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I thought this was a great read for St. Patrick's Day. Green beer? Local beer is the only green beer I want! The latest Buzzards Bay newsletter:
Back a few years ago (further back than I’d like to admit), I celebrated Saint Patty’s Day by dripping a few drops of green food coloring into whatever colorless beer I could find. As I matured, things changed and I remember my first St Patty’s Day with a different sort of beer; it was dark and rich and smooth and I was told it was Ireland’s own beer. At that time there was no other beer available with so much color and flavor. Being of Irish descent, I thought I'd struck the mother load!
Things are different these days. American brewing is no longer defined by light colored, mild flavors. American craft brewers offer a dazzling array of flavor and color. Also our vision of “green” has gone beyond artificial food coloring and embraces minimizing our carbon footprint and maximizing responsible use of our resources. Trucking food supplies across oceans and continents is being looked at with a suspicious eye. It is expensive and costly. The farmer, the consumer and our environment all pay dearly. One has to marvel at the fact that the average meal travels almost 1500 miles from farm to plate! Because we, as consumers, are beginning to get savvy to this, local farmers markets are booming. People are demanding a head of lettuce, a bouquet of flowers or a bunch of carrots grown in their own neighborhood.
So how does this fit into a story about beer?
First of all, for those who don’t know, beer is mostly water! Water is heavy and takes a lot of energy to ship from place to place. One reason to drink local brewed beer is that it is undeniably better for the planet than beer shipped from thousands of miles away. For every 24 bottle case of “Ireland’s own” sold during this Celtic holiday, 2 cups of diesel fuel is burned and 5.7 pounds of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere (that’s 1/4 pound per bottle). For every keg sold in restaurants, almost 2 gallons of diesel and 20 pounds of carbon dioxide is used and produced! That's 2 ounces of diesel for every pint of Ireland's stout! Local brewed beer doesn't travel long distances.
Secondly, local brewed beer keeps our green dollars in our local economies. Many don’t realize the powerful impact of money staying close to home. When dollars come into the pockets of your neighbors, they spend it in local businesses and support the local community. Our goal should always be to bring more money into our local economy than goes out of it. Buying local brewed beer is a great way to help build a strong local economy!
Local beer is green beer.
In 1898, when James Perry Russell emigrated from Ireland, he came with the hope of building a future in America. He never forgot the emerald isle of his birth nor the family he left behind. James risked everything for a chance to have a place of his own. If he could see the beautiful, rich farmland that Buzzards Bay Brewing calls home, James would weep with joy. For 10 years, Buzzards Bay Brewing has gone beyond simply being the local "green" beer; we embody the very concept of green-ness.
We help to sustain over 500 acres of permanently preserved farmland. These green spaces remove over 10,000,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year.
Our state of the art brewery maximize efficiencies and uses less than 50% of the energy than other brewers our size use.
The barn was not only designed to appeal to the senses but also to be extraordinarily energy efficient. For instance, our warehouse has special windows so that lights are only needed when it is dark outside.
Our spent grain feeds our neighbor's dairy cows.
Every beer shows the quality of our farm's own natural spring water.
I'll admit, it isn't easy being green. Buying local demands that we go out of our way and suffer the slings and arrows of dreaded inconvenience; the wonderful farmer's markets aren't in the produce isle at your supermarket. Buying neighborhood brewed beer is a bit easier as most package stores enjoy carrying the local stuff. Also great pubs find that supporting the local effort helps them appeal to their customer's values and differentiate themselves from the TGI McScratchy's line-up of mass-produced international brands (and how cool is it when the brewer Harry shows up to play some blues on a Friday night? Very cool). You can be assured that we spend an extraordinary amount of time and effort making sure that every brew produced at Buzzards Bay Brewing is a source of local pride. It takes us 6 weeks to brew one single batch of Black Lager; that's 3 times as long as most craft brewers spend brewing their beers. The result is that every sip is extraordinary. On this Saint Patrick’s Day raise a glass of Buzzards Bay Black Lager and allow it to refresh you with its deliciously crisp, delightedly dark and deliriously drinkable nature.
Celebrate with real green beer!
Cheers to all of you,
Bill Russell
owner/brewer/general manager
Buzzards Bay Brewing
98 Horseneck Rd
Westport, MA 02790
508-636-2288
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