What makes a beer organic
Orlando Segura of Lakefront Brewery, Inc in Milwaukee, sent me two emails after my Jan. 9 column on organic beers. The column pointed out that if 95 percent of a beer's ingredients are organic, it qualifies to be called an organic brew. His beer is 100 percent organic. Organic hops, the column said, are hard to find.
Sergura wrote, in part:
"Despite the difficulty in sourcing organic hops and organic malts we think that if you can't source organic ingredients, the solution is simple: Don't make organic beer.
Lakefront Brewery's Organic E.S.B. was the first certified organic beer to be bottled in the United States and is the only organic beer that has used exclusively organic ingredients in its beer since inception. In fact, we have begun to grow our own crop of organic hops locally in Southeast Wisconsin."
He continued...
in his second email to address the fact that some craft brewers supported the 95 percent rule:
"Although we were disappointed in the stance that some organic breweries took, I don't feel bad that we took the longer view.
However, I don't want to diminish the public enthusiasm for organically produced brews - especially from breweries that we have a lot of respect for including Wolaver's and Fish or anyone else trying to produce a righteous brew that's good for farmers, good for the community, good for the planet and good to drink. We appreciate that craft beer drinkers are willing to take risks to discover something brilliant and we hope that drinkers will appreciate it when brewers take risks the same kinds of risks in brewing new types of beer."
Do you think a beer is "organic" if it is not made with 100 percent organically grown ingredients?
Does it matter to you?
Comments
It's just like buying juice at the store and it says "all natural." Do we know what the heck we are getting these days? I've had Sam Smith's Organic Ale and that is pretty good. I think people won't buy if they don't taste good though--for what the price is. A lot of people don't buy hybrid cars because they are just plain ugly and they'd rather spend the money on a car that is more fancy.
Posted by: Kim Moore | January 18, 2008 7:55 PM