Tips for Finding Real Green Beer

Not plain old beer filled with green dye. Organic beer.

In Arlington, the best selection of organic beer can be found at Lost Dog Cafe in Westover on Washington Blvd., but Shirlington's Busboys & Poets is coming on strong with Wolaver's Organic and Peak Organic available. Boulevard Woodgrill in Clarendon usually has at least one organic beer available. At Washington Blvd. & Pershing Drive, Tallula's EatBar carries Samuel Smith Organic Lager, but it's expensive at $11.50 a bottle and not that good.

In DC's Dupont Circle, you can find organic beer at Brickskeller and Restaurant Nora, and Peak Organic is now flowing at Rocket Bar, Tryst, Open City, Wonderland Ballroom, J. Paul's, Hook, Oceanaire, Les Halles, Cafe Saint Ex, Busboys, Ulah Bistro, The Reef, and Kramerbooks.

At the grocery store, Whole Foods has a good selection, including Wolaver (my favorite: the Wit Bier). Harris Teeter carries Peak Organic's Pale Ale and Anheuser-Busch's organic Wild Hop Lager and Stone Mill Pale Ale. The Trader Joe's out on Route 7 has some local brews but not many organic selections. If you live outside the DC area, the National Geographic's Green Guide has a great review of what's available.

Locally-brewed beers have less of an impact on the environment because they don't have to be shipped in from Colorado or Germany, a concept known as food miles. Local breweries include Dominion (in Ashburn) and Shenandoah Brewing (in Alexandria).

If you're at a bar with no organic or local options, I'd suggest two options to reduce your environmental footprint:

* Order a draft. Few bars and restaurants have good recycling programs, so your empty beer bottle is likely headed for a landfill. But a pint glass will be used hundreds (if not thousands) of times.

* Go with a beer from Anheuser-Busch, maker of Bud, Busch, Michelob, Natty, Rolling Rock, and other beers. Anheuser-Busch is actively reducing its carbon footprint and increasing its use of renewable energy, earning top honors among major breweries in the most recent ClimateCounts.org scorecard.

To read more on sustainable drinking, check out Chris O'Brien's Beer Activist blog!

Weekend Update: Organic Chocolate & Solar Juice Bags

Just in time for Valentine's Day, Whitman's & Russell Stover are offering organic chocolates. The Green Girlfriend got some the other day, so hopefully she'll post a comment reporting on how they compared with standard chocolate.

Speaking of The Green Girlfriend, we went to Lost Dog Cafe for a late lunch/early dinner yesterday. They have the best selection of beer in Arlington, sandwiches that are much tasier and much cheaper than your standard Cosi/Potbelly/Au Bon Pain fare, and best of all, the owners are actively involved in animal rescue work, so you know your money is doing better work than just enhancing some stockholder's portfolio.

Ever heard of Juice Bags? If you're like me, your reaction was, "What, like Capri Sun?" These are backpacks or messenger bags with flexible solar panels on one side, so you can keep your electronic devices charged. If you're a frequent hiker or bike messenger, I can see where they'd be a great investment. You can be entered for a chance to win one by taking Grist.org's reader survey.

A few environmental programs that have been brought to my attention recently, if I get a chance to watch them, I'll post reviews:

- HGTV's "Living with Ed"
- The Sundance Channel's "The Green"
- NPR's "Discovering Where We Live: Reimagining Environmentalism"

This week, I'll be posting an "Ask the Green Miles" on I66 widening, and will be passing along any updates from Richmond on smoking ban legislation. And from what I hear, I may have lots of time to blog on Tuesday, because we could get a major winter storm here in DC. Few forecasters are putting down bets on snow totals yet, but AccuWeather is saying we could get 6-12 inches, with slight variations in the track of the storm having a big impact on whether we get much more or much less.