The Session is a monthly one-day event held by beer bloggers around the world, where they each post their thoughts on a unified theme.

That theme, for March, is “Organic Beer”, hosted by Chris O’Brien at Beer Activist blog.

Only beers verified by independent certifiers as meeting the legal organic standards are allowed to bear the USDA Certified Organic logo (the one up there to the left). Lots of brewers use Certified Organic malt and/or hops but have not had their facilities and processes certified. Legally and in practical fact these beers are not organic and are prohibited from being marketed as organic. But for this Session, it’s up to you to decide what to count as organic. Feel free to comment on beers that someone just tells you are organic, but be aware that just because someone has good intentions and seems trustworthy doesn’t mean that their beer is in fact organic.

One thing is for sure, we won’t be tasting Wild Hop Lager for this round.

In his announcement, Chris helpfully offers up some resources for learning more about organic beer, as well as a list of organic beers in his blog’s sidebar. (You’ll need to scroll most of the way down on his site to see it.)

We have also suggested Ideal Bite’s take on organic beer and why to drink it. They also offer several organics you should consider.

This episode of the Session will take place on March 7, 2008. Details here: The Topic for Session #13 Is Organic Beer