The Green Parent

Happy St. Patrick’s Day Green Parents!  In honor of this auspicious holiday, I’d like to offer up this roundup of organic beers and ales you can seek out tonight as you toast to the Irish. Why Organic? Organic beer is made from ingredients that are free from the toxic insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and fertilizers used to make traditional brews. These unhealthy chemical inputs pollute our water, air, and soil.

Here are a few great organic beers to try:

• Peak Organic Brewing Company: Peak Organic has a wide variety of organic brews to satisfy any pallet: Pale Ale, Nut Brown Ale, Maple Oat Ale, Amber Ale, Pomegranate Wheat Ale with Acai, and Espresso Amber Ale (with locally roasted, organic fair trade espresso!)

• Wolaver’s Certified Organic Ales: Wolaver’s produces three organic beers, as well as an organic hard cider.  The company uses organic hops grown in the US.  They also offer free tours (and samples) at their Middlebury, VT brewery.

• Butte Creek Brewery: This Chico, California brewery offers four varieties of organic ales and lagers such as their Organic Porter, Organic Pale Ale, Organic India Pale Ale, and Organic Pilsner.

• NatureLand Organic: Canada’s Pacific Western Breweries produces two organic beers under the NatureLand label: Organic Amber Ale and Organic Lager.

• Michelob: Yeah, that’s right…Michelob has even gotten in to the organic brew market with it’s Stone Mill Organic Pale Ale.

Photo by ubik2010