Hop Talk

This edition of The Session is sponsored by Chris O’Brien at Beer Activist.

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.

Busy, busy, busy. Wife going to school at night. Lots of work. Children with obligations. Scurry, scurry, scurry. Quick! Get to beer store for something organic.

On the very first shelf I looked at were three six packs of Wolaver’s, one each of the Pale Ale, IPA, and Brown Ale. Well, it’s been a while since I had a brown ale. So I picked one up.

They say it is…

…mild and creamy, deep amber in color, with a smooth and luscious taste. A soft beer, slightly malty and well balanced with hints of cherry and black currant. Perfect with light foods.

Pours a nice, clear brown, nearly the same color as the bottle it was in. A modest, off-white head, which slowly descends into a thin layer of foam. Aroma is malty, nutty, and slightly spicy. It has a medium body, full malt character, and more of that spicy nuttiness. I am reminded of nothing so much as the roasted soy beans I had last night.

I’m all for being a little more “green” in my life, but this beer just didn’t do it for me. Oh, it’s okay, but probably not something I would choose on a regular basis. Maybe I just don’t like brown ales. (That would explain why I don’t have them very often.)

Update: Session #13 Roundup

Some of our other organic coverage:

• Ideal Bite: Drink organic beer
• Greener Beer Tip - Avoid Wild Hop Lager
• Wolaver’s Pale Ale
• Orlio Organic

Related posts

• Wolaver’s Pale Ale (0)
• Session #13: Organic beer (0)
• Session #13 reminder (0)
• Session #13 - Organic Beer, by Ron (0)
• Ideal Bite: Drink organic beer (1)

This edition of The Session is sponsored by Chris O’Brien’s, The Beer Activist. (I just love his tag line, “Drink Beer. Save the World.”) Session #13 is titled Organic Beer

Here’s a bit of context to help inspire your observations on organic imbibing. “Organic beer” refers to beers that use ingredients, supplies, and production processes that have been certified as adhering to the rules of the National Organic Program administered by the US Department of Agriculture (and similar programs in other countries).

I was going to cheap out on this session and just refer to my review of Orlio beers by Magic Hat, but I thought it might be interesting to point out some stuff about Anheuser-Busch and how they are genetically engineering rice to be used in their beers. Now, I’m just guessing here, but I doubt GE rice is considered organic.

Greenpeace made this disgusting YouTube video to let you know. Disgusting, but that’s the point, and it is kind of funny…

All of the articles I have found are about why isn’t Anheuser-Busch pointing this out. I think it is pretty obvious… they don’t have to and it would wreck their advertising of “all-natural”. The question is, can they still advertise as all-natural?

Resources:
Anheuser Busch Using Genetically Engineered Rice in Beer: Greenpeace
Anheuser-Busch Pledges to Use Only Organic Hops In Organic Beer
Anheuser-Busch using experimental genetically-engineered (GE) rice to brew Budweiser
Greenpeace: Genetically altered rice in Budweiser
Budweiser Found to Contain Genetically Engineered Rice

Update: Session #13 Roundup

Related posts

• Greener Beer Tip - Avoid Wild Hop Lager (3)
• Wolaver’s Pale Ale (0)
• The big get bigger? Anheuser Busch and InBev subject of merger rumor (0)
• Session #13: Wolaver’s Brown Ale (1)
• Session #13: Organic beer (0)