. — Sara V.
Buckwitz
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