A Quick Green Beer Guide for St. Patrick's Day

The Green Miles will be at the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Clarendon tonight. But what to drink? Here are a few quick tips for enjoying the holiday sustainably no matter where you are:

Drink Sustainably. Choose a beer from a Brooklyn Brewing & New Belgium Brewing get 100% of their power from renewable energy. California-based Anderson Valley Brewing & Sierra Nevada get significant chunks of their energy from solar power. Bison Brewing, Peak Organic & Wolaver brew organic beer. Among the heavyweights, Anheuser-Busch InBev got the top score in the most recent ClimateCounts.org assessment, making Bud & Bud Light the top big brand choices. Local Options: You can't go wrong at Restaurant Nora, America's first certified organic restaurant. Busboys & Poets, with two locations in DC & one in Shirlington, has Peak Organic on draft.

Drink Locally. Look for beers that were brewed in your area instead of trucked or shipped over long distances requiring large amounts of fossil fuel. Local Options: Dogfish Head, Yuengling, Old Dominion.

Drink Where It's Brewed. Cut your beer's carbon footprint even further by drinking at places that brew their own beer on-site. Local Options: Shenandoah Brewing, Capitol City Brewing, Rock Bottom.

Drink Draft: If all else fails, go with what's on tap. Most bars & restaurants don't recycle, so if you're drinking out of a bottle, it will likely end up in a landfill. But kegs & pint glasses can be reused hundreds or thousands of times.  

For a more detailed rundown, check out my 2009 St. Patrick's Day post. And as always, read Chris O'Brien's Beer Activist blog.

A Few Quick Picks for Green Summer Drinks

I've found a few new worthwhile sustainable drinks this summer and thought I'd offer up a quick list of recommendations (note - I've already covered Peak Organic Brewing so it's not listed here, but I'm a big fan of all their offerings):

Bison Brewing Organic Belgian Ale. I found this oversized bottle while in Florida recently to visit The Green Girlfriend's parents. Crisp, little bit of citrus flavor, great beer for summer. Sitting outside on their deck watching the sun set, eating ribs, and drinking this wicked awesome beer was about as good as it gets. The Green Miles' recommended activity pairing: Backyard BBQ with food on the grill from your local farmers market.

Bonterra Vineyards. I picked up some of their chardonnay, made with organic grapes, at Harris Teeter recently. Tastes just as good as your typical Kendall Jackson or Clos du Bois or whatever, it's about the same price, and it's better for the environment. The Bonterra chardonnay retails for $13.99, but Harris Teeter has frequent sales and they give you a discount if you buy a half-case or case. The Green Miles' recommended activity pairing: Sip some like a good arugula-eating liberal while emailing your member of Congress to urge them to pass comprehensive climate & energy legislation.

Old Dominion's Beach House Golden Pilsner. Located in Ashburn, VA, Old Dominion is our most local major brewery (hence, its beer needs far fewer miles on the back of a truck to reach you). Generally, I'm not a fan of Old Dominion's offerings, but the Beach House Golden Pilsner does its job well -- light, crisp, just enough flavor, tastes great cold on a summer day. The Green Miles' recommended activity pairing: Tubing down the Potomac (recycling your empties after, of course).

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!

Coming Soon to a Bar Near You: Peak Organic on Draft

After Friday's post on organic beer, I got a note from Peak's local sales rep letting me know that Boulevard Woodgrill, Liberty Tavern and Bailey's are considering adding Peak Organic on draft. Also:

Already flowing in DC at: Rocket Bar, Tryst, Open City, Wonderland Ballroom, J. Paul's, Hook, Oceanaire, Les Halles, Cafe Saint Ex, Busboys, Ulah Bistro, The Reef, Kramerbooks, if you know any of those spots. Let me know if you would like it served at a particular spot or think it would do well, I will certainly try to get it on tap anywhere I can. Super tasty on draft, not sure if you have tried it.

Please request Peak anywhere you drink/dine. It really makes a huge difference when customers put in a good word.

What other places in Arlington would you like to see organic beer on tap?

A Beer That's Local AND Organic?

We've had a lot of serious discussion about major political and economic issues this week. But I feel strongly that it's time to get back to what really gets me motivated to blog every day: An excuse to try new beer.

I caught this in Washingtonian.com's recent interview with the Beer Activist, asking Chris O'Brien about his favorite local brews:

The production breweries in the area are great, too. Currently, I’m excited about the Oxford Organic Raspberry Wheat from Clipper City.

So I was excited to see Oxford Organic Raspberry Wheat on tap at Clarendon's Boulevard Woodgrill:

I'm not usually a fan of beer with a fruity flavor, but the Oxford Organic Raspberry Wheat's raspberry was relatively understated. I wished I'd found it at the beginning of summer, would've made a great backyard beer. And how great is the little "USDA Organic" seal at the top of the tap?

Boulevard Woodgrill always has a great selection of beer, but the real mecca of organic beer in Arlington is Busboys & Poets. They have Clipper City, Peak, Stonemill and Wolaver -- and they're half price on their Wednesday organic beer happy hour.

If you're looking for organic beer when you're out in Arlington, stop by Lost Dog Cafe, which has several organic and plenty of local options, or Tallula's EatBar, which has Samuel Smith Organic Lager (although it's way overpriced at $11.50 a bottle). Ted's Montana Grill used to have organic beer, but I don't think I saw it on the menu last time I was there. Any others in Arlington I'm missing?

Wednesdays: Organic Beer Happy Hour in Shirlington

My immediate reaction to reading about Busboys & Poets' organic beer happy hour was, "How have I not heard about this yet???":

If you want to sample organic ale without the high price tag, Busboys and Poets in Shirlington hosts its Organic Beer Happy Hour every Wednesday. You can try Wolaver's Organic, Peak Organic, Stone Mill Pale Ale and (for those concerned with drinking locally) Baltimore's Clipper City ales.

The happy hour got started last December when Silver Spring-based author Christopher Mark O'Brien arrived for a talk about his book, "Fermenting Revolution: How to Drink Beer and Save the World." The talk was followed by a signing and organic beer tasting, which garnered such a positive response that Busboys has been running the weekly happy hour ever since -- and they don't sell these beers otherwise, so the only time you can get them is at the happy hour. Unfortunately for city mice, there are no plans for the event to migrate to the D.C. location.

$4 beers (bottles). Wednesdays, 4-7 p.m. Busboys and Poets, 4251 S. Campbell Ave., Arlington. 703-379-9756.

I'd recommend all of those beers except Stone Mill, which I'm neutral on. It's organic but is brewed by Anheuser-Busch and shipped in from California. Read more about sustainable beer options here.

Nice to know that even after blogging for nearly two years, there are still hidden gems out there for The Green Miles to discover!

A New Discovery for Drinking Green on St. Patrick's Day

Well, new to me, anyway. I recently visited Poste in DC's Gallery Place neighborhood on 8th Street NW between the Verizon Center and the Spy Museum. I knew they made great french fries with truffle oil, but I didn't know they carried two varieties of organic beer. Not only that, but they're one of the few places I've ever seen with recycling bins behind the bar.

Other bars and restaurants in DC and Arlington that serve organic beer include ...

• Brickskeller (west of Dupont Circle)
• Lost Dog Cafe (Arlington's Westover neighborhood)
• Restaurant Nora (north of Dupont Circle)
• Tallula (near Clarendon)
• Ted's Montana Grill (Ballston and Crystal City)

Know of others? Post them in the comments!

There's also a great article about green beer options over at the Sierra Club's "The Good Life" blog with details about clean energy initiatives at Sierra Nevada and Brooklyn Brewery, among others.

Solar-Powered Beer: Greener Than Organic?

I stopped by the vaunted Wall of Beer at Westover Market over the weekend to stock up the fridge. One of the six-packs I grabbed was the Winter Solstice Ale from California's Anderson Valley Brewing.

It wasn't until I got it off the rack that I noticed a little sun on the cap reading "Solar Powered Brewery":

(February 6, 2006 - Boonville CA) After a final inspection by PG&E, we were at last able to put the finishing touch on our $860,000 state-of-the-art photovoltaic project - Throwing the switch and making our own juice (the electric kind). Yep! We're finally up and running, and those 768 beautiful solar panels (almost 12,160 square feet of them) are creating enough juice to cut the brewery's entire electrical bill almost in half! Now whenever you savor a Boonville Beer, you can savor the fact that you're drinking a solar powered beer and helping protect the environment.

Treehugger said it best: "We don't need another reason to feel good while drinking beer, but we approve of this project nonetheless."

What's the most environmentally-friendly type of beer? Let's quickly review three basic categories:

• Local -- Beer that didn't guzzle gas in a truck before it arrived in your 'hood so you could guzzle it out of your mug. Examples (for DC residents): Dominion (brewed in Ashburn, VA), Shenandoah (brewed in Alexandria, VA).
  
  
• Low-Carbon -- Breweries that reduce their carbon footprints through steps like renewable energy and green buildings. Examples: Anderson Valley, New Belgium.
  
  
• Organic -- Beer brewed with hops and malt grown without the use of chemicals or genetic modification. Examples: Wolaver, Peak.

So which is the best? I don't mean this to sound like a dodge (because, let's face it, it is), but if you're drinking a beer that fits into any of the three categories above, you're ahead of 99% of your fellow beer drinkers, minimizing the environmental impact of your night out. Have another one for me.

One last thing to keep in mind -- if you're out and about, draft beer is generally greener than bottled beer. While pint glasses and kegs get re-used, most bars and restaurants don't recycle bottles (or anything else, for that matter).

Green Bars in Arlington? Not So Much.

A couple of friends who I met through the Arlington Young Democrats recently organized a green bar crawl for their birthdays. Here was the itinerary (their notes, not mine):

7:00 PM- Ragtime in Courthouse (Ragtime recycles all card board boxes and cooking oil)
8:00 PM - Ireland's Four Courts (2051 Wilson Boulevard) By far the greenest of all the bars - Ireland's Four Courts recycles glass and card board.
9:00 PM - Whitlow's on Wilson (2854 Wilson Boulevard) Whitlow's recycles card board and cooking oil.
10:30 PM - Tallula's (2761 Washington Boulevard.) Tallula's recycles card board and serves an organic beer.
11:30 PM - Royal Lee (2211 Pershing Drive) for some late night karaoke. We don't care if they are green or not, they have karaoke, therefore, they are exempt.

It's a marginally green list -- and these are the best of the best! It's sad how few Arlington bars and restaurants do even the bare minimum to recycle empty beer bottles. Most customers just assume their bottles do get recycled, but in reality, most go right in the trash. And good luck finding organic beer -- only Lost Dog Cafe and Tallula serve organic beer in Arlington.

Know of any Arlington bars that try to be green? Or serve organic beer? Post them in the comments!

Speaking of the Arlington Young Democrats, they're co-hosting the annual Joint Campaign Chili Cookoff on Monday (Labor Day) from 4-6pm at the Lyon Park Community Center (414 N. Filmore St., closest Metro is Clarendon). Tickets are $35 for individuals (children under 15 are free), $25 for AYD/Roosevelt Society. They're also asking attendees to bring new schools supplies to be donated to Arlington students in need.

Beyond Organic: New Belgium's Sustainable Brewing

I was in a Red Sox bar, Fat Face Fenners's Fishack, in Los Angeles recently and asked about a beer on tap I'd never seen before, Fat Tire. I asked our waitress, "I've never seen that beer with the bicycle on the tap before, what's that like?"

"Umm, that's Fat Tire," she said.

Right name, lousy description. "Yes, what's it like?" I asked.

"Umm, it's brewed in Colorado," she continued, skillfully avoiding anything that might give away what the beer actually tasted like. "It's good."

With the possibility remaining open that Fat Tire could taste like anything from sewer rat to pumpkin pie, I just ordered whatever light beer was on draft.

But days later, I caught a mention of the beer in Outside Magazine's green issue. Turns out the brewery that makes Fat Tire Amber Ale, New Belgium Brewing, might be the greenest brewery in the country.

While New Belgium only brews one organic beer, Mothership Wit, it uses sustainable practices from the start of its brewing process (using far less water than most breweries) to the finish (using bottles made out of recycled glass and shipping on biodiesel trucks).

Here are some excerpts from New Belgium's other green efforts:

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction: In 1998, New Belgium took an employee vote and became the country's first brewery to subscribe to wind energy. ... Employee owners voted to dip into their bonus pool to help finance the conversion.

Healthy Watersheds: Through recapture and reuse, New Belgium uses less than four barrels of water to produce one barrel of beer, significantly less than the industry average.

Green Building: In 2002 we agreed to participate in the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB) pilot program. From sun tubes and daylighting throughout the facility to reusing heat in the brewhouse, we continue to search out new ways to close loops and conserve resources.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: The three "R's" of being an environmental steward. Our reuse program includes heat for the brewing process, cleaning chemicals, water and much more. Recycling at New Belgium takes on many forms, from turning "waste" products into something new and useful (like spent grain to cattle feed), to supporting the recycling market in creative ways (like turning our keg caps into table surfaces). We also buy recycled whenever we can, from paper to office furniture. Reduction surrounds us, from motion sensors on the lights throughout the building to induction fans that pull in cool winter air to chill our beers. Offsetting our energy needs is the cornerstone to being environmentally efficient.

Living Sustainably: Having our own Sustainability Specialist, Nic Thiesen, has given us access to all sorts of great information. If you want to learn more about any of the programs to which New Belgium subscribes or maybe you’d like to have wind power at your home, check out these links.

Not that I don't love Wolaver's organic beer, but all that seems to blow Wolaver's sustainability page out of the water, doesn't it?

Unfortunately, New Belgium isn't sold east of the Mississippi. It's not even available at DC's vaunted Brickskeller, home to 300 or so beers. But if you're traveling out west (or God forbid someone out west has stumbled upon this blog) give it a try!

Kicking Off Beer Week: 2nd Annual ACE Organic Beer Tasting

It's Beer Week here at The Green Miles! Why? Ummm ... because Labor Day is traditionally a big BBQ weekend? Last weekend of summer? Buying any of this? You shouldn't be. I just like drinking beer and felt like doing a few posts about it this week. And if you can't deal with that, clearly you need to watch this video of kittens playing with a box.

Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment is planning its 2nd Annual Organic Beer Tasting in September! And this year's event should be even bigger and better than the first. It will take place on Thursday September 20th at 7pm at Potomac Overlook Regional Park.

We'll be sampling around half a dozen varieties of Wolaver's, which has generously agreed to donate the beer for the tasting. You can find Wolaver's for sale in local Whole Foods.

We'll also have a special guest host, Chris O'Brien, author of Fermenting Revolution: How to Drink Beer and Save the World. Chris also writes one of The Green Miles' favorite blogs, Beer Activist.

Tickets are $25 for ACE members, $30 for nonmembers. We expect the event to fill up fast, so reserve your place now!

A Green Tip for Staying Cool (Or a Cool Tip for Staying Green?)

Here in the DC area, the temperature is forecast to reach the mid-90s today, with a heat index of 100 degrees. Apparently it's so hot, you can fry a panda on a rock.

So today, a tip for staying cool and green on days like this.

Heating and cooling costs account for 46% of the average American household's utility bill. The Green Miles' electric bill triples from May to July alone.

But there's an easy way to lower your energy costs. Using fans instead of an air conditioner can save as much as 60% on your electric bill. And considering the majority of America's power comes from dirty sources like coal, using a fan is a small step to help fight air pollution and global warming.

Sure, on an extraordinarily hot day like this, you're going to need that air conditioning even more than Blue Oyster Cult is gonna want that cowbell. I know if it's still in the 70's and humid even at midnight, no fan is going to help me sleep. But on the less-oppressive days, fans can make a real difference.

And there's a tip that surprised even The Green Miles. Did you know it matters if your fan is running clockwise or counterclockwise? According to EnergyStar.gov:

In the summer, use the ceiling fan in the counter-clockwise direction. The airflow produced by the ceiling fan creates a wind-chill effect, making you “feel” cooler. In the winter, reverse the motor and operate the ceiling fan at low speed in the clockwise direction. This produces a gentle updraft, which forces warm air near the ceiling down into the occupied space. Remember to adjust your thermostat when using your ceiling fan - additional energy and dollar savings could be realized with this simple step!

You can see a diagram of this effect here. Upon closer inspection, it turns out the ceiling fan in my bedroom has a small switch that changes the direction of the fan.

If you want to learn more, About.com has some great tips for staying cool and saving energy.

Of course, there are other green ways to stay cool. Tonight The Green Miles will be at Tallula's EatBar in Clarendon, drinking an ice-cold Samuel Smith Organic Lager.